05 July 2008
1:35am Dallas Time
Brussels
Arrived safely. All is well. Lost one bag but it will arrive later. Not one Sit Up so far. Great kids. I will recap later tonight.
Ed
July 5th update - 1:25pm Dallas Time
Fabulous first day, really great, except we lost one bag, Bradley Dale, but his bag is in route and will arrive tomorrow. Go figure as his mom works for the airlines, ha, ha.
Plane ride was great, a little hot and the overhead lights were malfunctioning but the kids were restless, as was expected, and spent most of the flight getting to know each other, etc. They are all assigned a role call number so our organization is well under way.
Bus ride to Brussels and saw the Atomatum, which is a architecture masteriece that looks like Atoms, really cool. Then to town center to see the little boy peeing, kids will explain this to you.
We turned the kids loose for their first test to see if they have what it takes and no problems at all, ate some snacks, including Belgium Waffles, what do you expect, and wow were they good.
After 2 hours in town center, back on bus for a 4 hour transfer on the Auto Bahn to Grunberg, great bus ride, a few sittups and everyone always wonders who the first one is each year, well read on to find out.
My close friend, Bernd, a German who assists me with my tours met us and gave us a city sighseeing tour of Brussels, a great old town of about 1 million people. Back to bus ride - kids still learning names and James stepped up and named all 34 kids without mistake so he is done, all kids have to name all 34 kids by breakfast or do 1000 sit ups per name missed, imagine the chatter going on around here. Kids also learned the SnS song and will be singing it daily rest of tour.
Arrived at Grunberg and a great sports hotel, kids in double beds and already organized. Great dinner, pasta and salad, and now it is 8 pm and we are having a hackfest outside, which I am on my way to. A hackfest is a term for a kickaround and every kid is out there playing on some fantastic fields.
Figured out who the culprit was for sit ups? Is it my kid? Oh the tension!!!!!!!! Little more longer please.
Cell phones are off and will be turned on in about 1 hour for 30 minutes so kids can call, etc. and then all cell phones kept in my room. We have a 6 am training session in the morning so a quick night.
Okay, enough suspense, Junior Cornish is first culprit, sorry Crystal, only 50 but he was quicly joined by AJ and Brian, both of whom did theirs on the moving bus, you can ask them why but it is on the video.
Okay, time for me to go and play in the hackfest with the kids, speak to you tomorrow again. Tell all we said hello and all are doing great, now that we have our discipline in place!!!!!!!
More tomorrow,
Ed
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