Scholastic & Soccer

I felt like I was back in the States today. I'm co-chair of the Scholastic Book Fair, and I spent the entire day at the school, supervising classroom visits and organizing books, etc. After school, I had to get Brendan to German lessons (ok, that part is a bit different) and C.J. to his first soccer practice. Somewhere in between, I had to figure out how to get to the grocery store and make dinner. I also had to hit the ski shop to return a pair of boots I borrowed over the weekend, but I forgot about Swiss hours and went during lunch. They were, of course, closed for two hours.

I am very optimistic about our soccer experience. We were told that getting C.J. on a team would be a difficult process and we would be on long waiting lists -- possibly over a year. At his age, teams get very competitive and we were trying to get on one of the more popular teams. (It happens to be the closest field to our house.) C.J. started practice today, after sending in the applications just a couple of weeks ago! (We're still waiting for placement for Brendan and Abbie.) I was a bit nervous today when a mom at school asked me, "Really? You'd put him on a local team when he doesn't speak ANY Swiss German? How do you expect him to participate?" Well, we showed up at the practice and I introduced myself and C.J. to the coach. After talking with him for a few minutes, he assured me that C.J. should ask him if he ever had any questions, as he spoke "a little English." Ha! I am pretty sure that no matter how hard I study, I will never speak "a little German" like this coach speaks English. C.J. said that the coach introduced him to the rest of the team and explained that his primary language was English. All the players spoke to him a bit in English, and welcomed him onto the team. Already it's a drastically different experience than the hockey team. My Austrian friend assured me that our hockey experience was atypical and even the Swiss thought the coach lacked communication skills and didn't foster a team spirit, but I couldn't help to worry that all our sports experiences would be similar. It looks like we are, once again, a soccer family. I've got to go update my calendar with the practice and game schedules!