Day 2195. This morning the alarm was set to 6:45 am, and it's only gonna get earlier next week. The soccer school informed us that they were going to do the final tournament at their main location which is twice as far away, one hour on public transportation, and so Randy already wanted to leave the house at 7:45 am for Emmy to be there by 9 am. In addition to the early morning, it had been a rough night with Tammy having a belly ache and throwing up twice.
While Tammy and Sammy were up, I went back to sleep after they had left - of course Tammy couldn't respect that and came to me wanting something trivial. At 9:15 am my alarm went off, and I got up to get ready for my 10 am student. Randy returned just before I started teaching.
I taught for an hour, then had a short break to get ready for my next student. I had already put a lasagna into the oven before my first student so that Randy and Sammy could eat before leaving. They left the house at 11:45 or so, while Tammy was gonna go with me after I'd finish teaching at 12:30 pm.
After I was done, I quickly ate a few bite and got ready to leave. I've had a good experience with Uber as they're usually about 5 minutes away, so we were going to take an Uber to not get there too late. Emmy's final tournament was starting at 1 pm. At 12:45 I called the Uber, and I was told it would be 15 minutes. That was really long but we accepted it. But then it was 1:10, and 1:15, and then even more. That was unacceptable. We had to get there. So I canceled the order and tried again, and this time a driver was 5 minutes away. Perfect! However, it was 1:20 before we got into the car. He then drove rather fast and reckless and got us there earlier than predicted, at about 1:40 pm.
We got out of the taxi and walked to the entrance of the Football School. We saw a huge construction site and all the locker rooms. I used the restrooms, then asked where they were playing. We had to leave the property again and walk down the road to another soccer field where we found them. We crossed the field to get to the other side where Emmy was playing. We had already missed the first 2 of his 4 games, as it was already 2 pm. We might as well have taken the tram.
Emmy was on break when we arrived. Randy was trying to keep Sammy happy who'd been crying and wanting to go home. They found a ball and started playing. And Emmy even played soccer in between games. He looked tired and hot, and it was a rather hot day. There was no shade anywhere. I enjoyed watching him play. One time the ball hit him hard in his face, knocking him over. He stayed on the ground. I started walking towards the field but this tough little boy never came to me to be comforted. Instead, he stayed seated on the ground for two minutes, then he rejoined the game.
He got the ball a few times. Once he shot and the ball hit the goal post. In the end, his team had won one game and lost one game, while the other two were a draw. After all the games were over, I could see on the online results page that his team was 4th out of 5 teams. And Emmy had even been the one to score the two goals they made in the first two games I had missed.
After all the teams were done, they gathered near the table with the medals and trophies, and the parents also came closer. They started with the younger kids which included Emmy. They were the second team to be called up, and every kid got a medal and a certificate. After a picture, they returned to their line.
After everyone had received their medals, it was time for the 6 trophies or so they had sitting there to be handed out. Emmy's trainer had already said yesterday that Emmy had his vote as the player of the week, so Emmy had some hope. First, the player of the week from the goalie camp came forward, then it was in fact Emmy's turn. He was the player of the week! He got a trophy that is bigger than any of the trophies I've got at home from my childhood. He was very excited. His sister, however, was very sad and kept saying that she wanted one too. She was never able to congratulate Emmy, for the rest of the day. She just wanted to have a trophy as well.
It was all over so we walked to the locker rooms where Emmy grabbed his stuff, then we walked to the tram stop. Some kids and adults congratulated him on the way. We rode two subways and got home at 4:20 pm.
They were hungry so I made their dinner sandwiches, then I sat down at the computer to get ready for my 5 pm student. After I was done, I went downstairs with them for piano practice. Back upstairs it was time for their fruit. Then they went into the bathtub, followed by a story and a prayer. They brushed their teeth, then went to bed, while I sat down at the computer for my 8 pm student.
By 9 pm I was done and got myself something to eat and took a break while eating. Then I went back to work. Now it's 1:30 am and time to finish with the dishes and go to bed. Thank God we can all sleep in tomorrow - if only the kids did.
