Day 2427. The kids were up early but my alarm went off at 9:30 am. I got up and got ready to leave the house which we did at 10 am. Tammy, Emmy and I took the subway downtown doing reading practice, then walked to their music school.
At 10:30 their class started with the greeting song. Then she found out about the inclusion run we were going to after and made the guessing game about what the other two students were doing in the afternoon. Then they did the finger warm-up, followed by doing some of the old songs plus a new one. They got to play one of the old ones all by themselves but I had to stand next to them and help a little. As for the new song, they also had to mark all te's, skips and name the chords. I went back and forth between them to help. In the end, they went up front and sang the new song with the actions. After that, it was still story time even though we were already over time (but then we never start on time). The teacher did the story and had the kids participate. Then the kids got their stickers and stamps, and the class was over. We left and walked the opposite direction to walk to the McDonald's one subway stop away. Randy and Sammy got there before we had left the music school.
We were lucky and got a table (which is rare at that one), I ordered and minutes later we received our food. Time was short as everyone was meeting at noon. However, we knew it started at 1:30 pm so there was plenty of time. We ate, had fun, and left half an hour later at 12:20 to walk to Town Hall Square which was nearby. The street was already cordoned of and the closer we got there more stuff was set up - first aid tents and lots of barricades. We were able to cross the road to get from the theater to Town Hall square and saw the big tower where the meeting point was. We saw some wheelchairs and headed there, and yes, there were some of Sammy's friends from wheelchair class. We went to the person with the registration list and got three kids' T-shirts and the kids' numbers. Then we were told to go to the big tower to pick up the numbers and T-shirts for us adults. I left Randy and the kids with the others and went there to pick up the numbers. There was no line which was nice. She found our names on the list then told me there was no more size bigger than M. Annoying, when we had to tell them our size upon registering. I took the T-shirts and numbers back to the family, then we put the shirts on and I mounted the numbers on all our shirts. It was still early. The kids were getting impatient for it to start. Then the group started moving in the direction of the starting line, so we followed. Then there was more waiting to do. The parents of the other kids were talking with each other as they know each other well while only one mother talked briefly with me.
Just after 1 pm the line finally started moving. They let us in to go all the way to the starting line. There we could hear the MC who was interviewing a few people including the mayor of Vienna. At exactly 1:30 pm the race started - the inclusion run with 1000 people with handicaps and their relatives and friends. It's the weekend of the Vienna City Marathan that 49.000 people registered for to run tomorrow. However, there was no time-taking for the people in the inclusion run. Some could run, some could only walk. Everyone went at their speed possible to them. We pushed Sammy, while Tammy and Emmy sometimes ran ahead a little. We walked to the parlament then turned around and walked back on the other side and then through the goal. The mayor was standing at the goal and smiling at everyone, as well as some other famous people. One of those guys, a sports guy from TV (Philipp), came up to Sammy and gave him a hi-five. It was really sweet. We kept walking, following the crowd, until we got to the entrance of "the village" that was set up on Town Hall square. There some guys were distributing the medals to all the participants. It was wooden and not very good-looking.
We continued walking. There were people everywhere and there were different booths set up. They were handing out free water, apples, bananas and bars, and you could also buy food. There was also a booth where you could have a picture of yourself with the national soccer team taken. The kids stood in line for that but it wasn't really worth it. They replaced the goalie's face with the kid's face but it looked like they'd been aged to match, and it looked nothing like them at all. Right next to that, there was a station where you had to keep a soccer ball in the air kicking it at least 20 times. Emmy tried several times but his highest score was 19, he said.
After we got the free water, fruit and bars, we continued walking and saw the mayor of Vienna. He turned to us, smiled and shook the kids' hands. Then he squatted down to say hello to Sammy. I asked him whether I could take a picture, and it turned out quite nice.
We continued walking and walked all the way up to the stage. They had a kids' program going on up there that was broadcast live on radio; it was a famous guy with his puppet rat. He was doing games so the kids ran up to the stage and put their hands up to be chose. They tried again and again but were never chosen, much to their disappointment. We stayed until the program was over at 3 pm. Emmy then walked over to the Song Contest mascot where they had gifts and lollipops they were handing out. Tammy followed him but Sammy was too scared to go near the mascot.
We decided it was time to go home but that turned out to not be so easy. We could not go back the way we came so we turned around and walked through the park to go around where it was closed off. On the way we discovered more stations that the kids wanted to check out. There was a darts station, soccer and basketball. The kids did all three and had fun but there were no prizes to win.
Finally, time to go home so we started walking to the exit of the park. Tammy and Emmy were with me. There were lots of people everywhere as the following races had their starting line right there. I stopped to turn around to Randy but he wasn't there. I called him; he was lost. I told him where to go but he didn't understand. We waited for him, the crowd was thinning, but no Randy and Sammy. I called again but he was already far ahead of us so we started walking in the direction of the subway, got on and rode it home. Randy and Sammy were already home.
Everyone was taking a break but I went to the kitchen to make dinner for them. I had a student from 5 to 6 pm so I wanted to have their sandwiches ready before that. After I was done teaching, I cut up their fruit for them. At 7 pm it was bathtub time, then we had plenty of time for stories as I didn't have any more students. After they were in bed, I went to the kitchen to get myself something to eat. After having eaten and taken a break, I started working on the many pictures of the day. Just after 2 am I went to bed.
