Wednesday is football day at our house. The boys have a half-day of school (like all kids in the Belgian school system). The half-day is to give kids one afternoon a week to devote to an extracurricular choice. Our boys chose football. (aka foot and/or soccer.)
The boys play for a local team, so they could play with their friends from school. Monkey is in the first year (U6) and AJ is in the third year (U8). There are a few differences that I've noticed between an American team and here. Last year, was AJ's first year playing on the local team, and Monkey played with the BSA (the Brussels Sports Association, an english-speaking group, mostly for Americans) - John was the coach. Last year (given our one car situation) I often found myself running back and forth between the two games to drive everyone where they needed to be -- A perfect chance for back-to-back comparisons.
One noticeable difference, was the coffee. The americans always brought their travel mugs and drank their coffee during the match. The european parents waited until after the match, to go buy each other drinks (coffee, coke, beer or wine) at the stadium bar (any and every sport facility has a bar here - even the pool!) Here, the socializing after the sport as important as the workout itself. I have to say that I've learned to appreciate the later. Standing on a cold field drinking a luke-warm cup of coffee doesn't compare to coming in off a cold field and drinking a cup of european coffee (before noon) or beer/glass of wine (after noon - for me anyway.)
This has become part of our Saturday morning tradition now. After their matches, we go into the bar with the rest of the parents and wait for our kids. The kids come in with their drink tickets, and we all have something to drink, and maybe a sandwich and/or a bag of chips. I love it - it reminds me of being a kid and getting to pick a treat from the concession stand after my brother's baseball game.
Another difference was that it took us awhile to realize (maybe March?) that we had signed on for a full school year commitment. Who would have thought? In the U.S., kids play one sport in the fall, another for winter and maybe even a third and fourth for spring and summer. And of course a Minnesota winter obviously doesn't cooperate with the idea of a full school year of outdoor soccer. AJ was a bit tired of foot by the time the season ended in the spring, but he spent the summer with a soccer ball attached to his foot so we signed up again for this year, knowing full well (this time) what the commitment entailed.
Which brings me to his little brother. He signed on as well, and is incredibly happy to be on a local team of his own. He often plays goalie, and I have to say, he is a really fun goalie to watch. He dives for the ball and isn't afraid to throw his body whichever direction it needs to go to make the stop. Incredibly, he also stays very level-headed. One game, I watched him give up a string of goals, and to my amazement, he kept his head. It never phased him in the least. After watching Manny Fernandez (former NHL goalie for the Wild, for those non-hockey fans reading this) repeatedly become a head case if he had a bad streak -- time and time again, I was impressed with my Monkey's ability to "shake-it-off."
We did have to have a talk though, last week.
The only problem with Wednesdays, is that the boys have different practice schedules. I pick them up from school at 12h30. I take one of them for a practice (the field is right by school) at 14h30/2:30 pm, and he's done at 15h45 (3:45pm). The next kid has practice from 16h (4 pm) to 17h30 (5:30 pm). I drive back and forth to school on Wednesdays no less than five times at regular intervals. On one such Wednesday, I was dropping AJ off and picking Monkey up. I walked all over - out to the back fields, around the clubhouse building, everywhere. I could not find Monkey. While I was starting to get a little bit anxious, I wasn't in a panic just yet. And then I checked the bar. There was my kid, on a bar stool, on his knees, belly-up to the bar chatting it up with the bartender drinking cherry flavored water (free, I might add, it's not like I send them to soccer practice with coins in their pockets). Because, he told me during the inevitable inquisition, "he was thirsty." Of course.
After a reprimand, he promised never to mooch free drinks off the bartender ever again. And I was left with the incredulous realization that I just had a talk with my kid about how he can't hang out in a bar and order drinks all by himself. He's six. I thought I had at least another 12 to 14 years before I had to have that conversation. But then again, it is Monkey. He's ahead of his time.
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