We're just coming off our 4-day Dutch excursion. Maya's basketball team had a tournament in The Hague so Molly, Craig and I decided to tag along and sightsee, and support the team. The 4 C.I.S. teams (U12 boys/girls, U14 boys/girls) rode a sweet, double decker touring bus for 11 hours on Thursday, arriving dinner time. The 3 of us flew a little over an hour, arriving dinner time. We stayed in a hotel inbetween the Hague and Amsterdam so we could split our time between games and the city. This is an international school league, 10 schools from Holland, Belguim, Germany and Denmark.
The schools rotate hosting the tournament, for each major sport (volleyball, bball, track and field, soccer) so the kids get around. Most spectators were parents of the closer schools, and only a handful of parents from Denmark made the effort. Since we were "jonzing" for a kids' game to watch we went all the way. (That's been missing in our lives this year - no team sports, no games on the weekends, no social interaction with parents on the sidelines). Basketball is not a european sport and many parents are learning right along with the kids.
Maya's school is one of the smallest of all the international schools therefore the sports programs are smaller and draw from fewer kids. There are no leagues for grades 1 - 4. Their team was up against some stiff competition. Amazing how aggressively these girls played, muscling for every ball and constant turn-overs. Scores never got over 20 points. They ended up 7th out of 8 teams, winning 2 out of 5 games. They played better than the C.I.S. U12 boys, which was an emotional boost. Other than playing, they stayed in a hotel, ate out, watched games, went to an all-school dinner/dance and lastly shopped for souveniers and candy before their overnight bus trip home.
Maya plays guard, and her squad trades off every other quarter. Maya scored 8 points total, scoring in 3 different games. Her skills have developed from last year and she's become more aggressive, offensively and defensively.
The American School of the Hague hosted the tournament. Unlike CIS, The Hague was built specifically as the international school and has a campus similar to most American High Schools and includes Pre-k to High school with state of the art facilities. The snack bar alone was brilliant with all fresh, healthy foods and no sodas or junk food at all.
In our free time Friday and Saturday Molly, Craig and I drove into Amsterdam to mess around. The first day we walked, ate and shopped. The second day we saw the Ann Frank House, ate, strolled and shopped. Both days we were back to the hotel by 8 pm. Sights and activities are much different in Amsterdam with children, vs. as a single adult. However we were able to drink some beers in pubs with Molly. Sadly for me, I didn't get to see museums or buy more stuff, tempting as the lower Euro rate was against the Danish kroner.
The last day we checked out Schevingeren, a popular beach outside of the Hague and headed for the airport. Maya's teams loaded the bus and left Sunday night at 7 pm, drove through the night and arrived at C.I.S. for pick-up at 6 am. The kids have Monday off for a teacher in-service day, so she is writing a research paper on biomes,nursing a headache, a cold and very tired. All in all, it was great experience for her and she is thrilled that she made it and very proud of herself. We are too.
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