First Italian Swim Meet

We all enjoyed a lazy Saturday morning. Josh took Avery out on the back of his bicycle to meet a friend and his son in Villa Ada. A little running around time is just what he needed. The girls stayed home, did some homework, played a little piano and lounged around while I went to the grocery store. We had a late lunch of broccoli, gnocchi, and fettuccine in our dining room which was still set from the party the night before.

This afternoon was Charlotte's first swim meet. But actually it wasn't in the afternoon, it was in the evening. Once again with the ever-changing Italian schedules. Last week, when Josh inquired, the coach told him the meet would start at 2pm. Then yesterday, Charlotte came home and informed us that the meet would be starting at 5pm. Keeps you on our toes. Our guests at the Hanukkah party concurred. Their boys play soccer, and they have to wait until Friday night to find out when and where the games will be on Saturdays?!? You realize why the Italians are such last-minute planners with everything -- it's because schedules are constantly changing...or there's a "sciopero" (a strike) of some sort.

Avery and Olivia had been invited for a play-date today at the home of an American family who have two kids in the same classes at RIS (a girl in Olivia's class and a boy in Avery's class). We thought it would work out perfectly to drop them off on the way to Charlotte's swim meet. Fortunately, they were flexible, and we were able to take Avery and Olivia over at 4:30pm instead of 1:30pm. They had been excited all day about seeing their friends.

Admittedly, I was more curious than anyone about how the swim meets work here; and was mostly impressed by the way in which it was organized. This meet was "assoluti" and not "esordiente" which means that the events were swum as women and men, and not by age-group. Charlotte was listed as "Charlotte Sofia Rosenberger," and "ITA" for Italian, and as 1997 (her birth year) which made her one of a handful of swimmers her age competing in the meet. There were no swimmers younger than 1997 and most were 1995 and older.

This meet was held at our "home" pool, AquAniene which, as Josh later pointed out, made it the closest meet in which we've ever participated. It's a state of the art pool, but the newness factor also meant that not everything was in place: like the scoreboard. They did offer entry or "psyche" sheets for one euro (a nice surprise), but you had to listen to the announcer to hear who was swimming in which lane AND later to hear the final times swum by each swimmer.

Here are some of the differences I noted between USA meets and this one, pros and cons:

Pros:

1. The host team does not charge admission

2. The host team does not recruit parents for timing. Timing is done by professionals.

3. There is a chair behind the blocks for the athletes

4. The athletes are allowed behind the blocks one or two heats ahead of theirs -- there is not a huge gaggle of swimmers constantly clustered behind the blocks.

5. No fly over starts -- swimmers exit the pool before the next heat -- very professional!

6. Good food. This particular facility has a cafe, so no need to bring food in from Subway or Costco.

Cons:

1. No scoreboard (although this may only be an AquAniene issue as it is a new pool)

2. Results are not posted anywhere at the meet (we were told they could be found on-line but they are not there yet)

3. Italians talk fast -- so even if you speak the language it's hard to keep up with the announcer

4. No fly over starts -- slows things down a bit, especially when there are a dozen heats of 50's.

5. Frustration over not knowing results, and split times

So all in all, it was a positive experience. Charlotte swam well. We can't make a direct comparison to her times in the States because they were swum in a 50 meter pool. This pool is a 25 meter pool. So while she should be faster in a 25 meter pool -- and she was -- it's hard to know exactly how much faster. Today she swam 50m and 100m breast (rana) and 100m free (stile libero).

While we were waiting (a long time) for Charlotte to emerge from the locker room, we ran in to Charlotte and Olivia's piano instructor. He had stopped by with his wife (or girlfriend, not sure) on his way to a dinner party. He saw all the activity out front and remembered Charlotte telling him that she was competing this weekend. He is such a nice guy and so sweet for coming by to see Charlotte.

Maria was babysitting tonight so we dropped Charlotte off, tucked Olivia and Avery in to bed (although Olivia was crying because she did not want us to go out), and then ducked out for a quick bite.