Is this vacation?

I hit my first wall on Sunday.  We went to a BBQ and had to eat and run to get Sydney to figure skating in Le Sentier, which was about a 45 minute drive.  I debated on whether we even go since we were all enjoying ourselves, but the prospect of Sydney staying at the skating camp all week overnight outweighed staying.  It also gave Sydney a chance to get back on the ice since she hadn't skated in over 6 weeks.  We were about 10 minutes from our destination according to GPS and the road we needed to take was closed until 6pm for a bike race, UGH.  The other road we ended up taken was also closed, so we parked for almost 30 minutes waiting for it to open back up.  I called the coach and told her we would be 15-30 minutes late.

We finally got back on the road and made it to the Sports Complex, neither of us saw any signs for the rink so we had no idea where to go.  I spotted some girls' in skating dresses and tried to ask them, but once again, I don't know French and they didn't know English.  I seriously need to learn some French this is driving me nuts!!  I have been working on Rosetta Stone, but unfortunately it doesn't happen in one night.  Randy remembered the word for skating and they pointed us in the right direction.  Sydney and I get out and start heading that way and I can't figure out how to get into the building since we were coming in from behind I guess.  I think I would have been better off at home with a bottle of wine!  We find someone else who thinks I am looking for the toilet and he finally gets that we are trying to get into the rink.  We finally made it into the rink and head down to get Sydney changed.  She is very excited to get back on the ice, which is a great sign.  Randy makes it with the other two while I am getting Sydney's skates on.  Catia's assistant coach greets us and introduces us to Marceline who knows English and will help Sydney on her first day.  She also meets an older skater who must know English, but Sydney couldn't remember her name.  Sydney enjoyed skating and it was great to see her back on the ice, but I could tell she wouldn't be staying.

Vent alert...

So, apparently there are many walls you hit, but as time goes on they are fewer and farther apart.  Sunday was my first one where I had had enough of everything being so difficult and not being able to speak the language.  Things are probably no more difficult here than someone moving to the states, it is just different and I haven't figured it out yet and it's not like I can just ask someone where to go or how to do something!  When we got back into the car, Sydney was in tears and I was guessing she was hitting her wall too.  She was very upset that she didn't know what anyone was saying and some of the moves have different names here.  Not only is she the new girl, but she can't even get to know the other skaters since she can't speak French and they don't know English. 

For her awesome coaches back in CR, she skated for an hour and they did a lot of edge drills and spent the last 15 minutes on spins.  The drills were very similar to the MITF test patterns.  The plans are for her to go to another day camp in August after she knows some French.  She will then test for the club so she can compete for the upcoming season.  One of them will be her freeskate program she did at her last competition.

I asked Sydney if she would like to go to French language camp and she was very excited and wants to go all 3 weeks.  She will start next week and go until the end of July.  Hailey will go in the afternoon in French as well, but it will only be the activities portion.  She isn't old enough for language in the morning.  Aaron, well, he gets to hang out with me all day.

Back to the title - is this vacation?  Randy keeps telling me that I am on vacation since I go to the pool and am having fun with the kids.  It is fun to take them to the pool, but it is work and I also have to keep the house running.  This is all while he goes to work where English is spoken.  So, yes, in some respects, it is nice to hang out with the kids and have fun with them and it may seem like vacation, but I am far from sitting under a shade tree at the pool drinking a margarita and reading a great book, that would be vacation.  I am sure the great debate and friendly banter will continue.

Yesterday we went back to Bellerive pool and today we are heading to Aquasplash.  The rest of the week will be spent getting Aaron potty trained, which definitely sounds like vacation!  Will post more pictures soon.