Zoe Competes in a Swim Meet

If it wasn’t an adventure, then it wouldn’t be Granada. Zoe had her first swim meet this past weekend. On the Thursday before the Saturday meet, the team emailed stating that the team store would be open for purchases the following evening. The minimum required “uniform” was a swim cap, shirt and shorts. So at 5:30pm Friday (in the rain…again) Zoe and I set out to buy the required items. The map and directions to the store were akin to a scavenger hunt: at Fuente Nueve, in the sports pavilion, under the bleachers. And what a scavenger hunt it turned out to be. After disembarking from the bus, we wandered around for 45 minutes asking different people for Fuente Nueve and/or the street name but no one seemed to know where it was. Oh my kingdom for a smart phone! Finally, some telephone workers pointed us in the right direction. Literally, just as I was telling Zoe it was time to bail, we saw the sign for the Fuente Nueve. It turns out it is name of the University campus and the “street” was just a path running alongside the sports field and the pool where the team used to practice. If we’d been with the team before this season, then the vague directions would have been crystal clear.  Once there, we spent another 20 minutes trying to locate the right set of bleachers, but we persevered and found it a scant 15 minutes before the store closed. Zoe now has a smart matching polo and shorts with the team logo.

The team rented a bus for the meet which was in the city of Motril, on the coast about an hour away. Early the next morning, we took the city bus to the departure point. I am not usually wandering the streets of Granada at 7am on a Saturday morning, so I was flabbergasted by the number of inebriated college kids who were on their way home. Our local kebab shop was still open selling food to mop up the alcohol, as were other establishments (such as churro shops) who cater to late night crowd.  The bus was of the luxury coach variety and Zoe boarded with some of the girls from her team.

As JT and I had most of the day together, we decided to have breakfast out. He indulged in a croissant and hot cocoa while I ate toast smothered in butter. Then we headed to Granada’s science museum. We’ve been there before, but it’s huge and we hadn’t seen the whole of it. Because this is Andalucía they actually shut parts of the museum down for siesta. And because it was built with EU bonds no doubt, on a rainy Saturday this amazing museum was nearly deserted. After the special exhibit on the brain, my favorite part was the butterfly pavilion. JT and I watched a butterfly emerge from its cocoon in the hatching area, and later one of the workers showed us a gigantic moth with antenna that looked like feathers. He also showed us the moth’s chrysalis which actually is camouflaged to appear as dead leaves among wood bark on the jungle floor rather than hanging suspended.

Finally Zoe called to let us know she was on her way home.  Meets are a little different here. At her age, meets are for all kids aged 10 through 21. All the competitors swim together in an event based on their seed times. Kids aged 9 and younger compete in a separate series of swim meets. Children swim in events selected by their coaches, so Zoe swam her first 200 back and 100 breast. The meet was just a 1 day, the 2^nd day is held a couple weeks later. Parents are not allowed on the pool deck, only in the stands. They have officials who do all the timing and refereeing (which coupled with the empty multi-million dollar science museum starts to give you an insight to Spain’s many economic problems). Zoe swam well and will do one more meet this fall. Fortunately, the next one is in Granada so we’ll be able to see it.