Manasi's first soccer lessons were in Chennai - at that time, she spent the entire hour picking daisies by the side of the field - and that was it, until Dulwich! Over the last 3 years, she has gone from a reluctant goal-keeper to an enthusiastic striker, and this year she was picked to be on the Dulwich CISSA team. Now, the whole selection process for the CISSA team led to a few sleepless nights for me - Dulwich sometimes is really confusing about these sort of things - I wish there would be more transparency, especially when selecting sports teams!
Anyway, all things said and done - Manasi did make it to the team, and has been traveling regularly to Shanghai with the team this year. CISSA plays Thursdays and Saturdays - and I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't been to see her play even once! I know I should have been more supportive - but I don't think Manasi was too cut up about me not going - besides, Saturdays are such an early start - the bus leaves from Suzhou at 5:45am - and that is waaay to early for me!! My contribution thus far has been having her football kit washed and dried on time, and making her lunch on Saturdays!
Today, I thought, was to be the final day of the season - so Ajey and I both decided to go. The PE staff were a bit shorthanded today - football is serious business at Dulwich - we had no less than 6 teams traveling from Suzhou to play in Shanghai!! I signed us up as extra help, and as a reward(!) we got to ride on the bus with the team. Mercifully, the start time was a bit later - 7:30am at Singa Plaza - now that I can do!! Although, when my alarm went off today, it was pouring - hoping for a cancellation there - but no, didn't happen!! Rain or not, we play today!!
We didn't have too far to go - the school we were playing at, Western International School Shanghai, was barely an hour away, somewhere in the Hongqiao area, I think. Weather hadn't really improved by the time we got there - and although it wasn't really raining heavily at that time - it has been raining continuously for about a week now - and the soccer fields were a waterlogged, squelchy, muddy mess. On the bright side - the pollution was really low!! I was wearing sneakers - bad choice in the rain - and every time I crossed the filed - my shoes got wetter and wetter.
They did end up cutting the tournament short - eventually, it started to rain quite hard, and the girls were all almost completely soaked. So they played 3 games instead of 5 - won 2, lost 1 - not bad at all!! There was a plenty of slipping and sliding on the wet grass - and the astroturf was even worse - and a couple of tumbles, but thankfully nothing serious!! Anticipating the wet day, coaches had asked the girls to bring a change of clothes - and by 12:30pm, we were back on our way to Suzhou!!
And you know what - turns out that today wasn't the last day, after all!! That's actually next weekend - so I guess, I'll be headed to Shanghai for that too!! Hoping for better weather then!!
Anyway, all things said and done - Manasi did make it to the team, and has been traveling regularly to Shanghai with the team this year. CISSA plays Thursdays and Saturdays - and I'm ashamed to admit that I haven't been to see her play even once! I know I should have been more supportive - but I don't think Manasi was too cut up about me not going - besides, Saturdays are such an early start - the bus leaves from Suzhou at 5:45am - and that is waaay to early for me!! My contribution thus far has been having her football kit washed and dried on time, and making her lunch on Saturdays!
Today, I thought, was to be the final day of the season - so Ajey and I both decided to go. The PE staff were a bit shorthanded today - football is serious business at Dulwich - we had no less than 6 teams traveling from Suzhou to play in Shanghai!! I signed us up as extra help, and as a reward(!) we got to ride on the bus with the team. Mercifully, the start time was a bit later - 7:30am at Singa Plaza - now that I can do!! Although, when my alarm went off today, it was pouring - hoping for a cancellation there - but no, didn't happen!! Rain or not, we play today!!
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| Selfie on the bus |
We didn't have too far to go - the school we were playing at, Western International School Shanghai, was barely an hour away, somewhere in the Hongqiao area, I think. Weather hadn't really improved by the time we got there - and although it wasn't really raining heavily at that time - it has been raining continuously for about a week now - and the soccer fields were a waterlogged, squelchy, muddy mess. On the bright side - the pollution was really low!! I was wearing sneakers - bad choice in the rain - and every time I crossed the filed - my shoes got wetter and wetter.
They did end up cutting the tournament short - eventually, it started to rain quite hard, and the girls were all almost completely soaked. So they played 3 games instead of 5 - won 2, lost 1 - not bad at all!! There was a plenty of slipping and sliding on the wet grass - and the astroturf was even worse - and a couple of tumbles, but thankfully nothing serious!! Anticipating the wet day, coaches had asked the girls to bring a change of clothes - and by 12:30pm, we were back on our way to Suzhou!!
And you know what - turns out that today wasn't the last day, after all!! That's actually next weekend - so I guess, I'll be headed to Shanghai for that too!! Hoping for better weather then!!
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