Today, Friday, was supposed to be the first day of racing, but it was canceled due to thunderstorms and lightning. I was actually glad to have a day off, because yesterday\u2019s opening ceremonies were kind of exhausting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mary and I have just returned from dinner at Pizza Cosy, where we also ate on Monday night. We started out walking with some other teammates to a kebab restaurant, but when we got into the restaurant, the server started barking at us, basically telling us what to order and assuming we all wanted the same thing, and I couldn\u2019t deal with that. So, at Pizza Cosy we had a nice pizza and salad, and the servers actually listened when we spoke. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This morning began with us going out to get our breakfast fixins, which were: croissants and a baguette from the boulangerie, pate and a Greek salad for Mary from the charcuterie, the most amazing melt in your mouth raspberries from the produce store, and fromage blanc from the grocery store. It is a lovely breakfast and this is the third day in a row we\u2019ve done it. Tomorrow, though, I will have breakfast at the hotel, because I need to be a the bus stop to catch the bus to the festival at 7:45 am, and the store that sells the fromage blanc doesn\u2019t open until 8.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Someone asked me what I did today and I said I went for a swim at the hotel spa. It is a tiny pool, but I did laps around and around for a short time and then sat in the whirlpool with some teammates. But after that? Basically nothing, which is what I needed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
So yesterday, we had to be at the festival site at 1 pm to get ready for the opening ceremonies. They have a bus to take us to the site, but the hours are kinda crazy – I think yesterday it left at 11:30 am, and it\u2019s a 15 minute ride. I heard later that there was only one person from our team on that bus, and I heard from Mary that the city bus, which she took to the festival site, was packed with dragonboaters, much to the annoyance of the Aix-les-Bains residents who were just trying to get through their daily routine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the opening ceremonies, there were three different ways we could participate. Most people would be walking in the Parade of Nations. This was probably at least 4000 people grouped by Nation and then team promenading along the shore of the lake. There were also 16 dragonboats that did a water parade. Our team leaders put us in the lottery to do the parade and we got one of the 16 spots. Our team captains drew names out of a hat for who would get to be in that boat, and my name was drawn, which I was very excited about. The third option was to apply to be part of the dragon dance. One or our teammates did that and had a total blast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dragonboat races involve a lot of hurry up and wait. We need to be ready immediately when the officials are ready for us, but they\u2019re not always ready for us immediately. Yesterday was a ton of that. We assembled around 2 pm, and waited about 45 minutes before we were called to the staging area. During that time we could be called any time, and of course, during that time many of us needed more water in our bottles (it was hot and extremely humid in preparation for today\u2019s storms) or our bladders began to speak to us. It was nerve-wracking waiting in line for the bathroom, hoping our team wouldn\u2019t be called while we were gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While we were waiting to get called to the boats, the land parade started, or at least everyone thought it had started (in fact they were just walking to the beginning of the parade.), All the teams began to walk past, gathered by country, with the youngest survivor from each country (a dubious honor, I think) carrying the flag. Every team had different outfits, some of them quite extravagant, and they all sang or chanted. It was amazing and surreal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When we finally got into our boat, officials directed our tiller (sometimes in French – it was not always easy for her to understand what she was supposed to be doing) and eventually we became part of a circling procession of 16 boats, each with a different country\u2019s flag. (Ours was Denmark.) We had to stop a lot to get into the procession, and this was wonderful because we could just look around at the magnificent lake and mountains. Eventually we could look to our left and see a bunch of boats joining the procession and look forward and see all the boats ahead of us. It was really something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Next, we pulled in at the shore, all lined up next to each other. We sat there for at least an hour and half, maybe longer, while a bunch of men and maybe 2 women made speech after speech after speech after speech. We thought it would never end. It was SO hot and humid. Fortunately, festival volunteers waded out to the boats with big boxes of water and periodically filled our water bottles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At one point one of the speakers said, \u201cI want you to look around at all the people around you,\u201d and someone in the next boat over said, \u201cWe have been!\u201d which made my bench mate, who was particularly over it, laugh.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know at big events like this the dignitaries have to make speeches, but it just seemed so ironic to me that these men were making 4500 breast cancer survivors wilt in the heat. I thought at least we had it better than the walkers, who must really be suffering – at least we could pour water over our heads. But this afternoon at the spa I talked with a friend who was in the land procession. She said the walk was very long and very hot, but that they passed places to eat. They were supposed to stay with their teams but there were many stops that lasted a LONG time, so at one point she just ran over and stood in line for ice cream and came back with a huge cone, which did the trick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She also said the walkers did not have to stay in procession for the speeches. Many of them walked right into the lake to cool off and later they found some shade and watched the ceremony on a Jumbotron. They were very worried about us, though, stuck on the boats. Even though only dignitaries were allowed in front of our boats, a few intrepid teammates came anyway, and one of them passed us a box of McVitie\u2019s, which was very much appreciated as we were all starving. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
By the time we got out of the boats it was probably 5:45 or so. The festival was providing dinner to all of us and there was going to be a concert afterwards. But dinner wasn\u2019t until 7, and I couldn\u2019t bear the thought of standing in line with 4449 other people waiting to get my meal. So I walked back to the hotel with a teammate and her husband. It was about a 25 or 30 minute walk, but the city buses were crammed with people and we weren\u2019t sure we\u2019d even be able to get on one. Back at the hotel I took a heavenly shower and then Mary had dessert and I had dinner at the bar. <\/p>\n