First imptressions and Sleep Depredations

Sleep didn’t have any excuse last night. I’ve only had a few hrs so far since leaving JFK and arriving in Abu Dhabi and Dubai...

So I had a bunch of stuff typed already and this is my third try.. iPad doesn’t like blogger I guess. Anyway, the 12 hr flight plus 10 time zones featured an athlete puking right after lift off, another in a crying jag mid way and then again later, but I did see the sunrise over Iceland ( I  think) and the Airbus was nice, even for a middle seat and not moving or sleeping much. ( BTW,a Star Is Born gets 5 stars from me and the new Queen movie also was great). The flight was fine and we landed in AD around 9:00pm I think.  Several hours there with customs and sorting 315 roller duffles and then bussing two hrs to. Dubai.  Keys, sorting said luggage again and athletes in rooms by 1:00am. SOP for a World Games.   A couple hrs sleep and we’re at it again. 

Up early and this is Host Town. At a world games they usually have a couple days to get regrouped, acclimated and learn some culture. Schedules change. A lot.  We ended up having a few meetings and then heading to a mini Disney kind of place.  Theme sections and rides and overall, the athletes loved it.  Oh, it was in Abu Dhabi, so another bus ride back there.  Well, we did get to see some of Dubai in the daytime, so that was interesting.  Spent about 4 hrs there and then started the migration back. Took a few hours- waiting in que for our bus along with several thousand other athletes from 40 countries. Needless to say, it takes awhile to fill 60 busses.  Back to the hotel, supper at 9:30, get the athletes in bed by 10:30.  Coaches and staff have a few more meetings, so our bedtime was midnight. So yeah, I should have slept well. Nope. Tried my best but in the end,I did hand washing in the sink at 5:00, showered and snuck out to write.  

Today it’s off to a school ( they have school Sunday then Thursday) to get some interactions with students and then to a world experience doing activities from different counties.  The bus rides today will be too short to sleep on sadly ( for me!). Tomorrow is the head coaches meeting for me and we start to get into the track groove. Yes!  

Okay, so I was going to touch on impressions of Dubai, but I’ll try to get to that when I’ve had coffee and am a bit more coherent.   I saw a big snowstorm hitting back home and can’t say I miss it, and I love snow and winter, but it’s 75 here and sunny and it’s a nice break. ( although it looks like rain now at 6:00am)  More later...