Since our Long Weekend up in South Dakota, it's been a really quiet couple of weeks. We had a Air Force football event organised by CITEL in Colorado Springs on Saturday 7th Sept. Stuart didn't go as he was parading with the National Guard that weekend,
so Joshuah and I got a lift with Phil and Tanya and their 3 boys, to the game. When we arrived the car park was filling up with Cadets....barbecuing, playing frisbee..basically having a good time. There were shade sails and RV's scattered throughout the carpark...a real party feel.
We were advised to get there early to make sure we saw the band warming up...it was a really hot day and no shade and it was going to be a long day. The band "warmed up" before they went out onto the ground and it was fantastic...they performed for about 40 mins, seemingly oblivious to the people watching them, having the best time with no inhibitions. Take a look at the video I put together of the band warming up. At one stage they were singing to a girl watching the performance ...Hey Baby!
Airforce band pre football game, Colorado Springs
People were standing around the edge of the tunnel throwing $1 notes, which is part of the tradition. Here are Sharon and Lindsay ignoring the signs and throwing 'objects" into the tunnel!!
So to the game...it was really, really, really, really boring. A game is 4 x 15 min quarters and started at 1.30pm. At 5pm it finished... 3 1/2 hours later! What can I say! Tanya, Sharon, Sue and I probably saw about 30 seconds of the game and the rest of the time was spent chatting and watching the clock, that would stop every 6 seconds for about a minute, then would restart and then stop after another 5 seconds of play! It is televised as well, so apart from the normal stoppage of a game, we also stopped for ads on the telly. It was unbelievable. And whenever the Airforce team scored a touchdown, about 100 cadets would run down from the stands and do the equivalent amount in pushups! I enjoy watching most sports, but American football would have to be one of the most boring EVER! 330 million Americans would probably disagree with me..maybe you have to grow up with it.
That evening we all went back to Jane and Bruce's (exchangees from SA) for a BBQ which was really lovely. The CITEL people are very generous and a great bunch of people and I really enjoy catching up with them...and the Australians!
Stuart managed to get away from the Army which is near Colorado Springs and joined us as well which was great. On the Sunday he drove back to Fort Carson for his last day with the National Guard..he only managed to do a couple of weekends with them, but I think he would say they were invaluable and he got to meet some great people. He was also presented with a Certificate acknowledging his time with them.
On Monday I went to pick Joshuah up from school and saw a Jedi Knight walking down the street. Seriously...a Jedi Knight.... who looked very much like this, casually walking down the street with his light saber and all!! Sheesh!
Friday night we went to Connie and Bill's for a party...Connie worked with Stuart last year (US year) and retired in June. Stuart really misses her at school and she and Bill have been wonderful to us. They are a great couple and we have plenty of laughs with them.
This past week has seen flooding in Colorado. Most of it is in the foothills of the mountains and Boulder is a town that has been significantly affected as well as Greeley, which is where Morgan lived for his 6 months here. These towns are around an hour away from where this house is, and fortunately we had no problems.
However the rain put a dampener on our weekend. We had planned to go on a bike ride up in the mountains on the Saturday, but due to the weather this was cancelled..our first weekend of no plans since we had been in the US AND our first proper rain since arriving in January. We did go for a few bike rides on trails near the house though...
and on the Sunday, Stu and Josh went to the Museum in Denver,
and at one stage thought they were back home...
until they went to King Soopers (our local grocery store) and saw these displays....all ready for Halloween and a reminder we are definitely in America (oh, and we were also reminded when Joshuah got asked by someone to speak Australian and do we ride kangaroos in Australia!) (oh, and when we were at the Keith Urban concert at Red Rocks, the
guy sitting next to Stuart heard Stuart's accent, asked if he was
Australian and then asked if he went to the same high school as Keith
Urban! Apparently there is only 1 high school in Australia...the one Keith Urban and Stuart Cumming went to!!)
Last night we went to a CITEL meeting for teachers interested in doing an exchange to Australia. It was one of their biggest turnouts, so hopefully something will come of it and people will make the effort (and it's a big one) to apply and have a great year in Australia.
So a really quiet couple of weeks. We have nearly every weekend planned now before we leave on December 21st, so it was probably good to have one weekend unplanned. We are looking forward to getting some snow before we leave...and with Autumn (Fall) approaching it shouldn't be too far away...and we can't wait for the Fall colours which are supposed to be spectacular.
:)
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