Another Saturday, another street dance competition. This was in Chrudim, about 100 kilometers or so east, maybe a bit northeast of Prague. So, we had to get up pretty early.
The drive down was uneventful enough, it was kind of a cloudy morning, but not so much that vision was impaired, and traffic was light although I could not understand why three semi-trailer trucks were driving one after the other with only inches between their bumpers and I was very happy when we got around them.
We dropped Izzy and her friend off and went on a short tour of the town. There was a small river and an even smaller stream, and you would have expected the stream to run into a river but, it seemed to me (and I have no idea what happened further downstream, that they ran together until they met and flowed together for a meter or two and then flowed apart again.
Anyway, there were 14 teams and only the top 6 would advance to the next round. It seemed to me the level of competition was a bit higher than usual (perhaps because all of these teams have advanced through a few competitions) so, despite the fact Isabel’s team danced well, I was not optimistic.
Now, here’s the thing. We knew that if they advanced, we’d have to stay till the end, at 8:30. If they got eliminated, we could get out of there and go home. So, theoretically, and certainly when talking to Isabel, we had to be hopeful she would succeed. But, damn, these competitions are obnoxious and my butt was aching from the hard, plastic seat.
It was a classic example of mixed emotions.
They did not get through. Isabel did not seem too upset, though (they were 7th out of 14) and got invited to spend the rest of the weekend at her friend’s cottage. So, I did not feel too guilty about my mental disloyalty, and we got home early.
