Day 336

Zondag, 8 Juli 2012

Long, long day.

Had to get up early, eat, and then Bart had to drive me to Herentals because buses don't go that early on Sunday (around 7.45).  Got my set of trains, ended up in Kortrijk.  Only, there was a mix up and I hadn't gotten a ride from the station to Dadizele yet.  So, while on the train, I ended up texting everyone from drumline that I had the phone numbers of - only one person answered to say he was in Antwerp.

So I ended up waiting at the station for like 30 minutes until David called and said he just read my text and he'd be there in a few minutes.  By the time we got to Dadizele the bus was basically loaded so we just got on and headed for Saint-Martin Boulogne for the parade and show.  Basically slept on the bus drive there, so that was nice.

Got there, changed into our uniforms, and then started the most boring parade of my life.  It was seriously like a ghost town - we didn't really see many people.  The only time we did, it was a bunch of older (and I mean OLDER) people, and they stole one of our snare players and gave every person his drumstick (one after another) so they could play on his drum.  He looked SOO confused, it was great.  But yeah, pretty boring.

Then, had to go in the gym, play one of the street tunes, go outside, change, wait, wait, wait, then play Sirocco (for the last time, THANK GOODNESS), go outside, load the truck, wait, wait, and then go back into the gym for a little awards ceremony.  Bertje took the award for us, and when they gave it to him he held it up in the air, really triumphantly.  Pretty great.  Then we had to play one more street tune and go change/load the bus.

I finished changing and went outside to ask David when we were leaving, when suddenly like EVERYONE was outside and around David.  And he started to do announcements (or what I thought were announcements), but in English, so my first thought was "why is he speaking in English?"

Then, he gave me this nice little wrapped present, and said it was from all of Drumspirit to me, and that they hoped that I enjoyed my year with them, yadda yadda yadda.  Opened it, and it was a photo book of me, with photos from C*fest, the theatershow, rehearsals, and the super bowl.  It was sooo sweet of them.  Really great book.  I had to page through it with everyone looking at it, so that was nice.

Then, got on the bus, talked with some people, showed some people the book (they kept coming to ask if they could see it), played some DS, and slept.  We made it back around 830, so David was able to drive Thomas and I to the station to get the last train (which I didn't think was going to happen).  Thomas and I went out for a bicky (he just got back from the US on Friday, and he leaves again on Thursday - bit of a story to that), and then hung out until our train time.

Well, our phones said like 9.43 so we decided to go back to the station (less than a minute away) so we could get to our trains in time (9.48 and 9.50).  Well we get to the waiting room in the station, and the clock there says it was 9.47.  So we just look at each other and book it to our platforms, saying our goodbyes while running.  I feel like I'm going to have a lot of goodbyes like that :P  We ended up getting our trains, so that was good.  Heidi and Senne picked me up in Herentals, showed them the book, and then went to sleep.

Warning:  I'm basically not home until Saturday if everything pans out well.  So, unless I can acquire a computer at someones house, I won't be updating until Saturday or so.  Just letting you know, no updates doesn't mean that I'm dead.