A natural star....
The press conference went very well last night. It was attended by two television stations and numerous newspapers. Todd Woodcroft and Todd McLellan (Detroit Redwings) represented Northern Edge. They were accompanied by Sergei Savitsky, Director of junior hockey, and Vladislav Ryzhikov, a representative from McDonalds. They answered various questions about the camp, about our trip, and about anything that they have learned so far. Todd McLellan explained how important visual training is on the ice versus spoken instructions due to the language barriers on the ice. Nick stole the show, however! He was asked what words he learned in Russian. He performed flawlessly in reciting such things as "You have a beautiful house" as well as the numbers from one to eleven. He received a round of applause for his fine efforts. Steve (his father) was so proud of Nick - rumor is it jerked a tear or two! After the conference (and numerous big macs), the kids departed with the host families. Some planned an evening of bowling while others rode go-carts. Still others just hung out with their families and got a good night sleep.
Wow - this is a busy time! Each morning, the first group of younger kids arrive at the rink around 8AM for on-ice at 8:30AM. We try to greet all the campers including the Canadian, American, and Belarusian kids. Our Russian language skills are improving with the basics (Good morning, thank you, etc).
The host families have been treating the kids very well and I personally asked each one this morning how their respective stays are going. Each one said everything was just fine and there are no issues or concerns. One host family even bought a new pair of shoes for one of our kids due to a blow-out during off-ice training on Monday!
The second group of older campers arrive around 9AM and they do their off-ice training first. I managed to take some video this morning of the younger group on ice and the older group off-ice. I will try to post the videos tomorrow as once again I am out of time. I'm currently in the offices of the Hockey Federation but I need to make my way back to the rink in 30 minutes. This evening, all the instructors will be splitting up to have dinner with the kids and the host families. The kids held a draft this afternoon to see which instructor went to which house (results unknown but I hope I get dinner, too!).
I have uploaded almost 600 photos to my computer already. I plan to select most and upload to a shared site on the internet. I attempted today but was not successful due to a technical difficulty.
Until next post, cheers! The boys are doing well.
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