A while back, Disney High asked for some volunteers to take in a few middle school choir students from other Disney Highs around the world for a choir festival. Thinking that we have room enough to let a kid or two spend the night for a few days, we volunteered. A few months later, we were given out assignment. Four 13 year old boys. Three from the American School of Vienna and one from 30 minutes away in The Hauge. The first thing that we thought of is why are we watching a kid that only lives 30 minutes away. Well maybe they have some really late rehearsals and some really early starts. We were told that we just needed to provide a place for them to stay. When we got the packet on timings, we found out that we are picking them up at 330pm every day and keeping and entertaining them for the rest of the night. That is a long time to entertain four boys that I don't know.
It turns out that the kids do seem like some good kids. I took them into Amsterdam after work one day. The only thing they wanted to do was go to Kalverstraat, the posh shopping road, and go to the Nike store. But first we had to meet up at the I AMsterdam sign with two girls from their schools. The boys immediately jumped up on top of the letters, as would be expected from the boys. It took a little convincing for the girls to climb up. But once they did, they were happy they did. And then on to Kalverstraat we went. We stopped at one shoe store. Then another shoe store. And then another shoe store. I finally had to start telling them that the shoe stores were closed. And we finally ended up at Snipes at the end of Kalverstraat, another shoe store. I never would have thought that had we could entertain 13 year old boys with window shopping at shoe stores. And the girls were not interested in any form of shopping.
In the way back, we stopped at a gift shop that one if the boys wanted to go into. So while he shopped the rest of us waited across the street. It took me a minute before I realized we had stopped just outside a coffee shop. So after some selfies with the coffee shop in the background, we were on our way. I'm sure their parents will love those pictures. I guess at least it was not a selfie in the red light district, which we were never close to. For anyone that is not aware of what coffee shops are, they do not serve coffee. It is basically a bar for marijuana.
The next evening, the boys went to the football pitch and took Bev and Cam along. They were very nice to them and made sure to play very well with them. Bev and Cam felt like they were on top of the world. That was until Cam blocked a hard shot on goal. That ended it for him.
Four nights later, the boys were back in their way to Vienna and The Hague, thank goodness. They did each bring a gift from their country for us. They were very polite and it was a good experience.
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