The remainder of the journey was TOUGH! Not because it was especially difficult, but just because it followed what had gone before, and 30 hours door to door is a long time. We were all asked to line up at the gate in Montevideo well before the plane even arrived, and we took off seemingly well behind schedule. Stuart passed on the cheese and ham sandwich, of course, then suddenly we were coming in to land at Porto Allegre after little more than an hour in the air, and within 10 minutes of the scheduled time. We got our suitcase (though it seems not everyone in the US delegation presently knows where their luggage might be), found the representatives of the ground transportation company amongst the crowds of people in the airport meeting area, and slumped into the front seats on the bus. We waited there an hour for other arrivals (though again, we understand now that others had much longer waits), then made the one and a half hour bus ride up into the gentle hills of the Brasilian wine country (no I have not forgotten about the wine, though I have not tasted any yet).
It was around 9.15pm when we arrived at the hotel. Oh my goodness – kids everywhere! Lots of bodies, lots of running around, lots of noise. I had forgotten what it was like to come to big scholastic events. My beloved wife had good sense when she bailed out of the trip and told me I should go! We had to find the chess HQ to register before we could even check in. Darcy Lima no doubt saw the same tired and unforgiving look in my eyes that he would have seen in countless others before me, and made the process very quick and painless. Finally we found our room, dumped the bags, and raced to catch the end of the dinner sitting. Nevertheless, it was somehow already 11.30 by the time we made it to bed, and we still had not seen anyone from the US delegation.
Ten hours later and feeling a lot more respectable, we went down for breakfast. We sat with a lady from the Argentinean team. She does not speak English, and we do not speak Spanish, yet we were able in the wonderful way that two foreign cultures with appropriate goodwill can do, to understand enough to know that her son is in the U-12 section and was so tired after the journey that she could not wake him for breakfast, and hence she was collecting a few things to take back for him. It seems this is a tricky place to get to even for the South Americans.
We spied “Head of Delegation” Aviv on another table across the room with fellow coach Armen and the rest of the American U-16s, and finally got to say hello after finishing breakfast. At 11am, we had an initial USA team meeting, with almost everyone present, including the Chiangs, who actually only arrived in Bento Goncalves during the course of the meeting, and thus took the prize for looking the most disoriented! We learned that as the hotel does not have any big event rooms, each age group will play in a different room, and there will be no space for spectators – after the first few minutes of each round, only the official coaches will be allowed downstairs in the basement-level playing areas.
The lunch buffet seemed innocuous enough, and a pleasant time spent with Aviv and Armen, but afterwards Stuart came down (and I feel justified in using block letters a second time in this article) with a MAJOR allergic reaction to something he had eaten, becoming swollen, red, and covered all over with large welts. And so, although he took an anti-histamine, had a long shower to ease the discomfort, and is certainly now getting over the reaction, the boy I just said good luck to in the U-16 sardine can of a room as he started his first round is not yet back to his sharpest.
Steven, August 2nd
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