Eight Days, Ten Hours

The countdown ended Friday night when we went to the airport to pick up Brian. Eli's facial expression was priceless as it went from a thoughtful searching of the crowd to an elated smile once he picked out his dad coming down the escalator. We're not used to this separation business, so it was pretty hard for us. He was out of range for much of the time, so we couldn't even talk on the phone. Now we are appreciating each other extra much. At the airport Eli was clinging around Brian's neck like a little monkey and wanted him to sit in the back seat with him on the way home.
Brian feels quite confident about his test and even won 1st place in forms and 3rd in sparring in his division (3rd Dan, ages 18-30) at nationals. So far we've found that 3 of his students took home trophies too. Thanks to almost constant workouts and little sleep, he came home a bit sore and without his panza! We're all glad its over and even more, we're proud of him. I'm sure he now has plenty of posting material to put on his blog about the experience and everything he learned.