Update

Hi all,

To start, a huge thank you for the continual observations, messages and humour coming from your blogs sent to us- they continue to be a highlight when publicly read each morning.

Today has been another absolute stunner in terms of weather, activities and food (the latter depending on ones preference for pizza or salad). A quick run through would read as follows: everyone arrived at school with their billets prior to the 8:15am first bell of the school day. Impressively they all got the message about today's dress code even though Coach Skeen dropped the ball big time in forgetting to state it prior to the students departing yesterday (honestly the tour would be so much better if it wasn't for this guy).

Then it was off to Stanford University, a 45 min drive to the outskirts of Palo Alto. The University itself is always a must see. The boys simply couldn't take in all that the campus 'city' had. It was compared to as the size of all the high schools in Auckland, along with all our prominent Auckland sporting stadiums, under one University environment. Be it tennis stadiums, the 50000 seat football stadium, Olympic diving facilities, arenas of professional standards for 32 sports, not to mention the hallowed academic quarters where the top minds study, Stanford is the complete high performance world. In all, the boys found the scale and prestige of the surroundings a touch impressive.

Then it was back to the running routine with a 4 mile run to complete coupled with a game of ultimate frisbee with the Saint Ignatius squad in the late afternoon, before heading home for a night of further pampering. Tomorrow, the touring party will run a 7 mile course across the Golden Gate Bridge, then in a change up . . . we will be having a slumber party at Saint Ignatius school! Yes, with such an early get up to head to the Airport on Thursday, we have kindly been allowed to have the boys sleep at the school for the night. Coach Jordan, having never had any friends, is very excited by the idea of a slumber party.

Points of note:
1. A McDermott is the guilty party. He waved with such enthusiasm from the street pavement that young University students flatting in downtown San Fran felt it necessary to flash our entire group. Coach Gordon provided counselling to P Carter who simply couldn't handle the situation.
2. A Meltzer has been purchasing female clothing, claiming that one day he will meet someone special and she will really enjoy half of the Stanford apparel range that he conveniently purchased.
3. G Kilmister is running like a champion race horse. He has declared he will be returning to run across the US to raise funds for a Tibbs House gridiron team.
4. H Kerr was seen smiling again day- indeed it is true the sun has come up after the Hollister ordeal.
5. S Perera leaves the squad tomorrow night to return home as pre-planned for external exam clashes early next week. Shannon is a hugely dedicated young man- F Boswell has passed on valuable tips on how to study with one's eyes closed
6. J Kenrick has come out in support of his mate, F Boswell who was outed as a continual late comer. Young James has criticised the editor for 'making things up'. The editor has been 'tram'-itised by the whole event and is seeking legal advice- this is dangerous time for the editor, especially considering how aggressive James has been in trying to convince the St Ignatius team that he is in fact the AGS D Squad captain and will also be running for US President stating a liberal set of policies Obama and Romney can't begin to understand.
7. M Haycock thanked T Batts on behalf of the squad today for finally leading a haka that contained all of the verses- his exact quote to the vulnerable Tom was "It's about time you delivered something half respectable in 2012 Tom, you can't just live on your 2011 Maadi Cup victory"
8. M Wallace (and many of our other teenage travellers to be fair) can't believe how smooth the coaching staff are in talking to the local women- it's amazing how a friendly conversation between strangers equates to a relationship in the boy's minds. Matt has been taking photos of these occurrences believing he could make serious money from selling them to the respective staff's better halves. Matt was heard to say "I really want to be just like Mr Jones, Skeen, Gordon and Jordan". Mr Skeen was heard to say "Set realistic goals please Matthew".


So that's us for Tues 9 Oct. One more full day in San Fran tomorrow before the heat of Hawaii awaits.