William was so nervous about the Fit Night event that he texted me a hundred times while I was riding a bus, urging me to get to his school now, as if I had a way to teleport myself.

The first part of the Fit Night was some real workout in a classroom converted gym.

One of the classes William takes at CLIB is LTR, which stands for Learn to Research. Students showed what they had learned in the LTR class by offering a gym lesson to parents at the Fit Night. They taught visiting parents how to properly exercise and the scientific research behind their advices.

Team Four is comprised of four students and three parents. The girl led the exercising part and the three boys helped in explaining theories and thoughts. William demonstrated one-hand push-ups. The other two parents came prepared in sneakers and loose pants.

We were offered some proper and healthy snacks after the workout.

The second part began with watching a video and introduction on thirteen mental exercises. I skipped the video and read the illustration on the wall with the help from Google Translate.

When it’s my turn, I was led to a larger room which appears to be the real gym. Today, it was set up as a reading room with four rows of small desks as stations. You would go through thirteen stages of mental exercise placed on the desk by scanning barcodes to listen to instructions. A QR code for Portuguese is placed on the left and the code for English is placed on the right. Some desks come with extra instructions for interactive activities, such as writing down your fear or a past error that you want to correct. The instructions were recorded by students. I recognized William’s voice in the second desk and downloaded the audio to my phone. I saw most parents gave their full attention to the exercises and followed instructions. However, they all skipped the interactive parts. I was probably the only person who wrote down my reactions and inserted them into the envelops on some desks.

You have a chance to purchase the book behind the mental exercises.

While other kids and parents started leaving, William insisted that they had been instructed to stay behind cleaning. Two girls told him that he should just go. While William went to find the teacher, the girls looked at each other and gave a look. “That’s Will”, one girl shrugged and rolled her eyes. Minutes later, William came back with an updated instruction that they would clean up the next morning instead.

It was all fun until William couldn’t find his school uniform winter coat. A few boys and girls helped William looking around. In the end, a boy found a coat in same size.

The event was a fundraising activity. Participating parents will purchase tickets at a very moderate price of three euros each.