This Week

Well we have survived the second week of school. Everyone seems to be doing well so far. The homework load does not seem to be too bad, but more on that in a minute. The girls are getting used to their new schedules, Sarah is very confident riding the bus, and Cy is well, he loves Kindergarten.

I went to the first Parents Night (Elternabend) at Grace's school this week. There are two 3rd grade classes and both of the third grade teachers are new to the school this year. It was kind of like an open-house and get to know the teacher night, except only for the parents (no kids). The principal introduced the teachers and explained that Grace's teacher is still working on her teaching certificate (not sure what they call it here) and would be out of the classroom part of the day for three days a week. I think some of the parents were not too happy about this, (and were not afraid to express their unhappiness), but she is young and energetic and seems to be very organized. We will see how it goes. The other 3rd grade teacher is more experienced and seems to be very nice. I bumped into her while waiting for Grace after school yesterday. She was very excited to have an American girl in her class (she is the English teacher) and had very complimentary things to say about Grace. Sarah's Elternabend is next week.

Apparantly, this week there was Wandertag (hiking day) for all of the Bayern schools. Cy's kindergarten hiked to a local pond, Sarah's school walked to the Alpsee (lake) and today Grace's class is hiking up the Gruenten. I really love that they do these sorts of things, and will miss that when we are back in the US.

We had our own little "Wandertag" on Sunday. We hiked up the northeast side of the Gruenten to a small Berghütte (alpine hut). The Berghütte had goats, donkeys, cats and Lore Mae's favorite chickens. They also had a few toys and a sandbox for the kids to play. We had a Brotzeit (light supper) of mountain cheese, ham and bread before walking back down the mountain. What a great afternoon.

Lore Mae trying to catch the chickens.

Cy and Otis on the "Bobby Car".

View from the Berghütte.

I started back with my German lessons yesterday. Our budget is running low and I may have to stop my lessons in order for the girls to continue with theirs. I really would like to continue, but after it took Tommy, Sarah and I two hours to figure out 3 math word problems, I think that we should have the tutors for Sarah and Grace for as long as possible. Our tutor yesterday helped Sarah with her Biology homework. She had to read a passage about the skeletal system and write a summary of it...Yikes! On the other hand, her English homework was to copy sentences from her text book. The sentences were, Hello, My name is John, and I live in New York. Hello, my name is Paul and I live in London., and etc. She works so hard in all of her other classes, I guess she deserves a break when it comes time for English. Her teacher embarrassed her yesterday by pointing out that she could help out during class. I am so proud of her.

The weather has been really beautiful the last week or so. We have had cool mornings and evenings and warm sunshine in the afternoons. Unfortunately, some colder, wet weather is on its way. I feel winter is just around the corner.

Hope all is well in your "neck of the woods". Happy weekend to all!

Viehscheid 2010

Every summer the cattle here go and spend the warmer months in the Alpine fields. Come mid September the cows are brought back down from the mountains with much celebration. This celebration is called Viehscheid. It is an important time here in the Allgaeu and marks the end of Summer. Our village even lets school out early, because Viehscheid here is held on a weekday.

On Saturday we attended Viehscheid in Immenstadt (neighboring town). As we climbed the steps of the Tiefgarage (underground garage) we could here the cows coming. People lined the streets, not unlike a 4th of July parade in South Carolina, to watch about 900 cows be herded through the town.

This picture was taken last year at the Viehscheid in our community. Love the bells and the flowers.

Here they come!

These ladies had the best seats in the house.

In SC we have barbecue cookers on wheels. In the Allgaeu they have bread ovens on wheels.

Perfect example of the German efficiency. Not half an hour after some 900 cows paraded through the town, the street sweepers were cleaning up the mess...I love this place!

There was a beer tent set up with the traditional German Fest food (beer and wurst), but we decided to grab lunch at a restaurant. Here is Cy with his "Schoko Mund". (chocolate mouth).

Last picture of the day. Please notice the two mylar balloons in the top left. We had given the kids some Taschengeld (pocket money) to buy a souvenir. The balloons were what Cy and Lore Mae wanted to buy. They cost 7 euros each! The guy selling those was making a fortune!

Back to School

School started this week...Hurray!

We did not find out who the girls' teachers would be until the first day. The obsessive compulsive part of me was going a little crazy not knowing what to expect, but I tried to keep an open mind and let things fall into place. Naturally, all of the stress and worry was for nothing.

The first day could not have gone any smoother. We now know who their teachers are, what their schedule will be and we finally received the much anticipated supply list.

Grace's list was pretty simple. Most things we already had and expected she would need. Sarah's was a little more complicated. She has about 8 or 9 different teachers, and each teacher wants different supplies. This would not have been a problem if we could have read the supply list. Each teacher had made a hand written note in the margin of the schedule as to what supplies would be needed for their class. It was very difficult to read some of the hand writing, and when we were able to decipher what was written, we discovered that we had no clue as to what some of the things were.

Thank God for Rut! Rut is one of the German tutors that comes to the house to work with the girls. Luckily she came on the first day of school, and explained the supply list to us. We finally went shopping yesterday for the supplies, and I think that both girls are prepared now for school.

Sarah is riding the bus to school this year. All of the 5th grade girls were helped to the bus stop after school on the first day by 9th grade helpers, but yesterday was the first time Sarah rode to school on the bus by herself. The night before, we studied the bus schedule online to try and figure out which bus she should take and where she should catch it. We learned that there are two buses that stop in our village in the morning and both go to where she needs to get off. I knew she could not take the wrong bus, but I still worried about her all day. I had to keep myself busy to try and not think about it. As a result I have the cleanest kitchen in town! She made it home in one piece, and the only complaint was that the bus was very crowded in the morning.

Everything has gone great so far for Grace. She is with the same group of kids that were in her class last year, so she feels right at home. She likes her new teacher a lot. I asked her about her teacher. Is she from Rettenberg? Does she have kids? What does she look like? Is she nice? I asked whether she was young or old. Grace says, "She is your age Mommy." I said, "Does that mean I am young or old?" . . . Silence.

Guess that answers that question.

It's Been a While

It has been a while since the last post in mid-June, and so much has happened. The girls finished up their first year of German school, and we could not be more proud of them. Both did a fantastic job and it showed on their final reports.

As soon as school was out we headed to the US. We spent a whole month visiting friends and family trying to "catch up" with everyone. It was incredibly busy, but very much worth all of the effort.

We have been back now in Rettenberg for a week. I think everyone is finally back on German time. Now we are trying to enjoy one more week of holiday before the kids start back to school.

Yesterday evening we decided to take advantage of the nice weather (the beginning of the week was very cold and rainy) by taking the soccer ball to the school court and having a friendly, family match. We teamed up; Tommy, Cy and Lore Mae against me, Sarah and Grace. We met a little boy there, Max, who asked if he could play too. We said of course, and Tommy added him to his team.

I thought our team had things in the bag. The only one we had to worry about was Tommy. I didn't think Cy, Lore Mae or Max (6 years old) would be a factor in the game...boy was I wrong!

Max was quite a good little player. He schooled me several times, and I think the final score was something like 10 to 3. Everyone had a blast, and just when my ego was almost smothered by a 6 year old German kid, we decided to play a game of catch. Poor Max could not throw a ball to save his life. I guess Tommy was right when he said that kids practice and try to emulate athletes they see on TV. I am guessing Max does not watch much baseball.

It was a fun evening. Max was a cool kid and I hope we meet up with him again.