Really Wish this was a Two-Year Stint

Well, the title pretty much says it all.  For me, anyway.  Why, you ask?  We are just getting the hang of this!

I'm writing this at the end of a great Father's Day (more on that below or later).  And this weekend we've really had a few "I wish we would have had these experiences earlier!"  So, that's really added to my feeling of that it would be great to have one more year to REALLY have a good time.  But as most of you know, if I don't show up for work on Aug. 15, I owe a year's salary.  So, we are going back on July 17 (and truth be told, Grace and Henry are ready to go home and Sue is there or heading there).

Ok, so the experiences I was referring to.  On Friday morning, as Sue took in Grace and Henry, a mother from Henry's class came up to Sue and asked if she had been contacted about going to a classmate's house to make gifts for the teachers.  Sue said no, but she left a message on a phone number to say that she'd bring Henry after school.

The "graduating" kids were there (about 10 of them) and there were four moms (including Sue).  Sue said that the other moms were very nice (two spoke very good English), they fed the kids lunch, they made a couple of gifts, etc.  And though Sue thought this was going to be 1 hour, they were there all afternoon (until 4p).

Soon-to-be-graduates from Munzgrabenstraße Montessori Kindergarten

It was really nice and Sue definitely had that the feeling that if she would have made this contact earlier it would have been easy to call them up to ask for advice on things (that we were usually flying blind on!).  I guess the point here is that no one has ever said anything to us in English and we've felt a little isolated (and very clueless, most of the time!).  And on a related note, Henry now has a little pack of kids that he plays with and sees him for what he is, a really good kid and easy going.  And if you are interested, his "girlfriend," Matha, is the girl in the back row, far left.

Grace whoops it up with her 3C classmates!

And then, as it just happens, we had a similar type of experience with Grace's school this weekend.  Saturday was Grace's school's Summerfest.  It started at 10:30 on cloudless blue sky sunny day.  It may have reached mid-80's by the time we left at 2:30p.  Anyway, the entire school participated in a music/dance number to kick things off.  They chose a song in English (as Sue pointed out, this is an easy way to practice English for the students) and it was a country line dance.  Nice to know that's what they think of American culture :-)

The focal point of the event seemed to be the inner-school Fußball (soccer) tournament.  It was pretty exciting with Grace's class beating one of the other 3rd-grade teams and then winning a shootout (easily) with the other.  They advanced to the 3rd/4th grade match final and were defeated in a shootout.  Given that we've been following the Euro Cup the past week, we are now legitimate soccer fans!

But the nice cultural experience was had by me this time.  They needed volunteers to work at the festival and Grace's class was responsible for the drinks tent.  I spent a couple of hours taking orders for drinks, telling them how much it cost, making change, etc. -- all in German!  It was a personal accomplishment and I'm sure I didn't fool very many people, but it was great practice to say the same things over and over again.  My only real failure came from pulling drafts from a just-tapped keg of beer -- I need a lot more practice at that!

Too bad you can't see the kegs behind me in the drink tent.

After all that activity, we met friends at our in-town Buschenschank and had a great meal (but sat in the sun for another couple of hours).  In fact, it was so hot there that I didn't have any red wine.  I had a couple of Radlers, the drink of choice for Sue and I when we are hot.  It's 40% beer and the rest lemonade and they are quite tasty!

Creative artwork on our deck:  "I <heart> U, Dad."

Ok, so I'll end this (more than a week later!) on Father's Day.  What a great day it was!  I slept in AND went for a run (usually it is one or the other).  While I was stretching before my run, Grace came upstairs and cleaned up WITHOUT ANYONE TELLING HER TO DO SO!  The run was great -- clear blue skies for my view from the top of Schlossburg.  And when I came home, I received some nice presents from the kids (and not too much to take home :-), including some nice artwork on the deck (there's a good story that goes with this *).  Sue then made me french toast and bacon (my favorite breakfast).  We took it easy until the afternoon (we had a bit of activity yesterday!), but made it out for ice cream and a little stroll in the afternoon.  I cooked a very nice meal (yes, cooking without any rush IS a joy!) that we all enjoyed and then we played some games after dinner.  We even were able to call my Dad and Sue's.  Both were doing well ... in fact, all is well :-)

Russ

* A good story that I won't be able to communicate:  The week before Father's Day I came home and I heard the kids playing down in the courtyard.  It was a bit unusual as they rarely do this and I looked down on them and asked, "whatcha doin'?"  Henry replied, rather defensively, I thought, "we're playing with rocks!"  I thought that was such a funny thing for him to say/be doing, that I commented on it to Sue.  But I didn't give it any more thought, even during the week when I saw them washing the rocks.  And now, with Father's Day artwork revealed, Sue said that before sending them down the kids were worried that I might "catch them" getting the rocks for this project.  So Sue said, "just say that you are playing with rocks."  Henry knew his line!