This is a periodic update from Lily's teacher (Ann) to the parents back home.
Tom
-----
Guten Morgen, liebe Eltern,
Today Bill (Tool) and I met the students at the student cafe after main lesson -- they were all shining, some a little more tired than others, but all enthusiastic about their experiences, their families, and their first mainlesson -- physics for the 10th grade, math for the 11th grade. Two of the German 10th graders were in Hawaii for a semester, so their English is fabulous, and all of the other students speak more English than ours do German. They were all giggling about the trials and tribulations of communicating in two languages, especially when jet-lagged. Our students were amazed at how much of their grade-school Spanish surfaced!
Aah, my fingers and brain are all working together this morning so I can type. Bill and I will be in the cafeteria at lunchtime today but the students most likely won't -- they get out of school early and have activities planned with their host students. Bill and I will attend part of the faculty meeting this evening so we'll catch up then on anything else that takes place during the day. I believe a couple of students were able to send emails yesterday. I'm at a Turkish-run internet cafe right now since the school computers are being used by faculty desperately getting their grades in before the faculty meeting this afternoon.
I wanted to correct the chornology of what I wrote yesterday: we got to the school at about 11:30, Nicole Lueker and Ina Meyer introduced the students and gave a brief welcome speech and orientation, then the kids and Bill went with Ina and the host students for a school tour while Nicole took me to the doctor. (My knee is tender but not anything like yesterday -- elevation, ice, a brace and very little walking should take care of it.)
We leave at 8am tomorrow on a bus tour to the Rhine, the Lorelei, Koblenz (Austin's partner city), and a 9th century fortress are on the books.
I'll give you an update tomorrow. The sky is blue, the Amseln (larks) started singing at 4 am when the sky began to lighten, and it is in the low 70s. Perfect!
The weekend will be spent with the host families -- they all have activities and excursions planned.
Schoene Gruesse aus Eberstadt (the little town/suburb where the school is).
Ann
Comments