The Parish Family Blog

Freitag in Duetchland

From Ann (German teacher):

What a beautiful day!  Cold and drizzly, then warm and sunny, now it is cool and sunny.  We met at school at 8:00, everyone shining and happy, then took the bus along the Rhine to a 12th-century fortress where we had an English tour.  The kids walked all the way down the mountain to the banks of the Rhine and had a picnic then we got an hour-long boat trip to Coblenz where we had a walking tour, then gave the kids time to relax (they lay and sat under a huge statue of a doctor whose name I forget but he had something to do with cellular biology) and eat ice cream, then got the bus back to school.

They took off happily with lots of different plans for the weekend. They are so integrated that most of them didn't even say goodbye! They just waved and walked, rode bikes or were picked up by parents. What a great bunch they are, and what lovely host students they all seem to have.  It was delightful evesdropping on their conversations, all in a mixture of German and English, and watching their reactions to the tours, the excitement with which they took photos, of big things and tiny details.  They loved the medieval herb garden at the top of the fortress!
Will be back in touch with you on Monday.
Ann

Thursday June 11th in Germany

This is a periodic update from Lily's teacher (Ann) to the parents back home.
Tom
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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

Video of Our Visit to Justin and Juliet's in May

I'm a bit late in getting this video up from May. This is the first trip to Boulder to see Justin and Juliet's new place. It's quite beautiful, lots of nice touches by Juliet, I can see. We visited where she works and she's very excited about it.  We also visited many fine restaurants and Justin's school.

Tom

What Does It Look Like in Germany?

These links are from Jerry, one of the parents of the kids on the trip to Germany. Thank you, Jerry, for passing these along!

He found some webcams:

http://myworld.nav4all.com/map.php?id=182504802

None were close to the school, though, which is further south.

Just in case anyone hadn't seen the school (wow!).

http://www.waldorfschule-darmstadt.de/cpo4/mod_latest_news/index.php?profid=1

more to come.
Tom

Google Chat with Lily

Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 9:13 AM

Lily: dad!

me: hi Lil !!!!!

you tired?

Lily: Yes, but pumped on caffein and chocolate

me: lol

what's the weather like?

Lily: very nice, cool, like maybe in the 70s with no humidity!!!!

me: oh how nice. It's hot here.

Lily: I  bet

me: the doggies are fine but I'm seeing fleas now .. I am going to wash them and put flea medicine on them.

What's on the agenda for today?

Lily: good for you and the dogs, I am just resting, it's almost 5:00 here

me: eat any good German food?

Lily: What time is it there?

yes, this veggie, rice thingy, and fresh strawberries and pudding for dessert

I think they might be vegetarians

me: almost 10am here

yum Are you having to speak 100% German?

Lily: Oh, early. No...they are going to give me a few days to get warmed up and then I might have to, but hopefully no.

me: ok well good.

I'm curious about the stars at night.

It's an Adventure!!! 

Lily: I'll write about the stars, I have a window in my room with a big sill I have been sitting on.

me: Reminds me of Immortal Beloved

Lily: Well, I need to go!

me: ah darn.

Lily: I love you sooooooooo much!

me: well ok. write me often. I'm posting your emails on the blog

I love you SOOO much too my dear.

Hey is everyone else ok?

Lily: yep! love you! talk soon I promise.

me:  love you too, Dad

1st Update from Lily - She Has Arrived Safetly

Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 9:13 AM
Hallo!

Well, I am finally here in Germany.

I am in Darmstadt, Germany. I think it's a little southeast of Franfurt. But

I don't know for sure.

After a long, fairly uneventful flight, we arrived safely and I am at my host family's very sweet home in Darmstadt. It is hard to type on this keyboard because there are all of these öäü all over the place, and the y is at the bottom. Grrr...

   After we arrived in Frankfurt, a couple from the school met us to take us to the Waldorf school in Darmstadt.

  The airport was giant! And we practically hiked a mile to get to the parking lot. When we

got there it was fun to see all the little Smartcars and other tiny automobiles. We drove in the

stereotypical spy van on the autobahn at 150 kilometers! It seemed really fast. Driving in, it

was hard to see many differences from America, but they soon became more prevalent. I met

Katrine, my host sister at the School. They finish at noon, so they were finished with classes

when we met them at time. After we got a brief, and very confusing tour of the beautiful school,

we went home SEPARATE from one another to our families' homes.

   Between my very shy, jetlaggy German, and Katrine's uncertain, but very good English we managed to talk to one another. She lives very near the school in a really sweet, very Waldorfian home with her  brother and mom. Her dad is working in Africa right now. They have a garden where they grow some food as well as beatiful flowers. There are fresh-cut flowers in every room. Katrine and her mother and I made lunch, and we ate outside. Everyone who passes by shouts 'Bon Appetit!' as if they were there.

    Katrine is practicing piano (klavier) now, and her little brother brought me some really strong

coffee (they have a cappucino machine) to keep me awake. Thank goodness. I realized that I hadn't

slept in more than 24 hours! Except a tiny bit on the plane. But I was having way to much fun watching

movies.

    I gave Katrine some American coins and a cowboy hat and and a bandana, and she was

so tickled. She loved the money, and added it to her collection of American currency which

consisted of a dollar bill. Now they have gone strawberry-picking, I know, how sweet, but

I have a feeling that my coffee is going to wear off soon. Frau Coltman said not to sleep

until nighttime to get in the right cycle.

     They have a really sweet cat who is really soft and has become my Wendy analog. She is

really cute and is sleeping on my bed. Tomorrow I will go to school at 8:00 in the morning and

go to chemistry. After lunch we are meeting Frau Coltman, and I think we will do something together.

I hope...

    Well, I am having a really fun time so far. It's scary and I don't know what they are saying half

the time but I'm getting somewhere! I hope that I can check my email often, but I don't know if

it's expensive for them. They insist it's not but I want to make sure.

Aufwiederzehn meine lieblings! 

Love you all!

Lily

Lily is off to Germany this morning

I'll be posting updates as I get them from Lily's travel abroard. She and seven others in her class and two chaperones are off to Germany for 10 days. The first few days they will actually be living in homes with German families, and they are supposed to speak only German. They all seemed a bit nervous about that part -- I can imagine I would be too.  But they have been studying and practicing like crazy. In fact, when I dropped Lily off at the airport this morning at 8am they were all chattering in half-English and half-German phrases.

The trip over:
Austin to Cincinnati
Cincinnati to NYC JFK
NYC JFK to Frankfurt by 9:35am Wednesday 11 June

So, more updates soon! They are supposed to email or call in every 2-3 days.

Tom