First Days of School

Guten Tag!

I have started to school and I feel like I am learning more from my students than they are from me! This is truly going to be an amazing experience.

I was able to witness a fabulous German tradition on Tuesday. In Germany, the students start school at Grade 1. Therefore, the day before school began, the Grade 1 students came to school for a celebration. They first had an assembly, then went to their classroom to meet their teacher, and then to the playground. I was able to watch them from my class window as they celebrated on the playground. The students were dressed in their best attire. One little girl was even wearing a dirndl (traditional German dress). She was so cute! The students, parents, and grandparents were also with them. They were so funny to watch also. Most had a video camera in one hand and a digital camera in the other catching all of the moments of this special day.

Along with wearing their best clothes, the students also had on their huge backpacks--you have to be prepared! And they carried what looked like huge cones. These are actually called Schultuete. Their schultuete is filled with sweets and school supplies.

Picture of the Schultuete. (courtesy of http://fanzone50.com/Oberstein/schultueteHistory.html)

On the playground, the teachers gathered all of the students together. The students each had a balloon. After they sang a song, they released their balloon. This is to represent the start of their schooling, just like throwing your cap at graduation. What a great way to celebrate the beginning of school!!!!!

Amy's Classroom

Here are a few pictures from my classrom, Grade 5.

Beautiful big windows. There is no air conditioning at the school, so these are very important!

Interactive White Board with marker boards on either side. The marker boards move up and down, as well as unfold to become bigger.

View from my classroom.

It's crazy that I have a beautiful view of a park in a big city. I love it.

My classroom was originally set up to be a lab, which is why there are random "stations" in my room. They actually have sinks in them.

I think it's time for school.... :)

Lots to Learn

Hello All!

Craig and I are doing quite well. Craig has enrolled in intesive German language courses and will be starting on August 31st. He will be attending class in the mornings, Monday through Friday. I have had my New Teacher Orientation and tomorrow I will have the opportunity to meet the rest of the staff. School starts for us on Wednesday, 19th August. I wanted to share with you a bit of what I have learned so far:

-The students have House Shoes. They are not to wear their outside shoes in the school but instead their house shoes. They are not to wear their house shoes out of the school. Got it?

-At this school, they take German classes from Preschool 3 (kindergarten) up to Grade 5 and then they start French in Grade 6. However, the parents from the States are pushing for the school to offer Spanish. All lessons, other than the language lessons, are taught in English. However, majority of the students do not speak English at home.

-I have been told that even though we teach all in English, knowing German is helpful. This is because when students are in their groups or with friends they will more than likely speak in their native tongue. Also, even though we are to teach in English-learning is the goal. Nonetheless, this won't be as big of a problem for me as the teachers of younger grades.

-At the stores sell these huge, colorful cones. I thought they were hats at first. They are decorated with princesses or spiderman and they are in every paper supply store. Turns out these are actually for the smaller children. In Germany they start schooling at Grade 1. So, in Grade 1 they bring these big cones to school a day before the actual school day. Their cones are filled with all of their school supplies. This is a big celebration to get them excited for school.

--Students are not to bring fizzy drinks to school.. which I have learned means soda

-Students do not order their lunch from the school, but instead through an outside catering company. This is done through the school's website.

-If a parent is late to pick up their student from an afterschool activity, they are billed 10 euros each time. After all of the time I spent sitting with cheerleaders last year--I think this is a GRAND idea!

-Grade 4 teachers may be asked to write a "bildungsempfehlungen" (say that 5 times fast!). This is a statement of recommendation for further education, and only for students wishing to leave the international school and go into the German schooling. In Germany, primary school finishes at Grade 4. From there children go to secondary school, but there are different levels. The birght students go to Gymnasium where they study until age 18 and can then head to University. The next level children study until they are 16 and do not receive as high of a diploma. Can you imagine putting that kind of pressure on your fourth grader?

-I am so excited to have a SmartBoard again this year! Woohoo technology. I will post a picture of my classroom soon....

Ok, I think that is all for now. I will post more when I think of it. Also, if you have any questions, send them my way!

:) Amy

Craig's Birthday in Berlin

For Craig's birthday we headed to Berlin to see the sights and check out the International Beer Festival. It turned out to be a great way to celebrate a 25th birthday! I am going to let our pictures tell the story of our day. The factual information, which you will find in quotation marks, comes from berlin.de--a great website to check out before visiting Berlin.

Craig looking like a tourist :)

Berlin is a huge city. Much bigger than where we live in Leipzig. We were really kicking ourselves for not bringing our bikes. We were exhausted from all of the walking by the end of the day.

The city of Berlin.

"Berlin is the national capital of Germany and its largest city, with 3,416,255 inhabitants (as of December 2007)."
The Berlin Wall. "From 1961 until 1989 The Wall separated East from West."

One way to get around the city--four wheeler. And yes, we did see someone riding this on the street.

Picture from Checkpoint Charlie.

"Checkpoint Charlie, along with Glienicker Brücke (Glienicker Bridge) was the best known border-crossing of Cold War days. The sign, which became a symbol of the division of Cold War Berlin and read like a dire warning to those about to venture beyond the Wall – YOU ARE NOW LEAVING THE AMERICAN SECTOR – in English, Russian, French and German - stood here. It is today an iconic marker of territorial boundary and political division. Until the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989, it signified the border between West and East, Capitalism and Communism, freedom and confinement."

"The Berliner Dom (Berlin Cathedral), completed in 1905, is Berlin’s largest and most important Protestant church as well as the sepulchre of the Prussian Hohenzollern dynasty."

Craig posing in front of the part of the wall that is still standing.

These 10 dollar sandals from Payless have been all across the western United States and now in 5 countries of Europe. Unfortunately, they finally gave out. Here is a picture of Craig trying to duct tape my sandal back together on the sidewalk in Berlin.

Unfortunately, the duct tape on my sandal rubbed a horrible blister on my toe. So, we decided to duct tape my toe as well. Oh, and this is the only picture you will see of me on this trip because I was also sporting a horrible infection on my nose which I don't care to remember in the future through photos :). I am sure I was a sight to see.

That's one way to grill :)

A great "Birthday Boy" dinner at the Beer Festival.

This picture was taken inside a building on Potsdamer Platz.

Lego sculpture of Albert Einstein. Pretty impressive.

KaDeWe is a department store.

"Berlin’s most famous trademark department store is KaDeWe (Kaufhaus des Westens) – or department store of the West. It is the legendary, largest department store on the continent."

It is seven stories tall and has every brand imaginable including the really expensive (Chanel, Dior, Louis Vuitton, etc.)

Yep, still in Berlin! We were taking a shortcut through the park.

We actually had no idea what this building was when we took a picture of it. After doing some research on berlin.de, here is what we have learned:

"Berlin’s Siegessäule - Victory Column - is another of Berlin’s monuments that has reinvented itself through the ages - from symbol of Prussian military victory in the 19th century to that of Berlin’s thriving gay community and favourite tourist spot today. Berlin’s gay city listings magazine is called Siegessäule and yearly events such as Christopher Street Day and the Techno Love Parade have culminated here. As US Presidential candidate, Barack Obama chose the Siegessäule as the alternative spot to the Brandenburg Gate for his speech to 200,000 Berliners on July 24, 2008."

On the train back to Leipzig.

**We hope that you have enjoyed looking at our pictures! Once again, to learn more about Berlin, visit berlin.de. If you have any questions please post them! We love to hear from our family and friends :).

Kayaking Around Leipzig

Today we decided to see Leipzig at a different angle. There is an amazing waterway that runs through our "neighborhood." We found a place online that rents out kayaks so we went and checked it out. The guy at the place spoke no English, which was a good thing because we got to practice our German. I have to say I am very proud of us, becuase we managed to get what we wanted without speaking any English.

Check out our pictures:

In our kayak

Don't be fooled by this pretty bridge--it is covering a waterfall....

Man, I really worked hard today ;).

Part of the park we love so much!

Craig appreciated that I let him do most of the paddling. It was a GREAT workout for him!

Boating!

Craig trying to avoid the tour boat.

Look! Look! I am paddling too!

A gondola ride in Germany... ok!

Restaurants on the water.

Craig hard at work.

Nakedness and Percentages

Today we wanted to explore a bit more and we made our way out to another lake in Leipzig. This was our first time visiting, so we did not know what to expect. A 7.6 km bike ride found us rolling up to the clear waters of this new found lake. From a distance, it seemed very nice. In fact, even upon looking closer, the scenery was very nice. However, after looking around and walking along the water for a ways a few things became clear.

First off, it was a very nice lake. Second, there wasn't much sand, but a whole lot of grassy area to lay out on. Third, the grassy area was covered with people wandering around and laying out in the sun. But, what was most obvious in the first few seconds was that this excursion was not our typical American afternoon at the lake.

This brings us to percentages. When the typical "American" goes swimming, they wear 100 percent of their swimming clothes, swimming trunks for a guy and either a one piece or a two piece for a girl (at least from our own experience). At this lake, some people were wearing 50 percent of their swimming clothes, but many more were wearing 0 %. That's right, naked! A whole lot of nakedness. Out of all the people there, about 70 % were naked.

As we have said before, the people of Leipzig seem to be very active and in very good shape. But, not everybody is in great shape. For whatever reason, the out of shape Leipzigers, chose today to be naked at the lake.

Do you know anyone that you see and think, "I never want to see that person naked, ever, in my whole life..." Well, I'm pretty certain that person was at the lake today.

We rode our bikes around the entire lake, hoping to find a nice clear spot to lay out and swim. Unfortunately, everywhere we turned there were tons of naked people. We left shortly thereafter, and said to each other that "we hate to spoil the dreams of so many boys out there, but nude beaches are places to avoid."

--Dad,

Craig and I rode over the marina to look at the sailboats but they had it locked up :(. However, there were lots of boats out on the lake. It was a nice day to sail. We had a picture of some of the boats, but then we noticed that it was not appropriate for our blog if you know what I mean. --Amy

Here are a few pictures from our day. Don't worry, the pictures are G rated.

Yes Craig, there are a lot of people naked in one spot.

Very nice lake with clear water.

Riding around the lake.

I was not practicing very good bike safety. However, from my sundress and bathing suit, I'm sure you can tell that I hadn't planned on doing any mountain biking today. Boy was I wrong.

Water skiing without a boat. The line they are holding is attached to a mechansim that runs above the lake. It was quite interesting.

**Please post comments or questions. We would love to hear from you!