Back to school 2013

The first week of school has been a complete success! 

Erin has about 17 kids in her class, including kids from Texas, Berlin, Brazil, China, & Japan.  They both have German every day.  Erin says her German teacher doesn't speak English at all during class.  She is very excited to have her own Mac Book to work on. Her teacher is from the US.  Erin has become good friends with a girl from Texas and has already had a playdate at her house (since we have nothing here, eventually we will return the favor!)  Luckily, they literally live around the corner, so soon she will be able to walk there.  And they let us borrow a drill and screwdriver today!

Ryan also has about 17 kids in his class.  He is a man of few words, so I don’t know much.  I do know he has a reward system with stars.  The first day he was average, the second got one star and today he got 2.  The teacher says he needs to work on listening and finishing things he says he is going to do.  She is from Canada, and one boy in Ryan’s class was born in Pittsburgh.

Ryan's sticker chart.

Neither have attempted to buy lunch yet.  The hot lunch menu includes things like Baked Salmon, Rice Balls with Sausages and Pepper, Chicken Leg with Pesto Risotto, and Vegetable Lasagna (which always make me think of David Putty). 

Monday, Mike and I went down to Düsseldorf to look for lunch boxes for the kids.  Here is what we found that was considered a lunch box.  

It literally would only hold a sandwich, and probably not even that.  But the worst part is that is was €10, or about $13.  Everyone here does their shopping on Amazon for things like this.  I also had it suggested to me that we drive to Holland (about 45 minutes) because they have a much better selection.  Also, the kids need water bottles for school.  I feel like in the US they are giving away water bottles on every street corner.  Here, we found this one…

for €13, or $17.  It holds about 1 pint of water.  Aldi saved the day today when we found these for €2 each, this I can live with!

Interestingly, there is no problem with leaving cell phones on during class, because there is a jamming system in place, so there is no service in all of the buildings.

  

We did take the train to school on Monday, but have been driving since then.  We don’t have our train passes yet, so its not worth the risk of the €250 fine or the everyday cost.  You can’t buy pro-rated months either.  If we bought one now, it would be the full August price.  Since Mike is home the next few weeks, I can drive them in. 

I have also been spending a lot of my time going grocery shopping.  I have 2 markets/grocery stores I can easily walk to within 5 minutes.  Friday, our town has a farmers market, so I’m excited for that.  I have cooked several dinners.  Tuesday night I made Chicken Schnitzel und Bratkartofflen.  Which is basically giant chicken nuggets with gravy and fried potatoes.  OK, maybe ‘giant chicken nuggets’ doesn't

sound delicious, but it is!

I have figured out how to buy bread and have the baker slice it for me like regular bread in the states.  This was huge!  The kids love the bread here and basically have some form of it for every meal. 

Another HUGE time taker of mine is laundry!  We got our washing machine delivered on Tuesday.  First of all, we are trying to be German and didn't get a dryer, I'm not saying this isn't going to change.  A normal wash load takes 3 hours and 44 minutes to run.  You must be thinking, "Colleen is crazy, that impossible".  No it isn't.  I have heard it from everyone.  Now on top of the nearly 4 our run cycle, I am hanging the clothes to dry in a basement.  Yeah, that doesn't work either.  Definitely need to invest in a clothes rack to put out in the backyard.  My one from college is on the boat on its way here.  Maybe my first load of laundry from yesterday will still be wet and I can use it in 6 weeks.  

Here is the washing machine, see the 3.44???  That's time remaining!

We made another trip to Ikea today for some curtains for the kid’s bedrooms.  Ryan was up at 645 asking to play Wii today.  We needed to darken those rooms!

The kids have been constantly playing Wii, it’s like it’s their last thing to hold onto from America.  The strangest thing is that they are actually playing together and only fighting half of the time!

Erin and Ryan getting ice cream at our local market.  Ryan's was a Popsicle in the shape of those 'we're #1" foam fingers.  Erin's was a push-up pop with strawberry swirled vanilla ice cream.  But...inside the stick were 4 Haribo gummy bears.  German's love Gummy Bears!