German schools have two weeks off in October for a fall break so we decided to do some traveling while Oscar had time off from school. The first week we went to Disneyland Paris for four days and three nights. We left on Monday morning and returned late on Thursday night.
One thing I discovered when we were thinking about booking this trip is that the British version of the website consistently had lower prices (sometimes by as much as 50%) and better promotions (ie, kids under 12 are free with paying adults) than any of the other country versions of the website. So it makes a lot of sense to book through the UK website. Except the British version of the website requires a British address when booking a vacation. I was doing some poking around online and I came across a pretty fantastic tip -- it turns out that http://www.expedia.co.uk usually offers the same promotions as http://disneylandparis.co.uk except they don't enforce the address restriction. So I booked our trip through Expedia and paid the British price (in pounds).
We stayed at the Davey Crocket Ranch -- a set of "log cabins" (trailers) that provide more room for families. The trailers aren't huge but they do have a kitchen and a living room so they are definitely bigger than a standard hotel room. Some of the cabins looked to have been recently replaced / renovated but ours wasn't so great. It was definitely old and it wasn't very clean. I probably should have complained about it before we unpacked. After we had unpacked everything, we didn't want to deal with the hassle of moving to a new place when we were only going to be there for three nights anyway.
Cobweb in the front door. Yuck.
Wad of toilet paper stuffed in a hole in the ceiling. Nasty!
Baseboard in bathroom is rotting. Floor isn't clean either...
Wallpaper in bathroom is coming apart. Is that mold on the wall?
So the trailer wasn't so great. The parks were better but things there were not fantastic either. The biggest problem was that lots of rides were closed.
The race cars were closed the last three days of our trip. Oscar never got to do his favorite ride.
He had to settle for a photo with the car parked on the street.
No Buzz Lightyear for us...
We saw signs like this all over the park.
Even the restaurant Tina wanted to visit was closed.
We were disappointed about not getting to do some of our favorite rides but we still found plenty of other things to do.
Lightning McQueen ride
Slinky has a ride too.
We rode the train.
Captian EO was lame. At least the glasses were cute.
The "ranch" had a very nice swimming pool. I took the boys swimming one night. Afterward, we got our photos taken with Pluto.
We saw several parades...
Buzz Lightyear frames the entrance to Toy Story Playland. It opened in August.
Magic Carpet ride...
Sara enjoyed her first trip to a Disney property
She also slept a lot.
There are lots of signs telling people that picnicing in the park is not allowed. Whatever. I'm not paying 9 € for a burger and some fries.
The official picnic area (outside the parks). We walked past this every day and never saw a single person there. On the other hand, we did see lots of families eating lunch on benches in the parks.
Photos on Main Street
The garden maze was a lot of fun.
The hotel where Tina wanted to stay.
Scenic photo of the big castle. We decided to take some photos with each member of our family in front of the castle.
Disneyland Paris used to be known as Euro Disney. I was surprised to see that the rebranding did not include replacing the signage on this clock.
We left on Thursday afternoon and had a five hour drive back home. On the way home, we stopped at Ramstein Air Base to fill up gas and eat dinner at the food court.
Unlike Germany, Autobahns in France all have a maximum speed limit of 130 kilometers per hour (81 MPH). They also are not free -- the trip cost us 54€ in tolls (27€ each way)!
Many traffic signs in France use an all-caps font. Ugh. This guy isn't a big fan either.
Speed limit signs often feature the word "Rappel." I had to ask Google what this was all about.
Disneyland Paris was not a bad trip but it could have been a lot better. Maybe we'll try again next year...
On a Saturday in September, Tina spent most of the day in Kaiserslautern while she was attending a church Relief Society event. That left me with the children. The boys have been wanting to see a real German soccer game so I took them to see SV Wehen Wiesbaden versus SV Sandhausen (SV stands for Sportverein -- "Sports Association" or "Sports Club").
Like most American sports, German soccer is organized into leagues. The highest level is called the Fußball-Bundesliga. The most famous (and, by far, the most successful) team in the German Bundesliga is FC Bayern München. The Bundesliga is different from American professional sports leagues in an important way -- it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the 2nd Bundesliga. In this system, the bottom two teams in the Bundesliga are automatically relegated to the 2nd Bundesliga for the following season while the top two teams from the 2nd Bundesliga are automatically promoted to the Bundesliga (again, for the following season). The team that finishes third from the bottom in the Bundesliga plays a two-legged playoff with the third-place team of the 2nd Bundesliga; the winner plays the next season in the Bundesliga. This system of promotion and relegation is designed to ensure that noncompetitive teams do not remain at the highest levels of the sport for 18 consecutive losing seasons (take notice, Pittsburgh Pirates).
The 3rd Bundesliga sits underneath the 2nd Bundesliga and then the regional club teams (Regionalliga) lie underneath the 3rd Bundesliga. Both of these leagues have promotion and relegation systems (teams from the Regionalliga face relegation to the Oberliga). Some of the teams in the 3rd Bunesliga consist of reserve players for larger teams in the Bundesliga (for example, Bayern München II plays in the 3rd Bundesliga). Reserve teams are not eligible for promotion to the 2nd Bundesliga. When the 3rd Bundesliga began operating in 2008, it replaced the Regionalliga as the 3rd tier of German professional soccer.
SV Wehen (as it was then called) played in the lower German leagues for decades before finally being promoted to the third tier Regionalliga in the late 1980s (this was before the current third tier existed). In 2002, SV Wehen finished a respectable 6th in its Regionalliga. In 2005 and 2006, SV Wehen finished 3rd but did not get promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga either year. Finally, at the conclusion of the 2006-07 season, SV Wehen finished first in its league and was promoted to the 2nd Bundesliga. For the 2007-08 season, SV Wehen started playing its games at the brand new Brita-Arena in Wiesbaden. Since future home games would be in Wiesbaden, the team changed it name to SV Wehen Wiesbaden.
The rebranded SV Wehen Wiesbaden finished 8th its first year in the 2nd Bundesliga (2007-08) but the following year (2008-09), Wehen finished 18th and was relegated back to the third tier of the German soccer leagues (the 3rd Bundesliga) for the 2009-10 season. Wehen remains in the 3rd Bundesliga for the 2010-11 season.
The game we went to see was SV Wehen Wiesbaden vs. SV Sandhausen. The team offers a family ticket that is good for up to four people. It only costs nine Euros. When I showed up to buy the family ticket, there was a man standing outside the box office selling a family ticket for five Euros (he had received it as a no-cost promotional ticket) so I bought that from him and saved four Euros.
The stadium had lots of empty seats -- there were entire sections that were empty. Whatever local buzz might have existed in 2007 (when the team opened a new stadium and simultaneously qualified for entrance into the 2nd Bundesliga) had long since disappeared. Although still considered professional soccer, the quality of play was noticeably different from the World Cup games that I watched this past summer. Fortunately, the boys didn't seem to notice or care.
Unfortunately, I do not have any photos of our trip to the soccer game because the camera was in the States for service. The camera had started putting a black spot on many of the photos that we were taking so I sent it back to Canon for repair. Fortunately, it was still covered by the factory warranty so the repairs were free.
A photographer came to Oscar's school last Friday to take pictures of the children with their Schultüten. Yesterday we got the prints. In the States, school photos are usually sent home as a proof and then parents have the option to order more. In Germany, they sent home a variety pack (several different sizes) and a bill for the photos (€10).
The photographer also took a class photo. The class photo is an interesting story. Students in German schools have the same teacher for all four years they are in elementary school. As they move to each successive grade, the teacher moves with them. The idea is that at the end of the four years, the teacher should know the students well enough to make an educated recommendation for each child's placement in secondary education.
Anyway, the class photo that is taken at the beginning of first grade follows the class around for the four years that they spend together. Yesterday at school I noticed that the fourth grade class down the hall from Oscar's classroom had posted their class picture from first grade on the door. For the next four years, I expect this class photo will give the students a daily reminder that they are in this adventure together.
Since last week was the first week of school, I was not surprised to see that the folder that Oscar uses to bring home announcements from school was full of the usual back-to-school messages from school administrators (both local and regional). Friday's notebook had a few more administrative notes but it also had this little surprise:
The translation is: "You belong to us!" I'm not sure if all students got one of these or if it was just given to the foreigners (Ausländer). Anyway, it just reminded us that the people at German school have all been so nice to us. Hopefully this will continue to be a positive experience for our family.
When we moved here last summer, I tried to get Oscar enrolled in a German Kindergarten in our town. Unfortunately, we didn't move into our house until early August and by then it was too late -- the Kindergartens in our town started the following week and when I inquired about enrolling Oscar for Kindergarten, I was told they were all full. I could have pressed the issue and they would have found him a slot in a nearby town but it didn’t seem like it was worth the trouble.
One of the reasons I didn’t want to push Oscar into a German Kindergarten is because German schools are structured a bit differently than American schools. German Kindergartens are usually located near an elementary school (Grundschule) but they are not actually part of the elementary school. Kindergarten is for 3, 4, and 5 year-olds and is mostly just structured play. The five-year old Kindergarten children are given some basic lessons on letters, sounds and shapes but the preschool Oscar attended as a four year-old had already covered these topics. Formal education (with emphasis on reading and writing) begins at age six in first grade. If Oscar had gone to the German Kindergarten, he would have learned to speak German but not much else.
The end result from all of this is that Oscar went to the local American school last year. Overall Tina and I were both pretty satisfied with Oscar's Kindergarten experience at the American school but for first grade I wanted to try again with the German system.
I wanted to make sure I didn’t start the process too late in the year so in December I sent an email (in German, of course) to the secretary at the German elementary school in our town (Grundschule Nordenstadt). After some back and forth about when we could get an appointment, we finally met with the principal in February (our next door neighbor came with us to help with translation). The principal was willing to let Oscar enroll for first grade but she wanted three things. First, she wanted to make sure we understood that there wouldn’t be any special concessions for Oscar. Second, she wanted him to come in April for a short skills test that they do to assess readiness for first grade. Third, she wanted to move Oscar into the local German Kindergarten the next day (apparently there was now some availability). We made an appointment for Oscar come back in April for the skills test but the third condition didn't really work for us -- Tina was expecting a baby in the next two weeks and neither of us really felt good about pulling him out of the American school in the middle of the year. So I told her (through the translator) that we would talk about it and I would send her an email to give her our decision. I did send her a note that night declining her suggestion (and explaining why the situation would be difficult). I also said that I hoped she would still consider taking Oscar in the fall. I did not get a reply to that email so for several months I wasn't really sure where things stood with the German school.
I suppose that if I had been sitting in the principal’s seat, I might have been more than a bit annoyed with an American who had came to my office asking for my help but who then did not want to follow my suggestions for how to proceed. Germany is a very rules-oriented society (to put it lightly) so this situation left me wondering how things were going to play out over months that followed.
Sara was born a week and a half after that meeting with the principal so we became quite busy dealing with the new baby. Uncertainty with the German school remained but we had a lot going on so thoughts about school got pushed out of the foreground for the moment. Oscar still had the appointment for the skills test in April and nothing that was happening between February and April was going to change that.
Two weeks before the April meeting, I sent the secretary an email to confirm the appointment for the skills assessment in April. The skills assessment was pretty basic -- they asked Oscar to identify some letters, write his name, do some simple pattern matching, and to draw a few pictures. One of the teachers that administered the test was able to give Oscar instructions in English so that helped. Immediately following the skills assessment, I met with the principle for 15 minutes to discuss the results (my neighbor had again agreed to come with me to help with translation). It was clear that Oscar had the mental ability to be fine in first grade so she gave preliminary approval for him to enroll in the fall. She asked me to work with him on learning more German and to come back later that week to fill out some paperwork. She also gave us an invitation to come to a meeting in June for parents of rising first graders (Elternabend – "parent’s evening").
Tina and I attended the Elternabend with another person we know who speaks both German and English (our neighbor was out of town). At the end of that meeting, the principal announced the class assignments for each of the students. Each of the students also had a packet of papers to pick up. One of the things in Oscar's packet was an invitation (Einladung) from his new teacher to come for a 45-minute get-to-know-you meeting (Kennenlernnachmittag) with all of the other students in his class the following week:
The front of the invitation was drawn by one of the children at the elementary school:
What is in his hand?
Oscar's packet also contained a list of the school supplies he would need:
The packet also contained information about the first day of school. There would be an optional church service (Gottesdienst) followed by a celebration (Einschulung).
Oscar attended the Kennenlernnachmittag and I spoke briefly with his teacher afterwards. I did not have a translator with me so we talked first in German and then a bit in English when we realized her English was better than my German.
Two weeks after the Kennenlernnachmittag, I received a letter in the mail from the Wiesbaden Health Department (Gesundheitsamt) telling me Oscar had been scheduled for an appointment in July. They wanted to review his medical records and have one of their doctors examine him. I understood this to be just a quick physical examination (something akin to a sports physical) but it was much more in depth than that. They asked him to draw some pictures, to answer some mental questions (if I have six blocks and take two away, how many remain?), to do some puzzles and games, and they also did the physical exam I had been expecting. Nothing of significance came out of this appointment other than the Health Department officially granting eligibility to enroll Oscar in school.
German schools started last Monday (two weeks before the American schools) but the first graders didn’t start until Tuesday. The day started with a short ecumenical church service at 9AM.
Look at all of those cones...
We arrived 10 minutes early but were at least 15 minutes too late to get a decent seat. The church was very crowded and the only place we could find a seat was in the balcony. The view from the balcony wasn't very good so we didn’t see much of the church service. After church was over, everybody walked to a building that was near the school for the Einschulung celebration. All of the children from the other grades had lined the sidewalk between the church and the building where Einschulung was being held. They were clapping and welcoming the Schulanfänger.
At the Einschulung, the second graders performed a skit for the new students (I didn't understand all of it, but the theme was about putting new leaves on an old tree), the principal gave everybody a heartfelt welcome (Herzlich Willkommen), and then each of the students was called by name to come and line up behind their teacher. Then the teachers left with the students for a short lesson. During this time, the parents attended a reception in the school auditorium. It wasn’t until I saw most of them drinking champagne that I realized that the first day of school experience was a much bigger deal to the Germans than it was to me. The parents milled around sipping champagne and eating cake until the students were released from their classrooms about an hour later. With that, the first day of school was over. The whole thing lasted two and a half hours.
One constant throughout the first-day activities was the cone, or Schultüte. I didn't see any first graders who didn't have one. The Schultüte is traditionally given to German first graders on their first day of school. Parents fill it with treats, school supplies, and other gifts to celebrate graduation from Kindergarten and moving on to elementary school. We bought a Schultüte for Oscar at the local department store but most of the ones that I saw had been homemade and were more elaborately decorated. Here are some pictures of Oscar with his Schultüte:
Oscar's homework on the first day was to color identical Schultüten identically:
Tina has been complaining for months that the family blog is "boring" (whatever that means). I made her a "contributor" and told her she could post whatever non-boring content she felt needed to be told. She also wanted to put some lame background image on the blog (evidently this blog's clean, white background was part of what makes it so boring). I didn't want to add a background image so Tina start writing again on her own blog (you know -- the one she abandoned over a year ago; the same one that led to the creation of this blog because she wasn't posting anything [boring or otherwise] over there). So for lots of non-boring posts and a continuous stream of fancy background images, check out Tina's blog at http://thehappeninghausfrau.blogspot.com/. To you, loyal reader, all I can promise is that the boring stuff will continue to be found right here.
Yesterday was Pioneer Day -- something of a holiday (official in Utah, unofficial everywhere else) for the Mormons. We celebrate the entry of the Mormon pioneers into the valley that forms what is today Salt Lake City. Although some members of the church today are direct descendants of those who walked to Utah in the 1840s and 1850s, many others have traveled different trails of faith. Pioneer Day is thus a day to remember the original Mormon pioneers but also to reflect on individual pioneer heritage.
We drove an hour to Kaiserslautern to attend a church-sponsored Pioneer Day picnic. Calvin found some horseshoes to play with (thankfully they were plastic).
Looks like he got four ringers. It must be the impeccable technique!
Baby Sara enjoyed being a lady of leisure.
Look at those teeth!
We ate lunch -- hot dogs and hamburgers along with chips, deserts, and lots of tasty side dishes.
After the picnic was over, we drove to Ramstein Air Base to go to the "mall". They were having a blood drive so I stopped in and they took some blood. I donated blood pretty regularly when we lived in the States (the Red Cross would come to work so it was easy) but this was my first chance to donate blood in Germany.
The blood donor center was based out of nearby Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC). Many of the soldiers wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan are flown to LRMC for treatment. Hopefully my somewhat-rare AB+ blood will find a good home in another AB+ body (people with AB+ blood can only donate to another person with AB+ blood -- Wikipedia has a compatibility table).
After the blood donation was over, we wandered about the PX for a while (the boys wanted to played with the Wii) and then we headed over the bookstore to find some early reader books for Oscar.
Oscar liked several of the books in the Magic Tree House series. They seemed to be on his level so I bought a group of 16 (gently used) on eBay when we got home -- it was a lot cheaper than the bookstore.
This got saved as a draft and then I forgot to come back and publish it. So here it is a month too late...The boys got me some Snickers for Father's Day.
Oscar made me a "shirt" at school.
Here is a video where he tells me all about it:
Calvin made me some hands so I would always have a hug.
Tomorrow afternoon, the German soccer team plays Argentina in the quarterfinals of the World Cup. Prior to the 2006 World Cup, the German rock band Sportfreunde Stiller wrote a song that has become something of a fan hymn for the Germans. The title of the song was "'54, '74, '90, 2006" (Germany won the World Cup in 1954, 1974, and 1990). After the 2006 World Cup ended with Germany losing to eventual champion Italy in the semifinals, the song was reworked with a different title: "'54, '74, '90, 2010". Here is a YouTube video that shows the band performing (lip-syncing) the 2010 edition of the song during the congratulatory party that Germany threw for the team in Berlin following the conclusion of the 2006 World Cup. The words (with a rough translation in brackets) follow the video.
Vierundfünfzig, Vierundsiebzig, Neunzig, Zweitausendzehn, [54, 74, 90, 2010]
Ja so stimmen wir alle ein, [Yes we all join in]
Mit dem Herz in der Hand und der Leidenschaft im Bein [With the heart in the hand and the passion in the leg]
Werden wir Weltmeister sein. [We will be world champions]
Wir haben nicht die höchste Spielkultur, [We don't have the best playing culture]
Sind nicht gerade filigran, [We're not even lacy]
Doch wir haben Träume und Visionen [But we have dreams and visions]
Und in der Hinterhand die Masterplan [And a master plan up our sleeve]
Für unser langen Weg aus der Krise [For our long way out of the crisis]
Und aus der Depression [And out of the depression]
Lautet die Devise: [The slogan is now:]
Nichts wie rauf auf den Fußballtrohn. [Nothing but the soccer throne]
(Eins und Zwei und Drei und) [(One and two and three and)]
Vierundfünfzig, Vierundsiebzig, Neunzig, Zweitausendzehn, [54, 74, 90, 2010]
Ja so stimmen wir alle ein, [Yes we all join in]
Mit dem Herz in der Hand und der Leidenschaft im Bein [With the heart in the hand and the passion in the leg]
Werden wir Weltmeister sein. [We will be world champions]
Die ganze Welt greift nach dem goldenen Pokal, [The whole world reaches after the golden cup]
Am Kap der guten Hoffnung versuchen wir nochmal [At the Cape of Good Hope we will try one more time]
Wir als Gast in Südafrika [As guests in South Africa]
Wird unser Traum dann endlich wahr? [Will our dream finally come true?]
(Eins und Zwei und Drei und) [(One and two and three and)]
Vierundfünfzig, Vierundsiebzig, Neunzig, Zweitausendzehn, [54, 74, 90, 2010]
Ja so stimmen wir alle ein, [Yes we all join in]
Mit dem Herz in der Hand und der Leidenschaft im Bein [With the heart in the hand and the passion in the leg]
Werden wir Weltmeister sein. [We will be world champions]
Beim ersten Mal war's 'n Wunder, [The first time it was a miracle]
Beim zweiten Mal war's Glück, [The second time we were lucky]
Beim dritten Mal der verdiente Lohn [The third time was deserved reward]
Und nächste Mal wird's Sensation [And this time it will be a sensation]
(Eins und Zwei und Drei und) [(One and two and three and)]
Vierundfünfzig, Vierundsiebzig, Neunzig, Zweitausendzehn, [54, 74, 90, 2010]
Ja so stimmen wir alle ein, [Yes we all join in]
Mit dem Herz in der Hand und der Leidenschaft im Bein [With the heart in the hand and the passion in the leg]
Werden wir Weltmeister sein. [We will be world champions]
Vierundfünfzig, Vierundsiebzig, Neunzig, Zweitausendzehn, [54, 74, 90, 2010]
Ja so stimmen wir alle ein, [Yes we all join in]
Mit dem Herz in der Hand und der Leidenschaft im Bein [With the heart in the hand and the passion in the leg]
Werden wir Weltmeister sein. [We will be world champions]
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