ACID Braden

Photos first, then the story!  :)  Hover over a photo for the title, click for full size.

Shortly after arriving back in Saudi for another school year we had a break for the religious holiday of Eid. As we knew this was coming we decided last year to buy tickets to visit Oma Karin in Friedrichshafen, Germany. As most of you know she has been a part of our family sense before we were a family. She was a host mother to Charmagne while she was in Germany attending university. Anyway, whenever we can we try to sneak over for a visit. Our last one was two years ago so it was high time we made it over. We had another reason for visiting, Karin’s friend of many years, Walter - who the kids now call Opa - has terminal cancer. On our last visit he was healthy and very energetic, taking the kids for rides on his horses and visiting us at Karin’s house often. This visit was really nice because we could visit with him, but it is obvious that the ravages of the disease have been very hard on him. I think, hope, that our visit was good for him. The kids certainly enjoyed it and it was the only time we really saw him laugh and smile.

Besides visiting family and friends we were able to take a few dries around Southern Germany and into Austria as well. Our first trip was to a small town on an island called Lindau. We thought we had really scored with our visit as unbeknownst to us they were having a Toulouse La Trek show at the town museum. We were all ready to check it out when we realised it was Monday, the day most museums, including this one, are closed. Not to be, I suppose. It is a really nice little town with neat, clean streets that wind between old homes and shops. We had a lovely lunch on the lake and then a pretty drive home through the German countryside.

Our other trip was to a town in Austria called Bergenz. Its principal attraction is a cable car that goes to the top of a peak from which you can see Switzerland, Germany, Austria and Lichtenstein. Unfortunately that was the day that the fall winter caught up with us. By the time we got to the top you were lucky to see thiry feet. The clouds had never dissipated, as they had every other day, and so we spent a rather surreal day roaming through the clouds looking at the local petting zoo, bouncing on trampolines, eating lunch and playing at the playground that were all up at the top. It was a fun day, but it would have been nice to see a little of the view. Next time.

Our last, and most important event happened the day we left Friedrichshafen. Isabel had a birthday! She spent her sixth birthday saying good bye to Opa and Oma, riding a train to Frankfurt and spending the night in a hotel so that we could make our flight the next day. Not exactly your typical birthday.

A couple days before we left my next on line course started. Fortunately Karin has a computer so I was able to begin from there. Also fortunate was the fact that I checked our work email because that is how we found out that the school would be closed to students starting the coming Saturday (our work week is Saturday through Wednesday) for two weeks in the High and Middle schools and Elementary for three weeks. This was by royal order of the king in an effort to limit the spread of H1N1. Now, don’t think that there was an epidemic in Saudi, there was not one. However, with Ramadan ending and the Hajj season approaching evidently the king felt pressure to seem as if he were doing something. Teachers, however, were to come in as usual and conduct their classes online. Now, for me this has been a lot of fun; that is what I am getting a certificate in after all. Charmagne, too, took to the new method of teaching and I would like to think we both did a pretty good job adapting our classes.

As it stands now we are returning in two days to classes full of students, though Isabel and Dante will not be allowed to return for another week.  They have been keeping up with home schooling and we are not too concerned about the missed time for them other than the fact that their begining to miss the classroom environment and structure.

So, we’ll see how the students fared over their home-stay on-line virtual school. The feedback we have both been getting from students is that they seemed to have gotten the material, but really miss being at school with their friends; and even their teachers.

Wow, it has been a long time sense the last update.  I was looking around at some other friends blogs and noticed the same trend.  I am guessing it is a post-holiday let down.  We have all been so busy that the last thing on our minds was updating blogs.  Well, here I am with an update and new photos below.

Our return from holiday was about two weeks of jet-lag hell.  Mostly it was the kids who had a hard time adapting, but as a consequence we did too.  In fact it was bad enough that we have decided to try a new tactic on the way back.  We are going to take about five days in London (our layover point) and get a flat, relax, sight see, get out an walk around, see the sights, eat the food (no choice there, gotta’ eat!) and hopefully all of that will allow us a quicker recovery from the time change.  We have already rented a flat in Pimlico (a neighborhood about 3/4 mile from Parliament, Big Ben, etc.) and we are splitting the cost with some friends from school.  The Lefavere family have two boys (see picture below) that are great friends with Isabel and Dante and their parents are good friends of ours.  It should be a fun time, though I suspect a bit trying as we’ll all be jet lagged, tired and on the come-down from summer.  However, with all the activities planned above it should be a lot of fun and Char and I are really looking forward to the company as well as the sight seeing.

Our summer plans are in a bit of a bind as we booked a new flight route that was supposed to open up this month but has been postponed until May 31.  We are hoping that they will indeed open it up then as our flight is the 18th of June.  The great thing about the flight is that it leaves at 7:45am as opposed to 1am like all the others.  It would be so great to let the kids, and ourselves, get a full nights sleep before leaving.

The kids are doing well, this Tuesday is Disney Day for the KG-1 to First grade classes.  Needles to say Isabel is excited and though I won’t get to go Char has no class at that time so she will get to test out our new camera in a situation for which it was purchased.  Disney Day is in the big gym so we are hoping that between the big lense and the big flash (am I compensating for something?!?) we’ll get some good pictures.  Dante’s class will not get to go as they are too little for the event.  Personally I think it is a Disney conspiracy because Isabel is now talking about going to Disneyland on a vacation…hmmm.  Marketing at work.

Speaking of work, there is nothing really to report here.  Mostly the school is in a holding pattern waiting for next year to see what the change in leadership will bring.  We are in that same boat.  Once again there are a lot of teachers leaving, and though some people don’t want to see the trends in who is leaving, it is pretty lop-sidded.  Well, that is their choice, and though some of those leaving will be sorely missed we hope they are going on to better positions.

That pretty much brings us up to this point in time.  The only other thing we have been working on is getting a trip together to Mexico City with my folks and Isabel’s godparents.  We think we have found a great little hotel in our old neighborhood which is where we really wanted to be.  The hard part is coordinating three families! We are all excited about the trip and look forward to going.  Hmmm…this may be a busy summer after all!  Oh, one other thing, I am starting an online class, that should I complete the program of six classes, would give me a certificate as a trained online course instructor.  I am not sure what I would do with it, but as more and more universities are going to this model, and it allows you to work from anywhere it could allow us a little more flexability when job hunting.  By way of example, one of the instructors for the course (offered by the University of Wisconsin) lives in Dubai.  The class starts tomorrow.  I am hopefull that this class will be better than the last one.  In theory as it is about online learning the instructors should know what they are doing, unlike the last one which was an education course (always the worst to begin with) taught by a professor who made no distinction between how you learn online and how you learn in a class room.

Okay, enough ranting and time for pictures.  Enjoy and drop us a line or post a response and let us know how you are.  All the best,

ACID

Yesterday both Isabel and Dante had their annual holiday show.  Alex was unable to attend, but fortunately Char was able to get away and see the fun.  Unfortunately the room the school hosts these things in has rather bad lighting and our current camera does not have the power to overcome the distance and darkness (not to mention the florescent lights and red carpeting).  Hopefully the school photographer will have some photos we can copy.

Hope you enjoy the photos.

ACID

While there will be more photos to post to this in a little while, I wanted to get up a quick video of the kids on Halloween.  Our camera is really starting to show its limitations in low-light situations, so once friends with better cameras pass over some pictures we’ll add those.  For now enjoy the video!

We also spend time at friends and took a trip, our second, to grafitti rock.  Hope you enjoy the photos!

ACID

This would be Dante with his new painted nails

So, we are on our way to school the other day, and typical to driving in Saudi I have to accelerate to get out of a potential fender bender. Our car, being geared badly in second gear, drops down a gear and reeves up…this prompts an immediate “Oh, NICE!” from Dante. Who know he was a gear-head?!?!

Dante doing one of his favorite things…story time!

On other Dante related fronts, he is showing a little interest in learning to use the potty, but I for one am not holding out a lot of hope. He is only 2 1/2 at this point, and a boy (ie - too preoccupied to be bothered), and frankly diapers are easier (for him and me). He’ll get there soon, no doubt.

However, this is his most favorite activity…eating!

He is in a new program at school, this one was created because the 8mo.-3yr old program grew so much this year that they had to take the older ones out and make a new space just for them. The really nice part is that it is in the same building as Isabel’s program so they get to hang out and it is easier for us to drop off and pick up.
Other than his vocabulary growing amazingly week by week the only other thing going on in his life is his day to day fun at school and fun at home. Hope you like the photos!

What a smile!