Germany ‘09
Wednesday, October 7th, 2009Photos 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.
