RIA First Day of School

Warning! This blog entry contains cute kid pictures that may bring a smile to your face. If you need to stay in a grumpy mood, do not read any further - it may ruin your day...

Whew! What a week! Today (Sunday) broke blue and clear; the sun bathing every tree and flower in striking glory. It wants to make one thank God for the beauty of the world around us. I hope it feels that way to you too! After Morning Worship in Basel, our friend Jon offered us a lift home as his wife was away visiting her folks near Stuttgart. Since it was such a relaxing afternoon (and the shops are all closed) we strolled over to a local café for lunch. They serve Turkish, Italian and German food for a reasonable price and it is very close to our apartment. It is kinda funny in most restaurants here that they bring the food when it is ready, not when the whole table's order is done. Jon got a salad when Delynn's plate and my pizza came. We tucked into our meals, Jon of course finishing his salad first. We then waited for Jon's main course to arrive, and waited..., and waited... It finally arrived after what had been been a miss-communication with the kitchen, so we all finished our meal together, filled with the warmth of good company and spicy Turkish kabap.

Delynn and I have finished up our first full week of school. What a wonderful experience it is to reconnect with our returning students and begin to build relationships with the new students. As I have mentioned before, a significant number of student families were relocated over the last school year and this year we find ourselves with more new students from around the globe. Several new students are coming into an english-speaking environment for the first time which adds new challenges to our teachers on how to bring the students up to grade level and teach them all they need to know.

I have to say however that we have some of the cutest kids on the planet. Now, I'm sure that every teacher feels this way - I wish that I could combine these pictures with insight into their unique personalities, to convey the memories that flood our hearts with each face, but I cannot. You will just need to take our word for it that these are some precious children. God makes each one so different from the others - and we are so glad for that. Imagine how boring life would be without the beautiful hues of personalities, the fragrance of different smiles, the resonance of a myriad voices.

Not to say that everything is peaches and cream. Everyone who teaches understands the tears that go with the job. The first week can be hard for the children - especially those that have never been in a school before. It can be trebly hard if the childs first language is not English or German (or Swiss for that matter.) Imagine walking into a new environment where you parents leave you and go away; the people are all speaking gibberish and they expect you to follow new rules that have no context (Why are we always lining up to go to the potty?). God however has been so gracious to us. We have so many students that are proficient in multiple languages (some speak three or four different languages, switching seamlessly as the need arises) that they can ease the transitions for our new students as they learn the English language - and believe me, they learn quickly!

Okay, final warning! Here they come...

Doesn't this young kindergartener look excited to start school!

Delynn gets a laugh as this young student shows off her new backpack!
This returning student is sporting the latest in 2nd grade fashion - two missing teeth!

Finally, these two 1st graders are part of our transition team - they help the Spanish and German EAL (English as an Additional Language) students understand what is going on in the classroom.

A word about EAL. It used to be called English as a Second Language (ESL) but then for many students, English is their 3rd or 4th language, so it was called English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Now I thought this was a fine name, but apparently, the teaching profession likes to change names every few years just to keep people guessing, so this year EAL came into vogue. Maybe by 2010 it will just be EL (English as a Language)... Who knows. It keeps the letterhead from getting old.

For our praying friends, thank you for your faithfulness. Please, as you think of us, keep our students in mind, those just starting, those learning English for the first time, for our message of God's love for them - and for the whole world.

Peace

Delynn is out training for her marathon that comes up the end of the month. She will be joining some staff and parents from school to walk the marathon (42.2 km/26.3 mi). I am so proud of her for sticking to a training schedule that will help her succeed! Today she is scheduled to walk for 5.5 hours - the marathon has to be completed in under 7 hours, so that will be going at a good pace. Go Delynn!

One of the things we love about the Dreiländereck is the way that things are taken care of. Now, we do have graffiti, but it runs the spectrum from useless tagging to really quite well executed works of art. Most of these types are seen from the train as we wiz through the cement jungle around train yards. In Weil a. Rh. the city fills the public spaces with flowers and plants, regularly rotating them out after they have reached their peak. In Basel, they decorate not only the land but the air too. The picture below is of the main tram terminals in front of the Basel Main Rail station. It was a delightful sight after returning home from our visit in the states.



I told you last week that we were going to a Schwingenfest. Well, I have a bit more background thanks to father internet. It is traditionally Swiss with its origins back to the 13th century. It was revived as a sport about 200 years ago to raise Swiss national conciousness during a time of French occupation. What I find fasinating is that the grand prize is a bull! Really, we saw it... They parade it around during the final match so that the opponents can see what they are fighting for. Another nice gesture is that the winner doesn't gloat about his victory but rather whips the sawdust off his adversary's back as they walk out of the ring. Hmmm, there is probably a lesson in there somewhere... For those of you info-junkies about odd facts - you know who you are... here is a link to find out more. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwingen

When Delynn and I returned to Germany, we arrived just a few days before our 13th anniversary. Last year, we were in the midst of transition (getting work visas, moving in, signing up with the Rathaus, drivers licenses, etc. - it makes me tired just writing it...) so we didn't take much time to celebrate our anniversary. I know, poor us. Well, this year we found out that because we had already done all the transitioning last year that we had a few days before school in-service days started. We decided to go off for a couple of days to Baden-Baden to relax and just be us two.

Baden-Baden is found in the Schwarzwald about 2.5 hours north by train from Weil a. Rh. It is near the border with France and the french influence in architecture, wide boulevards, spacious parks and gardens is readily felt. Baden-Baden is a resort town, with natural hot mineral springs that have been a destination since Roman times. They actually have to cool down the water before introducing it into the pools and springs.

There are two main bath complexes in Baden-Baden. One is Friedrichsbad - a so called Roman-Irish bath. Friedrichsbad is attended completely "textile free" except for a towel. The second, pictured above, is the Caracalla Therma which is where we spent an incredible anniversary morning relaxing at the spa. Caracalla lets one bathe in a more modest way - with a bathing suit. The different pools were at various temperatures. Most were in the upper 80's to low 90's Fahrenheit. One grotto had two pools right together, the hot pool at 95+ and the cold pool at 62. It was quite invigorating to go back and forth between them. They had a eucalyptus steam room - what a unique experience. As one enters, the steam is so thick that you can barely see across the dimly lit room, all dark tile and beautiful marble. It reminded me of a Godfather movie where the mobsters sit in steam rooms for nefarious purposes.

The hot mineral springs are piped into the "Trinkhalle" (drinking hall) where for a 30 cents one can buy a cup to enjoy the hot mineral water. Doesn't Delynn look healthier already? Actually, all things considered, it was not too bad. We have been to Bath in England, which is also a Roman mineral spring spa and the water there was nasty with a capital "N"! They advised us there to hold our noses while drinking to make it more palatable. In Baden-Baden, it was good enough that I went back for a second cup (well, I did pay 30 cents for it...)

Here we are in front of the famous Baden-Baden casino. Apparently one needs a tie and jacket to gamble there. (Michael was inappropriately dressed...)

We took a path down to the suburb of Lichtental because there is an abby there. A couple of times it rained so hard that we had to stop and huddle under our single umbrella (but it was very romantic...). Once we reached the abby, everything was pretty much closed up, but we did get a rather nice picture of an abby courtyard wall. Along the path between Baden-Baden and Lichtental are rose and dalia gardens - they must grow well in rain...


Where's Waldo? We had an incredibly good time together in Baden-Baden. We came back to Weil ready for in-service and excited about the coming year. We do ask that as you think of us that you give a prayer for more students this year. Last year saw the transfer of families that made up about 30% of our student body. We do have some new students, but overall, it has been a big change. We are thankful for each student we have, they are all very special to us - and you will start seeing pictures of them soon! School starts Monday!

Love to all

Quick update

As we prepare to go to Worship this morning, I thought that I would share a few words from our last week. Delynn and I spent our anniversary in the resort town of Baden-Baden. The architecture reminded us fondly of Paris - wrought iron balconies, flowers everywhere, cafés on the street, leisurely walks in green, fountained parks. It was a perfect celebration of 13 years.

We will provide more details and pictures but it may be delayed a few days as we get back into our work routines. One reality about life here is that it takes longer to accomplish the common everyday tasks of living. We are grateful for that but it takes time to organize. Today also, we are meeting up with friends to go to a traditional Swiss festival. Apparently, the highlight of the festival is to watch burly swiss farmers throw each other around a dirt ring wearing the equivalent of a sumo get-up over their clothes. Should be interesting... Those Swiss! We will be sure to post pictures of that too.

Love to all!