First week of school

We've now finished two weeks of school. I'm a little behind because we've had wonderful friends from Finland visiting us this past week, but I want to back up and talk about the first week of school.

I was surprised at how nervous Haley was on the first day. I had expected her to go confidently and excitedly to school, since it's now a familiar place and there would be a lot of familiar faces. But instead she was shy and nervous. Carter was his normal enigmatic self, hard to read.

At BIS (Berlin International School) the kids learn their teacher assignments on the first day of school and not before. We weren't sure how this was going to work, but when we arrived there was a small crowd gathered around a large display board in front of the school. On the board were posted class lists. It was kind of an exciting moment as we approach the board and looked for Carter and Haley's names on the lists. We found them pretty quickly. Carter got his ideal teacher assignment–this year he has for a homeroom teacher the man who taught him math last year. Carter really liked this guy a lot and was pretty excited to be in his class. He scanned the other kids in the class and was excited that none of the kids he considers his "top enemies" were in the class with him. Haley has a teacher who is new to the school this year. She recognized a couple of the names of fellow classmates but was disappointed that the new girl, Louisa, from our buddy family who we met on the playground the week before school, wasn't in her class.

A lot of people asked me last year to write about the school and I never got around to it, so I'll write a little now. The kids go to the Berlin International School, which is a private school using the IB curriculum. In the primary school they use the IB Primary Years Program. This basically means that the year is broken up into what they call units of inquiry. They study a particular unit and all of their subjects revolve around that topic. So for example, last year Carter did a unit on architecture. They read about buildings and architecture, they designed their own structure, they went on a field trip to see buildings designed by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, one of Berlin's most famous architects, their math was related to shapes and volumes, etc. This style of learning has really suited both kids. It's a really interactive, creative, and flexible curriculum and the kids have really enjoyed school, although they wouldn't admit it. But I know it because they have never once said that school is boring or that they didn't want to go.

Demographically the school is around 40-50% German. Many German parents choose to send their kids here to get an English language immersion education. The remainder are kids from all over the world whose parents are living in Germany either permanently or temporarily. Many have one German parent and one parent from a different country. Many are embassy families. Many more are kids like ours, whose parent(s) took a one-two-or three-year assignment in Berlin. There are actually very few American kids, although there are lots of American teachers. The teachers are required to be native English speakers; Carter's teacher last year was Canadian, this year Scottish. Haley has had two American teachers.

They get to study the arts here more than they did back at home. In Missoula they only had one art teacher for what seemed like the whole school district and so the kids had art literally once or twice each semester. At BIS they have art twice a week, as well as music and gym. Library is once per week and they have a huge selection of books in English. Last year one of Carter's gym classes each week was devoted to dance, which he hated! It was kind of like a creative movement class and they did it all year long. This year one of Haleys gym periods will be devoted to swimming. In third grade the Germans all learn to swim. They have an official program with tests and badges that you can earn for different levels of swim competence.

The kids have a little more recess time here than they did in Missoula. They still have three breaks each day– morning, lunch, and afternoon–but the breaks are a little longer. They don't have the extensive playground equipment that we had at Colds Springs in Missoula. Instead it is mostly open space, but they provide equipment for the kids to play with: stilts, balls, scooters, etc.. There are also a few bars which is what Haley likes to play on. Some of the girls she is friends with can do lots of tricks on the bars and she has worked really hard to learn to do a pullover and a few other skills so she can keep up with the others. Probably the main attraction of the playground is the soccer cage–an enclosed space with goals on each side or the kids can play soccer during recess. Carter splits his time between the soccer cage and the stilts usually.

The last topic about the school is the cafeteria. One of the things that I appreciate the most about this school is that they provide lunch every day and it's included in the tuition; no more packed school lunches! Generally the kids like the food.  They always have pasta on Mondays, there's usually a soup day, sometimes a fish day. Sometimes they have something the kids think is awful and they refuse to eat it, but they always have bread and fruit so no one starves. A couple of times a year they have pancakes with strawberry sauce which gets rave reviews. In Germany lunch is still the hot meal for the day typically, so I guess it makes sense that they would serve a hot lunch at school. But it is SO nice not to have to pack a lunch every morning. However, the kids do have a snack break and are supposed to pack a snack each day. For many weeks I gave them a banana or a granola bar or something "snacky", until Haley told me one day that everyone else basically brings an entire lunch for a snack: a sandwich, fruit, vegetables, yogurt, etc. I went on a field trip with her class last year to the opera and saw firsthand what she was talking about: children had what I would consider a full lunch, complete with multiple food groups. That totally negates the freedom from lunch-packing! Haley doesn't require that much food each day, so I have so far avoided this double lunch. She still usually just brings a piece of fruit, or sometimes a small sandwich. Carter usually doesn't bring a snack because I make him pack it himself and he would rather go without than be bothered to make something. 

So back to the first day of school. When I picked the kids up, I have never seen Carter so excited about school. He went on and on about his day and Mr. Campbell and all the fun they had. He told me stories for the entire 2 busrides home. Haley had much less to say, which was good since Carter had monopolized the conversation. Haley's day was fine, and she was reserving judgement about her teacher. 

As for me, I did pretty well with my new structured week.

I got in my German lesson every day.

I tried out two new classes at the gym: spinning on Tuesday and "Deep Work" on Thursday. I really hate spinning- it's so hard and there's nothing to distract me from the pain. People love spinning, but I've tried it 3 or 4 times and always had the same experience. So I don't know that I'll do it again. Deep Work was good though. It's a tough class with intervals of cardio interspersed with body weight exercises. A definite full-body workout. So I may put that one on the rotation. And I ran with my Friday group for the first time since before the summer.

I managed a load of laundry each day.

I failed at blogging. :( Didn't get to write at all.

I made some progress on vacation planning. I finalized Tuscany, bought flights and booked our accommodation, one part in Florence and the other in Chianciano Terme.

I registered the kids for the Newspaper class they both want to take at school, and registered Carter for Friday soccer at school. I discovered an English-speaking stable and scheduled Haley for an introductory horseback lesson. I'm still working on after-school activities because we now have a conflict with piano lessons and Haley has decided she now wants to do gymnastics, plus I had forgotten about leaving time for cub scouts. So our schedule is still a work in progress.

Saturday we had an impromptu Berlin cultural experience. We had made plans to meet up with friends from scouting and church that we hadn't seen since before the summer break, and had hoped to do something outside, but the weather was threatening.

I have always loved impressionist painting.

Looking forward to visiting Giverny in October
and seeing where Manet painted this!

So they suggested that instead we go see a temporary exhibit at one of the museums on Museum Island that is only going to be in Berlin for a few more weeks. It's called ImEx, a joint display of Impressionist and Expressionist works. This isn't something I would normally have suggested as a family activity, but I had been wanting to see the exhibition too and I hoped that having other kids along would keep our kids more interested. It turns out that all 4 kids were pretty bored, but the adults enjoyed the exhibit! So we got a bonus "Berlin touring day" that wasn't part of our every-four-week-touring-day plan.

I had to have a picture of this bride in green in front of
the museum. According to National Geographic,
many Muslim brides wear green, which is a symbol
of prosperity and paradise in Islamic tradition.

Sunday was church followed by my first activity with the Berlin American Women's club. It was supposed to be a labor day picnic in a nice park with a lake near where we used to live in Charlottenburg. That park was the first place in Berlin that I actually thought was pretty; I remember how excited I was when I found it. But once again the weather was bad, so the event got moved indoors to a large cafe. The kids and I got there really early with time to kill since we came straight from church, so I was excited to see that there was a Sunday flea market right next to the cafe. We wandered around the different booths; some had household stuff like garage sale quality, some had homemade art and crafts, some had pretty glasswork like decanters and sets of glasses. We decided to buy a garage sale item, a 1000 piece puzzle that I told the kids should keep them occupied when they're bored! I would love to spend some time browsing around markets like those and pick up some interesting treasures.

The event itself started out sparsely attended and didn't look very promising, but gradually more and more people showed up. Because of the cafe setting we had fixed seating so it was hard to mingle, but I at least got to visit with the people around me. Dan met us there, because we were hoping that entire families would come and he could meet some husbands. For a while there was only one other man there, but eventually some others showed up and the men got a table together and had a good time chatting. Dan thought several of the men were interesting and had friend potential, so I definitely consider the event a success.

Afterwards we had the first installment of the Cripe Family Restaurant Experience. Haley had first pick and she chose Chinese cuisine. I did a little research and discovered a blog that talks about authentic Chinese food in Berlin. We decided to try one of their recommendations, Lon-Men's Noodle House on Kantßstrasse.

Not the greatest photo, but shows the yummy bowl of noodle
soup!

The blog told us to ask for chili wontons, which weren't on the menu. I felt like such an insider as I ordered this secret item and received a knowing nod from our waiter. These were without a doubt the best thing we ordered. This place is known for making their own homemade noodles, so I had a big bowl of beef noodle soup and Haley also ordered a noodle dish with pork. We had a lovely meal of excellent authentic food. I am so happy that my idea of methodical restaurant exploration is working so far! What a fun weekend of culture, socializing and yummy food.