Monday, December 15, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
Vigo's Lego Wishlist
Vigo's lego
wishlist
- toa gali
- toa onua
- krika
- bitil
- gorast.
- tanma
- photok
- solek
- gavla
- radiak
- kirop.
- axalara T9
- jetrax T9
- rokoh T9.
boxed sets:
- 50 years of lego
- big brickbox.
- creator:
- convertible
- monster dino
- flier-set
- city house.
- etx alien-transformer
- mx commandocentral
- mx-41 switch fighter
- mini robot
- alien jet
- mini spaceship.
- gas station
- street sweeper
- lego city port
- airport
- police station
- policeman
- chum bucket.
star wars:
- at-te walker
- hailfire droid&spider droid
- jedi starfigter with hyperdrive booster ring
- rebel scout speeder
- imperial landing craft.
- desert hopper
- ram rod
- mud hopper
- red ace
- ring of fire
- speed racer & snake oiler
- cruncher block & racer x
- racer x & taejo togokhan
- grand prix-race
- crosstown craze
- speed chasing
- adrift sport
- zx turbo
- ez-roadster
- midnight sreak
- desert hammer
WARNING!
THIS LIST WAS TRANSLATED FROM GERMAN I DID MY BEST TO TRNSLETE IT
THINGS MAY BE WRONG
Party Time
Lots of fun things have happened here in Berlin since I last updated you all. Vigo's front teeth are growing in nice and straight and he is growing out of his pants, at least lenthwise. I think his waistline has barely budged the past two years! Here's a picture where you can really see how long he's getting. The other person in the picture is Erik's sister Iris.
Lately Vigo is starting to become very interested in swords, catapaults, daggers, shields, armor, and other weapons. He's interested in what the differences are between a Ninja's sword and a medieval knight's sword, for example. A couple weeks ago I took him to check out our local Christmas market and he fell in love with a wooden battle axe there. He went back a week later and bought it with his allowance. He spent over half an hour at this stand studying all of the toy swords, maces, and crossbows.
Vigo has also been talking to me about wanting to visit Paris. He can't remember anything about Paris, but he always tells everyone that this is where he is from. In late November, we had three friends come from Paris for a short visit. It was fun having visitors. We all love when guests come. It also gave us a good excuse to throw our first party. We invited a few people from my German class, a few people with kids from Vigo's school, and a couple other friends we've met here. It ended up being a great party. There was even a little dancing.
One of Vigo's closest school friends, Leander, ended up staying the night. Vigo's first sleepover in Berlin! Leander's mother is French/German and his father is German, but somehow they speak English at home and Leander speaks fluently, though he tends to sound like he just stepped out of a Dickens novel. One of his gems that weekend was said to our friend Pascal, who is a light sleeper: "Are you very fierce if you're awoken?" Here's a picture of the boys in the morning.
The next weekend, Vigo got to have another sleepover. Another good friend of his, Rosa Pearl, stayed here with Vigo and a really great babysitter while Erik and I went out with Rosa Pearl's parents to hear them play at a bar in Kreuzberg. Their band does experimental folk music, a little on the noisy side. Their names are Brian and Maryrose, and they're from New Zealand. Here's a picture of Vigo and RP at dinner time.
Last weekend was a little bit less exciting for Vigo. He was going to go over to Rosa Pearl's for the night, but she got sick and had to cancel. We did manage to squeeze in a park date with his friend Edward on Saturday. Edward and Vigo have a little bit more complicated a relationship than the one he has with Leander or Rosa Pearl. Edward has some rigid ideas about what kinds of clothes are for boys, and they don't include soft pink socks or shirts with glittery monkeys on them. It's caused some conflict and hurt feelings, but it seems like the bond of scatalogical humor, fart jokes, and pointing out penises everywhere is strong enough to hold them together! At the park they spent most of the time walking and talking to each other a mile a minute with lots of laughing. Edward's little brother John Jack was also there and Vigo found him totally charming. Edward finds the little brother understandably less charming. He told me, "He's not my little brother. He's my nightmare."
On Sunday, Vigo and I spent the whole morning making tiny sugar cookie houses for an Advent Party contest. We had to make 15!
Iris's cousin Ingo was hosting the party and the contest. Vigo took the cookie judging very seriously. Unfortunately for us, I didn't realize that there were considerable points being offered for organic and healthy ingredients. If only I had known! There ws also an exchange of junk you want to get rid of around the house which involved rolling dice and trading over several turns. Vigo came home with a flying skull, Erik a Christmas-tree shaped light-up outdoor decoration, and I got a wok cookbook.
For Christmas we're all going to spend a few days with Iris in Dessau. I can't wait! We'll take lots of hikes and bike rides in the woods. Vigo is starting to wonder when ski season is going to start. We're going to have to look into that more soon. I have heard from other parents at the school that the nearest place to ski is 3-4 hours away, which is about how far we were going last year. That's good news!
Vigo has an extensive Christmas wishlist that he has typed out. I expect he'll post it here before Christmas. He also has a very cute new stop-action movie of his math homework doing itself, which is almost finished!
Lately Vigo is starting to become very interested in swords, catapaults, daggers, shields, armor, and other weapons. He's interested in what the differences are between a Ninja's sword and a medieval knight's sword, for example. A couple weeks ago I took him to check out our local Christmas market and he fell in love with a wooden battle axe there. He went back a week later and bought it with his allowance. He spent over half an hour at this stand studying all of the toy swords, maces, and crossbows.
Vigo has also been talking to me about wanting to visit Paris. He can't remember anything about Paris, but he always tells everyone that this is where he is from. In late November, we had three friends come from Paris for a short visit. It was fun having visitors. We all love when guests come. It also gave us a good excuse to throw our first party. We invited a few people from my German class, a few people with kids from Vigo's school, and a couple other friends we've met here. It ended up being a great party. There was even a little dancing.
One of Vigo's closest school friends, Leander, ended up staying the night. Vigo's first sleepover in Berlin! Leander's mother is French/German and his father is German, but somehow they speak English at home and Leander speaks fluently, though he tends to sound like he just stepped out of a Dickens novel. One of his gems that weekend was said to our friend Pascal, who is a light sleeper: "Are you very fierce if you're awoken?" Here's a picture of the boys in the morning.
The next weekend, Vigo got to have another sleepover. Another good friend of his, Rosa Pearl, stayed here with Vigo and a really great babysitter while Erik and I went out with Rosa Pearl's parents to hear them play at a bar in Kreuzberg. Their band does experimental folk music, a little on the noisy side. Their names are Brian and Maryrose, and they're from New Zealand. Here's a picture of Vigo and RP at dinner time.
Last weekend was a little bit less exciting for Vigo. He was going to go over to Rosa Pearl's for the night, but she got sick and had to cancel. We did manage to squeeze in a park date with his friend Edward on Saturday. Edward and Vigo have a little bit more complicated a relationship than the one he has with Leander or Rosa Pearl. Edward has some rigid ideas about what kinds of clothes are for boys, and they don't include soft pink socks or shirts with glittery monkeys on them. It's caused some conflict and hurt feelings, but it seems like the bond of scatalogical humor, fart jokes, and pointing out penises everywhere is strong enough to hold them together! At the park they spent most of the time walking and talking to each other a mile a minute with lots of laughing. Edward's little brother John Jack was also there and Vigo found him totally charming. Edward finds the little brother understandably less charming. He told me, "He's not my little brother. He's my nightmare."
On Sunday, Vigo and I spent the whole morning making tiny sugar cookie houses for an Advent Party contest. We had to make 15!
Iris's cousin Ingo was hosting the party and the contest. Vigo took the cookie judging very seriously. Unfortunately for us, I didn't realize that there were considerable points being offered for organic and healthy ingredients. If only I had known! There ws also an exchange of junk you want to get rid of around the house which involved rolling dice and trading over several turns. Vigo came home with a flying skull, Erik a Christmas-tree shaped light-up outdoor decoration, and I got a wok cookbook.
For Christmas we're all going to spend a few days with Iris in Dessau. I can't wait! We'll take lots of hikes and bike rides in the woods. Vigo is starting to wonder when ski season is going to start. We're going to have to look into that more soon. I have heard from other parents at the school that the nearest place to ski is 3-4 hours away, which is about how far we were going last year. That's good news!
Vigo has an extensive Christmas wishlist that he has typed out. I expect he'll post it here before Christmas. He also has a very cute new stop-action movie of his math homework doing itself, which is almost finished!
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Legoland, Election Night, Soap Bubbles, New Bike, Lost Teeth, and More
One of the most exciting things that has happened to Vigo in the past couple of weeks is that he lost his two front teeth. They were really dangling for a long time before they finally dropped. His nice big teeth are growing in now already.
A couple of weeks ago, Vigo and I took a Sunday excursion to Potsdamer Platz, to Legoland. This is sort of a deluxe indoor playground with a Lego theme.
They have a prety cool play area where you can build and test cars on a big ramp, build towers and test their structural integrity on an earthquake simulator, build elaborate houses, and so on.
They also have a little Miniland version of Berlin. This is a picture of the rock concert in front of the Miniland Reichstag.
We were at the Legoland place for a few hours. A nice 3-D movie is included in the fairly reasonable price of admission. For an indoor playground, it was fairly un-hell-like. The grown ups there didn't look like they were dying inside. A lot of us were playing legos. I personally spent a long time at the earthquake simulator trying to figure out why the 12-year-old next to me was able to build a gigantic indestructible tower while mine kept crumbling like shanty towns. Vigo, of course, was in heaven.
After a few hours we went out into the nighttime glory of Potsdamer Platz and the Sony Center, which is a really impressive building.
We were thinking about getting something to eat when we noticed that we were just in time to catch the beginning of Wall-E, which I hadn't seen yet. So we got some popcorn and popped into the multiplex before catching the bus home. I always enjoy going to the movies with Vigo. We should really do it more often.
On our way to the bus we noticed this exciting Tubing hill. Maybe we'll go back one day and try it out. Potsdamer Platz is also one of the places where you can still see parts of the Berlin Wall standing.
On election night, we took Vigo to the Democratic election party at the Babylon Theater, not far from our house. We brought along Vigo's sleeping bag and a pillow an found a good spot at the back of the theater, on the floor. The party started at about 9 and Vigo was asleep by about 10. Erik and I took turns hanging out with Vigo while the other one got to go mill around in the crown and talk to the people outside who hadn't been able to get tickets to get in. Because there are no open container laws here, if you have a party that overflows like this one did, you set up a little tent on the sidewalk and sell the overflow crowd beers. They had a big projection screen out there and a pretty nice, mild night.
We woke Vigo up at about 6 to hear the victory speech and then we biked home and had breakfast. I went to the school daycare at 8 am as usual to help supervise the kids, even though I hadn't slept yet. After that Erik went out for some breakfast before a nap. Vigo wasn't too tired Wednesday during the day, but he fell asleep pretty early that night.
Another great event since the last post is that we bought a sofa-bed. Renting a truck to go out and get the bed was a little bit of an adventure all in itself, but Erik pulled it off thanks to finding his French driver's license. Erik and I are not sleeping on the floor anymore, so my mood has greatly improved. Vigo is still in his camping gear, but he isn't complaining. He wants to design and build his own bed/rocket when we finally get into our permanent apartment. Here are a couple pictures of our living space.
Erik and Vigo used some of the packaging materials from the couch to do a little Saturday art project.
Last week, on Tuesday night, we went to an art opening that one of the other parents at Vigo's school was involved in. They were doing a video project with this soap-bubble artists they had met at a cabaret show called, "Soap." The kids were all mesmerized and we had a great time.
A lot of Vigo's classmates turned up for the opening and Erik took some of the kids to a little park around the corner for a little while. Unfortunately, Vigo's bike, which had a joint in the center of the frame, and springs, came apart at that joint while he was at the little park. Erik tried to strap Vigo's bike to his own to get it home, but the weight of Vigo's bike made the frame of Erik's bike twist in an nasty way and he ended up with his derailer in the spokes of his back tire. We ended up attaching the two bikes to a post. The boys took the train home and I met them on my bike.
Erik tried to fix Vigo's bike unsuccessfully and last weekend we got him a new, better bike. It has a great light, and a back rack, and is less generally bouncy.
Vigo is still enjoying school a lot. He's also starting to speak some German and his German teacher says that he understands pretty much everything in class. He's been reluctant to write for a long time now, but he's also starting to get over that some. He's working on a story about a character called Squirmy Wormy. He's been typing it up on the computer and I imagine that he will post it to the blog when he's done with it. He's very interested in blogging and trying to figure out some things in html lately.
The sun is going down pretty early here--at about 4:30 in the afternoon. It's 2:30 now, so Erik and I are going to get a little walk in before it gets really dark!
A couple of weeks ago, Vigo and I took a Sunday excursion to Potsdamer Platz, to Legoland. This is sort of a deluxe indoor playground with a Lego theme.
They have a prety cool play area where you can build and test cars on a big ramp, build towers and test their structural integrity on an earthquake simulator, build elaborate houses, and so on.
They also have a little Miniland version of Berlin. This is a picture of the rock concert in front of the Miniland Reichstag.
We were at the Legoland place for a few hours. A nice 3-D movie is included in the fairly reasonable price of admission. For an indoor playground, it was fairly un-hell-like. The grown ups there didn't look like they were dying inside. A lot of us were playing legos. I personally spent a long time at the earthquake simulator trying to figure out why the 12-year-old next to me was able to build a gigantic indestructible tower while mine kept crumbling like shanty towns. Vigo, of course, was in heaven.
After a few hours we went out into the nighttime glory of Potsdamer Platz and the Sony Center, which is a really impressive building.
We were thinking about getting something to eat when we noticed that we were just in time to catch the beginning of Wall-E, which I hadn't seen yet. So we got some popcorn and popped into the multiplex before catching the bus home. I always enjoy going to the movies with Vigo. We should really do it more often.
On our way to the bus we noticed this exciting Tubing hill. Maybe we'll go back one day and try it out. Potsdamer Platz is also one of the places where you can still see parts of the Berlin Wall standing.
On election night, we took Vigo to the Democratic election party at the Babylon Theater, not far from our house. We brought along Vigo's sleeping bag and a pillow an found a good spot at the back of the theater, on the floor. The party started at about 9 and Vigo was asleep by about 10. Erik and I took turns hanging out with Vigo while the other one got to go mill around in the crown and talk to the people outside who hadn't been able to get tickets to get in. Because there are no open container laws here, if you have a party that overflows like this one did, you set up a little tent on the sidewalk and sell the overflow crowd beers. They had a big projection screen out there and a pretty nice, mild night.
We woke Vigo up at about 6 to hear the victory speech and then we biked home and had breakfast. I went to the school daycare at 8 am as usual to help supervise the kids, even though I hadn't slept yet. After that Erik went out for some breakfast before a nap. Vigo wasn't too tired Wednesday during the day, but he fell asleep pretty early that night.
Another great event since the last post is that we bought a sofa-bed. Renting a truck to go out and get the bed was a little bit of an adventure all in itself, but Erik pulled it off thanks to finding his French driver's license. Erik and I are not sleeping on the floor anymore, so my mood has greatly improved. Vigo is still in his camping gear, but he isn't complaining. He wants to design and build his own bed/rocket when we finally get into our permanent apartment. Here are a couple pictures of our living space.
Erik and Vigo used some of the packaging materials from the couch to do a little Saturday art project.
Last week, on Tuesday night, we went to an art opening that one of the other parents at Vigo's school was involved in. They were doing a video project with this soap-bubble artists they had met at a cabaret show called, "Soap." The kids were all mesmerized and we had a great time.
A lot of Vigo's classmates turned up for the opening and Erik took some of the kids to a little park around the corner for a little while. Unfortunately, Vigo's bike, which had a joint in the center of the frame, and springs, came apart at that joint while he was at the little park. Erik tried to strap Vigo's bike to his own to get it home, but the weight of Vigo's bike made the frame of Erik's bike twist in an nasty way and he ended up with his derailer in the spokes of his back tire. We ended up attaching the two bikes to a post. The boys took the train home and I met them on my bike.
Erik tried to fix Vigo's bike unsuccessfully and last weekend we got him a new, better bike. It has a great light, and a back rack, and is less generally bouncy.
Vigo is still enjoying school a lot. He's also starting to speak some German and his German teacher says that he understands pretty much everything in class. He's been reluctant to write for a long time now, but he's also starting to get over that some. He's working on a story about a character called Squirmy Wormy. He's been typing it up on the computer and I imagine that he will post it to the blog when he's done with it. He's very interested in blogging and trying to figure out some things in html lately.
The sun is going down pretty early here--at about 4:30 in the afternoon. It's 2:30 now, so Erik and I are going to get a little walk in before it gets really dark!
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Little Ninja
Vigo had the great idea of being a gummi bear for Halloween and Erik got pretty excited about making the costume, but then somewhere later in the week, Vigo changed his mind and decided to be a ninja instead.
Erik decided to make the gummi bear costume grown-up size and the three of us went to a Kid Halloween party at my friend Natalia's house. She's from Brazil and is in my German class with me. She has a son who is 9. I was a boring old witch.
Vigo was a little bit shy at first because he doesn't really speak German yet, but eventually he started playing with the other kids and didn't want to leave. I went home at about 10 so I could have a nap before going out dancing with some of my other other classmates. Erik and Vigo got home at about midnight.
Vigo's two weeks of school vacation end this weekend, so Monday morning is back to the old routine. Vigo has been doing a lot of work on stop-action animation with Legos. He's editing one of his videos on the couch next to me right now. Look for something here from him soon!
Erik decided to make the gummi bear costume grown-up size and the three of us went to a Kid Halloween party at my friend Natalia's house. She's from Brazil and is in my German class with me. She has a son who is 9. I was a boring old witch.
Vigo was a little bit shy at first because he doesn't really speak German yet, but eventually he started playing with the other kids and didn't want to leave. I went home at about 10 so I could have a nap before going out dancing with some of my other other classmates. Erik and Vigo got home at about midnight.
Vigo's two weeks of school vacation end this weekend, so Monday morning is back to the old routine. Vigo has been doing a lot of work on stop-action animation with Legos. He's editing one of his videos on the couch next to me right now. Look for something here from him soon!
Thursday, October 30, 2008
ninja kiwi
this is a really awsome, doesen't work all the time,website called nija kiwi.
if it doesent work click here.
if it doesent work click here.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
October
I have really let a lot of time go by since my last update. I lost my weekly rhythm when we took a trip to Dessau to stay with Iris. We had so much fun that I mostly forgot to take pictures. We brought our bikes and Sam with us on the train. Iris took us around Dessau and through the woods. We managed to scrounge a few chestnuts at the park and then Iris took us to a long road lined with apple trees. I hoisted Vigo up into the trees and he shook branches and picked the prettiest apples for us. Delicious apples! At one place along the road, there were a bunch of sheep who were extremely interested in what we were doing. Dan happened to be playing Parsifal with the opera in Dessau the night we were there, so Erik got the great treat of a free show.
Here we are at the train station. Our first train trip since we got to Europe.
While we were there we got to meet one of Iris's good friends and we borrowed a game called Carcassonne: Die Burg which we've been loving. I recommend it to anyone. In English it's called "Carcassonne: The Castle."
The next weekend was the Berlin Kids International School Open House. Erik volunteered to help people sign up for the mailing list in the office, Vigo was offering guided tours of the school, and I had volunteered to be the grillmeisterin with another parent. We had such a hard time getting our stupid coals lighted! It took five people over an hour to finally get the coals lighted, but in the end we succeeded and managed to feed the hordes of hungry people.
We've been going out pretty regularly to art gallery openings, which all of us really enjoy. Vigo's favorite piece at the last outing was a video made by drilling a hole in a crate and installing a camera in there to film the shipping. It had a great sneaky spy feel to it.
Vigo is on his first school vacation right now. It started a week ago. He was sick again for the last two days before vacation, but he's doing fine now. He's been able to catch up on all the math homework he got behind on while he was out. The parents voted to amend the no-homework policy to have kids bring home over weekends any math work they didn't finish in school. The teacher says the kids should be able to finish the work at school, but if they don't, then they'll bring it home for the weekend. He also has his weekly book report to do. He's been getting a lot better at writing, which was a real hang up for him for a long time.
Vigo has been enjoying hanging out at home during his vacation. He's been reading and doing some stop-action lego movie experiments. I think there should be a finished film to watch within the next week. Right now he's reading The Golden Compass. He just started it last night. He just finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and The Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl and really loved them. He and I read The Hobbit together over the past few weeks, too. Vigo says that The Hobbit is the best book he's ever read so far.
Vigo lost one of his top front teeth last week and the other one is barely hanging on. He looks like a Jack O'Lantern.
School is still going pretty well for Vigo, but he is having some trouble with his friend Edward and told me that he and Edward have not been playing together so much anymore. The problem with Edward is that he's got a pretty narrow and rigid idea of what kinds of colors, clothes, shoes, socks, ideas, and activities are for boys and which ones are for girls. Edward has been teasing Vigo for wearing fuzzy socks, having yellow shoes, liking books that have girls as main characters, and so on and so on. Generally the kids at this school are more rigid in their ideas of who can wear what than at Vigo's old school in Somerville. I think also the Somerville kids knew Vigo for years and were used to his occasional dash of pink.
The new pressure to conform is cramping his style a little bit, but Vigo's settled into a compromise of wearing his sparkliest duds on weekends. His current favorite shirt is shiny black with a glimmering light-reflecting dragon across the front. Vigo's not giving himself completely over to the navy-blue-and-khaki pressure, though. We went to the thrift store for some winter clothes and he completely rejected all of the adorable dark blue sweaters I suggested he try on, saying, "Dark colors are not my thing. I like bright colors only."
Here we are at the train station. Our first train trip since we got to Europe.
While we were there we got to meet one of Iris's good friends and we borrowed a game called Carcassonne: Die Burg which we've been loving. I recommend it to anyone. In English it's called "Carcassonne: The Castle."
The next weekend was the Berlin Kids International School Open House. Erik volunteered to help people sign up for the mailing list in the office, Vigo was offering guided tours of the school, and I had volunteered to be the grillmeisterin with another parent. We had such a hard time getting our stupid coals lighted! It took five people over an hour to finally get the coals lighted, but in the end we succeeded and managed to feed the hordes of hungry people.
We've been going out pretty regularly to art gallery openings, which all of us really enjoy. Vigo's favorite piece at the last outing was a video made by drilling a hole in a crate and installing a camera in there to film the shipping. It had a great sneaky spy feel to it.
Vigo is on his first school vacation right now. It started a week ago. He was sick again for the last two days before vacation, but he's doing fine now. He's been able to catch up on all the math homework he got behind on while he was out. The parents voted to amend the no-homework policy to have kids bring home over weekends any math work they didn't finish in school. The teacher says the kids should be able to finish the work at school, but if they don't, then they'll bring it home for the weekend. He also has his weekly book report to do. He's been getting a lot better at writing, which was a real hang up for him for a long time.
Vigo has been enjoying hanging out at home during his vacation. He's been reading and doing some stop-action lego movie experiments. I think there should be a finished film to watch within the next week. Right now he's reading The Golden Compass. He just started it last night. He just finished reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Charlie and The Great Glass Elevator by Roald Dahl and really loved them. He and I read The Hobbit together over the past few weeks, too. Vigo says that The Hobbit is the best book he's ever read so far.
Vigo lost one of his top front teeth last week and the other one is barely hanging on. He looks like a Jack O'Lantern.
School is still going pretty well for Vigo, but he is having some trouble with his friend Edward and told me that he and Edward have not been playing together so much anymore. The problem with Edward is that he's got a pretty narrow and rigid idea of what kinds of colors, clothes, shoes, socks, ideas, and activities are for boys and which ones are for girls. Edward has been teasing Vigo for wearing fuzzy socks, having yellow shoes, liking books that have girls as main characters, and so on and so on. Generally the kids at this school are more rigid in their ideas of who can wear what than at Vigo's old school in Somerville. I think also the Somerville kids knew Vigo for years and were used to his occasional dash of pink.
The new pressure to conform is cramping his style a little bit, but Vigo's settled into a compromise of wearing his sparkliest duds on weekends. His current favorite shirt is shiny black with a glimmering light-reflecting dragon across the front. Vigo's not giving himself completely over to the navy-blue-and-khaki pressure, though. We went to the thrift store for some winter clothes and he completely rejected all of the adorable dark blue sweaters I suggested he try on, saying, "Dark colors are not my thing. I like bright colors only."
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Monday, September 29, 2008
Long Week!
We had a bit of a hard week this week. We started up by getting up at 5:30 AM on Monday morning to got the the Auslandersbehorde to try to get our residency papers sorted out. You see, there is a strike. Consequently, the next appointment is two months from now. BUT, if you come at 6 AM and get in line, you can also be seen without an appointment. Unfortunately, we did not have all the papers we needed, so we had to come back.
We were planning to go back the very next day, but Vigo woke up at 2:30 in the morning screaming in pain from an ear ache. We took him to a doctor on Tuesday morning. She immediately signed him out of school for a week and put him on antibiotics. We ignored the school note after Wednesday. He was already feeling much better, and was definitely fine to go to school. We took him back in today for a follow up and his ears are still a little clogged. This has been affecting his bike riding because his balance is off and has caused him to shout and say, "What? What?" a lot more often than normal. The doctor today gave him an interesting therapeutic tool. It's a little bulb with a balloon on it. He's supposed to inflate the balloon with his nostril (first one and then the other) several times a day to help force the fluid that is blocking his ears out.
So Vigo spent Tuesday and Wednesday home from school.
We went back again to try to get our papers early this morning, but we were told that they aren't seeing anyone who doesn't have an appointment today. Ugh!
We had a pretty nice weekend, mostly roaming around town on our bikes. The latest pictures are all on Flickr.
We were planning to go back the very next day, but Vigo woke up at 2:30 in the morning screaming in pain from an ear ache. We took him to a doctor on Tuesday morning. She immediately signed him out of school for a week and put him on antibiotics. We ignored the school note after Wednesday. He was already feeling much better, and was definitely fine to go to school. We took him back in today for a follow up and his ears are still a little clogged. This has been affecting his bike riding because his balance is off and has caused him to shout and say, "What? What?" a lot more often than normal. The doctor today gave him an interesting therapeutic tool. It's a little bulb with a balloon on it. He's supposed to inflate the balloon with his nostril (first one and then the other) several times a day to help force the fluid that is blocking his ears out.
So Vigo spent Tuesday and Wednesday home from school.
We went back again to try to get our papers early this morning, but we were told that they aren't seeing anyone who doesn't have an appointment today. Ugh!
We had a pretty nice weekend, mostly roaming around town on our bikes. The latest pictures are all on Flickr.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Week Three
Vigo had a fairly uneventful week at school. The real work is starting and he's not having quite as much fun anymore, but he still doesn't want to leave the place in the afternoons. Vigo has a friend at school called Eduard, but he was feeling a little homesick this week. He'd like to do some video chatting with some of his old friends. Eduard is the 3rd grader who is partnered with Vigo to mentor him as an older, more experienced member of the school in the way Vigo was partnered with India last week. The kids really take this mentoring stuff seriously. Vigo was also a little sick last weekend and had to skip the pool on Monday. He has a lingering little sniffle still.
One big thing this week was getting Vigo a fountain pen. He wasn't required to have one, but most of the other kids use them and he wants to do things the right way! Vigo and Erik went to the paper store together and chose a really well-designed Pelican brand pen. It has a smiley face on top to indicate that you're holding the pen right-side-up and it's indented for small fingers, to promote proper holding. Vigo told me Saturday that he almost doesn't make any mistakes at all with his new fountain pen. He used his pen to write his first fiction reading report. He has to write a report every week about a book that he gets from the school library. He picked a thick fantasy book but he didn't end up reading that because he was tearing through the remaining Secrets of Droon books we bought him before leaving the US. He read 400 (illustrated) pages of this stuff last week and now he doesn't have any more Droon left. He wants to get the rest of the series, read them, and then re-read all of the books again, in order this time. This week he brought back a book about volcanoes and earthquakes. It's not fiction, but we're going to run with it. He's been enjoying it a lot.
We got Vigo's bike fixed by Job at Culture Road and he's been riding to and from school every day. He really loves that bike!
Dan spent the week with us and said that Vigo seems really happy. Dan might be able to teach Vigo to play the trumpet, though Vigo also seems to be warming up to trying out a woodwind instrument. Iris spent a night with us over the weekend. We are so glad to have those guys around to hang out with!
Friday after school we went to some kind of family festival at the park. Erik looked at all the listings and organized a really great Friday night outing for us. They had a lot of games at the little family festival, like tug of war, a sack race, and a giant balloon that the crowd kept aloft for about 12 minutes! Erik and Vigo had a great time, but I ended up leaving with Sam because of her terrible fear of balloon animals. The sound of squeaking balloons just makes her quake.
After that, we went on our first big family bike ride to attend a couple art openings. Even Sam came trotting along with us!
Vigo really loved the work of Miao Xiaochun at the second gallery we went to. He asked a lot of questions about the pictures and videos and looked at the catalogs of the artists' other work. The next day I showed him some Bosch, Bruegel, Muybridge and Duchamp on the internet because all of those artists were heavily referenced in the stuff we'd seen.
Vigo is starting to experiment with an English accent. Most of the kids at his school speak English with some form or another of UK accent, so it's not surprising that he's picking it up a little bit. Of course the accent he's going to probably end up with after a year here will be some kind of Irish/English/Welsh/Norwegian/Icelandic/German English accent. I asked him yesterday if he was going to start talking with an English accent and he replied, "No . . .Well, to tell the truth, sometimes. Because my nose is a little bit stuffy."
Today (Sunday) Vigo and I went just the two of us to the park. The Volkspark Friedrichshain is huge and there's still a lot of it that we haven't explored. I took Vigo to try out the climbing wall. After that, we went to the cafe inside the park and got something to drink on the terrace. Vigo finished reading his Encyclopedia Brown book and I did my German class homework. It's getting a little chilly here, but if you find a spot in the sun--when there is sun--it's still pretty nice outside.
Tomorrow we all have to get up extremely early to go to the place where we can get our residency papers sorted out. We have to be there at 6:30 in the morning. It turns out the people who handle paperwork for foreigners are on strike, so we can't get an appointment for two months. We can't really wait two months for our paperwork. They told us if we come first thing in the morning one day, they can process us.
One big thing this week was getting Vigo a fountain pen. He wasn't required to have one, but most of the other kids use them and he wants to do things the right way! Vigo and Erik went to the paper store together and chose a really well-designed Pelican brand pen. It has a smiley face on top to indicate that you're holding the pen right-side-up and it's indented for small fingers, to promote proper holding. Vigo told me Saturday that he almost doesn't make any mistakes at all with his new fountain pen. He used his pen to write his first fiction reading report. He has to write a report every week about a book that he gets from the school library. He picked a thick fantasy book but he didn't end up reading that because he was tearing through the remaining Secrets of Droon books we bought him before leaving the US. He read 400 (illustrated) pages of this stuff last week and now he doesn't have any more Droon left. He wants to get the rest of the series, read them, and then re-read all of the books again, in order this time. This week he brought back a book about volcanoes and earthquakes. It's not fiction, but we're going to run with it. He's been enjoying it a lot.
We got Vigo's bike fixed by Job at Culture Road and he's been riding to and from school every day. He really loves that bike!
Dan spent the week with us and said that Vigo seems really happy. Dan might be able to teach Vigo to play the trumpet, though Vigo also seems to be warming up to trying out a woodwind instrument. Iris spent a night with us over the weekend. We are so glad to have those guys around to hang out with!
Friday after school we went to some kind of family festival at the park. Erik looked at all the listings and organized a really great Friday night outing for us. They had a lot of games at the little family festival, like tug of war, a sack race, and a giant balloon that the crowd kept aloft for about 12 minutes! Erik and Vigo had a great time, but I ended up leaving with Sam because of her terrible fear of balloon animals. The sound of squeaking balloons just makes her quake.
After that, we went on our first big family bike ride to attend a couple art openings. Even Sam came trotting along with us!
Vigo really loved the work of Miao Xiaochun at the second gallery we went to. He asked a lot of questions about the pictures and videos and looked at the catalogs of the artists' other work. The next day I showed him some Bosch, Bruegel, Muybridge and Duchamp on the internet because all of those artists were heavily referenced in the stuff we'd seen.
Vigo is starting to experiment with an English accent. Most of the kids at his school speak English with some form or another of UK accent, so it's not surprising that he's picking it up a little bit. Of course the accent he's going to probably end up with after a year here will be some kind of Irish/English/Welsh/Norwegian/Icelandic/German English accent. I asked him yesterday if he was going to start talking with an English accent and he replied, "No . . .Well, to tell the truth, sometimes. Because my nose is a little bit stuffy."
Today (Sunday) Vigo and I went just the two of us to the park. The Volkspark Friedrichshain is huge and there's still a lot of it that we haven't explored. I took Vigo to try out the climbing wall. After that, we went to the cafe inside the park and got something to drink on the terrace. Vigo finished reading his Encyclopedia Brown book and I did my German class homework. It's getting a little chilly here, but if you find a spot in the sun--when there is sun--it's still pretty nice outside.
Tomorrow we all have to get up extremely early to go to the place where we can get our residency papers sorted out. We have to be there at 6:30 in the morning. It turns out the people who handle paperwork for foreigners are on strike, so we can't get an appointment for two months. We can't really wait two months for our paperwork. They told us if we come first thing in the morning one day, they can process us.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Week Two in Berlin
Week two in Berlin, and we are starting to settle into our groove. Vigo loves Berlin and says that the days seem short here.
On Saturday afternoon last week, we all went to school for the big ceremony to welcome the new first graders to school. In Germany, this tradition is a really big deal. Kids on their first day of school are given these enormous cones filled to the brim with toys and candy. Vigo's school is not a typical German school and the school tried to convince the parents to fill the Shuletutte with school supplies instead of candy. Apparently this suggestion was met with utter outrage. The compromise was that the Shuletutte wouldn't be brought into the classrooms. The kids could hold them for pictures in front of the school and then take them home to open them. These things were really impressive. Vigo was wishing he was a first grader.
Erik went to school early to help set stuff up. When we got there, he and a couple other fathers were attaching balloons to little chairs. Vigo had to get there a little bit early, too, to rehearse. All the older kids had a little welcoming message to say together. I'm glad to report that Vigo did a great job of standing still with his hands by his sides for the whole ceremony. He was in the front row and he was a little bit nervous. He came out, looked for us, and when he saw us he got that proud happy look a kid gets when performing in front of his parents. The school has a mentoring system where older kids are partnered with younger ones. Vigo's older partner is Eduard and Vigo in turn is the partner of a first grader named India. He takes his role very seriously. On this day, he had to take India by the hand to lead her to her first lesson in the first-grade room.
Our first visitor came fromparis on Saturday afternoon. Christophe came to help us celebrate Erik's birthday. Erik's sister Iris and her partner Dan also came, as well as Iris's cousin Ingo. We all went out to eat at the Thai restaurant that's on the ground floor of our building. Thai is Vigo's favorite kind of restaurant, so he is pretty happy to have this place so close.
On Sunday, we went to the Kids' Day at a place called the Kulturbrauerei. This is an old factory that's been converted into concert spaces, bars, theaters, and cinemas. For the event, they had a little flea market where kids and moms were selling their old toys and clothes, a fun demonstration by the junior firefighters, a rotating rock-climbing disk, and a bunch of rather noisy inflatable rides.
At the little flea market, we bought Vigo a mountain bike. It needs a little bit of work, but he did ride it to school a few times this week. Luckily, we also discovered a great bike shop and de facto cultural center right up our street. It's run by a guy from Ethiopia called Job. He fixes bikes and rents bikes out cheaply. He also has a little bar, a piano, and some turntables. Vigo was in love with this place and told us he might want to be a bike mechanic when he grows up. Vigo has an appointment today at about three to go to the bike shop and help Job fix his bike up. Unfortunately Vigo has come down with a cold ad he might not be able to go spread his germs around the bike shop. We'll have to see how it looks this afternoon.
Yesterday the school had a couple hours where parents could come in to see some musical demonstrations by the association that teaches music lessons in Vigo's school. It's called Tomatenklang and it's located right around the corner from us. I saw the woodwind demonstration and it was really great. Vigo's great desire is to play a large brass instrument, and he is happy to start with the trumpet. Unfortunately, Tomatenklang wasn't offering trumpet. The guy who organizes the teachers is going to see if he can convince the percussion teacher, who also plays trumpet, to teach Vigo to play. If not, Vigo is also interested in the clarinet or the saxaphone. Interestingly, Vigo is very attracted to large, low instruments. The reason he would go for the clarinette is that he loved the bass clarinette that was demonstrated by Tomatenklang, but he is still too small to handle a big bass clarinette. The reason he wants to play the trumpet is because he really fell in love with the tuba at last year's Honk festival, but he's still too small to play the tuba.
Iris was in town for a couple nights for a conference and we got to hang out with her again a little bit. We're looking forward to going out to Dessau one weekend soon.
Erik made a great discovery yesterday. There's a boarding shop around the corner from us that organizes bus trips every weekend during the winter to a little mountain about 4 and a half hours away. Skiing is really Vigo's favorite thing in the world, and I was a little sad that he might be disappointed if we couldn't find anyplace for him to keep learning this winter.
Vigo has unfortunately come down with a cold now. He was coughing all night. We're going to take it kind of easy this weekend so he can rest up and be better (hopefully) to go to school on Monday
On Saturday afternoon last week, we all went to school for the big ceremony to welcome the new first graders to school. In Germany, this tradition is a really big deal. Kids on their first day of school are given these enormous cones filled to the brim with toys and candy. Vigo's school is not a typical German school and the school tried to convince the parents to fill the Shuletutte with school supplies instead of candy. Apparently this suggestion was met with utter outrage. The compromise was that the Shuletutte wouldn't be brought into the classrooms. The kids could hold them for pictures in front of the school and then take them home to open them. These things were really impressive. Vigo was wishing he was a first grader.
Erik went to school early to help set stuff up. When we got there, he and a couple other fathers were attaching balloons to little chairs. Vigo had to get there a little bit early, too, to rehearse. All the older kids had a little welcoming message to say together. I'm glad to report that Vigo did a great job of standing still with his hands by his sides for the whole ceremony. He was in the front row and he was a little bit nervous. He came out, looked for us, and when he saw us he got that proud happy look a kid gets when performing in front of his parents. The school has a mentoring system where older kids are partnered with younger ones. Vigo's older partner is Eduard and Vigo in turn is the partner of a first grader named India. He takes his role very seriously. On this day, he had to take India by the hand to lead her to her first lesson in the first-grade room.
Our first visitor came fromparis on Saturday afternoon. Christophe came to help us celebrate Erik's birthday. Erik's sister Iris and her partner Dan also came, as well as Iris's cousin Ingo. We all went out to eat at the Thai restaurant that's on the ground floor of our building. Thai is Vigo's favorite kind of restaurant, so he is pretty happy to have this place so close.
On Sunday, we went to the Kids' Day at a place called the Kulturbrauerei. This is an old factory that's been converted into concert spaces, bars, theaters, and cinemas. For the event, they had a little flea market where kids and moms were selling their old toys and clothes, a fun demonstration by the junior firefighters, a rotating rock-climbing disk, and a bunch of rather noisy inflatable rides.
At the little flea market, we bought Vigo a mountain bike. It needs a little bit of work, but he did ride it to school a few times this week. Luckily, we also discovered a great bike shop and de facto cultural center right up our street. It's run by a guy from Ethiopia called Job. He fixes bikes and rents bikes out cheaply. He also has a little bar, a piano, and some turntables. Vigo was in love with this place and told us he might want to be a bike mechanic when he grows up. Vigo has an appointment today at about three to go to the bike shop and help Job fix his bike up. Unfortunately Vigo has come down with a cold ad he might not be able to go spread his germs around the bike shop. We'll have to see how it looks this afternoon.
Yesterday the school had a couple hours where parents could come in to see some musical demonstrations by the association that teaches music lessons in Vigo's school. It's called Tomatenklang and it's located right around the corner from us. I saw the woodwind demonstration and it was really great. Vigo's great desire is to play a large brass instrument, and he is happy to start with the trumpet. Unfortunately, Tomatenklang wasn't offering trumpet. The guy who organizes the teachers is going to see if he can convince the percussion teacher, who also plays trumpet, to teach Vigo to play. If not, Vigo is also interested in the clarinet or the saxaphone. Interestingly, Vigo is very attracted to large, low instruments. The reason he would go for the clarinette is that he loved the bass clarinette that was demonstrated by Tomatenklang, but he is still too small to handle a big bass clarinette. The reason he wants to play the trumpet is because he really fell in love with the tuba at last year's Honk festival, but he's still too small to play the tuba.
Iris was in town for a couple nights for a conference and we got to hang out with her again a little bit. We're looking forward to going out to Dessau one weekend soon.
Erik made a great discovery yesterday. There's a boarding shop around the corner from us that organizes bus trips every weekend during the winter to a little mountain about 4 and a half hours away. Skiing is really Vigo's favorite thing in the world, and I was a little sad that he might be disappointed if we couldn't find anyplace for him to keep learning this winter.
Vigo has unfortunately come down with a cold now. He was coughing all night. We're going to take it kind of easy this weekend so he can rest up and be better (hopefully) to go to school on Monday
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Week One in Berlin
Our life in Berlin is going smoothly. We still have a lot of paperwork to deal with, but we are doing a good job of keeping on top of it all. And by "we" I mean "Erik" because my German is terrible. Especially my bureaucratic German. Vigo's life has been filled mostly with school this week. He managed to dodge the jet-lag bullet for the most part and made it to school at 8:30 am our second day in the country (8:30 am here is 2:30 am in Boston).
On our first day in town, Tuesday, Vigo wanted to go and visit his new school. He understandably was a little anxious to see the place where he's going to be spending most of his time. We showed up at a good time. All the kids were out in the yard, playing. The yard has several trees in it, all of which are open for climbing. One tree has a rope ladder and a tire swing hanging off it. There's also a cool playroom made of twigs, the classic favorite Pile O'Dirt, a bunch of boulders (one of which is shaped like a giant toad), a sandbox, and various ropes, straps, pieces of wood, and some old wheels some kids have built a cart onto. After about five minutes of hiding behind my legs, the teacher pointed out some older boys up a tree and Vigo ran off to join them. We let him stay about 10 minutes up the tree and then went home when the kids all went back into the classroom.
One of the best things about this school is that they spend a lot of time outside. All of the kids have recess three times a day. The playtime is considered as much a part of the learning as the classroom time. The children invent all kinds of elaborate scenarios and games together outside, without being directed by the teachers. Last year, we were told, the first graders started a little shop in the sand pile, selling and bartering stuff they found in the playground. At first the older kids managed to pretty much cheat the younger kids out of their good stuff, but quickly the youngsters got wise and began to run a harder bargain.
My favorite thing about the school is that there seems to be no homework. As I understand it, they believe that there should be a clear separation between school and home. Parents don't come in the classroom (parents are all over the school doing various work tasks--we all have to give six hours a month to the school, but not inside the classroom), and the classroom doesn't come home. Tuesday evening, Erik went to the parent information night and I stayed home to put Vigo to bed at the right time. He fell asleep on the couch reading a book at about 7:30.
Our second day in town was Vigo's first day of school. We got him there almost on time, at 8:30. We picked him up at 4:00 and he said to Erik, "you know, I think I'm already kind of used to this school." At home he complained that he was the only one in his whole school who doesn't understand German and after dinner he and I sat down with a picture dictionary and learned some words around the house. His favorite word was das Fenster (the window). Vigo told me that he thinks the school day is too short and asked if we could go earlier.
On our third day, we got to school on time for real. I put in a few hours making photocopies and binding booklets in the office while Erik went to do some administrative stuff. I saw Vigo in the hallway a couple times. I spoke to his Principle, who told me that Vigo was frustrated during the German part of the day because he doesn't understand German yet. The Principal asked me to try to help Vigo to not be so hard on himself. After all, he is not the only kid in school who doesn't speak German. I asked the Prinicipal to maybe introduce Vigo specifically to the other kids who don't speak German because one thing Vigo had told me the day before was that he was the only one who didn't understand everything. I also volunteered to fill a little gap in the morning daycare between 8:10 and 8:20 every day. This way Vigo can have his wish of coming to school a bit earlier.
Erik had mentioned that he was worried that we might be perceived as overly-commercial Americans because Vigo has Disney co-branded Crocs and a Star Wars Backpack. I figured that might be true, but didn't really care too much. When I picked Vigo up after school that day, I grabbed his bag and went looking for him in the school yard. He was up a tree again. While I was standing under the tree waiting for him to come down, Oliver said to me, in the cutest little-kid English accent ever, obviously very impressed, "Is that a Stah Wahs backpack?" He came over to get a closer look at the marvelous shiny Darth-Vader zip pocket and started a little conversation with me about his favorite characters.
Vigo, like us, is very interested in having the right things and doing things the right way at school. I sent a pencil box we had to school, trying to be frugal, and that evening Vigo explained to me that it was not an acceptable pencil box for German school. The German school pencil box zips open and has individual elastic loops to hold about 20 pencils and markers, a ruler, an eraser, and a pencil sharpener. We went to a to a tiny store with about twice the inventory of a Micheal's stuffed into it and it took Vigo 20 minutes to choose the right pencil box for himself.
On our fourth day, Friday, Vigo and I left home at 7:30 in the morning so we could have a nice, leisurely walk through the park to school. When we got there at 8, he went to the big kids room and I went in the little kids room, to greet the first graders as they arrive. The kids are adorable. When there were only three kids in the room I made an error in judgement of getting into exchanging paper-airplane-folding techniques with one little boy. Unfortunately, eight more kids arrived who were also very interested in folding paper airplanes. The folding part is a very nice, focused, calm activity. I even got the kids to decorate their planes. Unfortunately, I left just as the test flights began, leaving the daycare teacher with a chaotic situation on his hands. I apologized lamely on my way out the door.
We had been told that on Fridays we should arrive at 3:45 rather than 4:00, so that Vigo could show us his work for the week, in the classroom. This is pretty much the only time parents are allowed inside the classroom. Erik and I are even more eager than Vigo is to do everything right at the new school, so we rushed our grocery shopping to get to school in time. When we got there, all of the kids were outside. We spotted Vigo sitting around a tree stump with three little girls, pulverizing smaller rocks with larger ones. I went toward him and the first thing I said when he looked at me and I saw his face transform from happiness to crestfallenness was "You don't have to leave yet."
This being the first week of school, the teachers weren't organized for the weekly work-showing, so Erik and I waited outside until 4:00. After dinner we played a game where Erik and I wrote German nouns on cute little tags I had leftover from some project a long time ago. These are white paper tags with a loop of string attached. Vigo took the tags and strung or taped them on the objects they correspond to around the house.
When we got home, I said to Vigo, "I see you made some friends at school."
"No," he replied.
"But what about those girls you were playing with? Lioni and her sister?"
"Those aren't friends. I only was playing with them."
"Sure," I said, "Of course. It takes more than that to be a friend. What do you
think it takes to make a friend?"
Vigo thought for a minute and he replied, "About three days, I think."
The school is so far really great. Vigo's favorite class is pottery. In fact, he has discovered a real passion for clay and we got him a 6-Euro block of clay from the art supply store so that he can design and build a scale model of his future bedroom. Swimming lessons are a regular part of the curriculum, too. These begin on Monday. Another interesting detail about the school is that the kids are all
supposed to have slippers to wear inside the school. Many of the kids have Crocs for inside and tennis shoes for outside. We have to get Vigo his indoor shoes or slippers this weekend.
Saturday, our friend Christophe came to visit from Paris. Erik's sister Iris, her husband Dan, and her cousin Ingo all came over to (sort of) celebrate Erik's birthday. We went out for Thai food and had a good time. I brought Vigo home to go to bed at about 10 and everyone else went out in the rain.
Today, Sunday, we went to a cultural center built inside and old factory. They were having family day. We bought Vigo a mountain bike at a yard sale there. Erik and Vigo are at an adventure playground now, probably playing with fire. So far, after one week, we all like Berlin a lot.
On our first day in town, Tuesday, Vigo wanted to go and visit his new school. He understandably was a little anxious to see the place where he's going to be spending most of his time. We showed up at a good time. All the kids were out in the yard, playing. The yard has several trees in it, all of which are open for climbing. One tree has a rope ladder and a tire swing hanging off it. There's also a cool playroom made of twigs, the classic favorite Pile O'Dirt, a bunch of boulders (one of which is shaped like a giant toad), a sandbox, and various ropes, straps, pieces of wood, and some old wheels some kids have built a cart onto. After about five minutes of hiding behind my legs, the teacher pointed out some older boys up a tree and Vigo ran off to join them. We let him stay about 10 minutes up the tree and then went home when the kids all went back into the classroom.
One of the best things about this school is that they spend a lot of time outside. All of the kids have recess three times a day. The playtime is considered as much a part of the learning as the classroom time. The children invent all kinds of elaborate scenarios and games together outside, without being directed by the teachers. Last year, we were told, the first graders started a little shop in the sand pile, selling and bartering stuff they found in the playground. At first the older kids managed to pretty much cheat the younger kids out of their good stuff, but quickly the youngsters got wise and began to run a harder bargain.
My favorite thing about the school is that there seems to be no homework. As I understand it, they believe that there should be a clear separation between school and home. Parents don't come in the classroom (parents are all over the school doing various work tasks--we all have to give six hours a month to the school, but not inside the classroom), and the classroom doesn't come home. Tuesday evening, Erik went to the parent information night and I stayed home to put Vigo to bed at the right time. He fell asleep on the couch reading a book at about 7:30.
Our second day in town was Vigo's first day of school. We got him there almost on time, at 8:30. We picked him up at 4:00 and he said to Erik, "you know, I think I'm already kind of used to this school." At home he complained that he was the only one in his whole school who doesn't understand German and after dinner he and I sat down with a picture dictionary and learned some words around the house. His favorite word was das Fenster (the window). Vigo told me that he thinks the school day is too short and asked if we could go earlier.
On our third day, we got to school on time for real. I put in a few hours making photocopies and binding booklets in the office while Erik went to do some administrative stuff. I saw Vigo in the hallway a couple times. I spoke to his Principle, who told me that Vigo was frustrated during the German part of the day because he doesn't understand German yet. The Principal asked me to try to help Vigo to not be so hard on himself. After all, he is not the only kid in school who doesn't speak German. I asked the Prinicipal to maybe introduce Vigo specifically to the other kids who don't speak German because one thing Vigo had told me the day before was that he was the only one who didn't understand everything. I also volunteered to fill a little gap in the morning daycare between 8:10 and 8:20 every day. This way Vigo can have his wish of coming to school a bit earlier.
Erik had mentioned that he was worried that we might be perceived as overly-commercial Americans because Vigo has Disney co-branded Crocs and a Star Wars Backpack. I figured that might be true, but didn't really care too much. When I picked Vigo up after school that day, I grabbed his bag and went looking for him in the school yard. He was up a tree again. While I was standing under the tree waiting for him to come down, Oliver said to me, in the cutest little-kid English accent ever, obviously very impressed, "Is that a Stah Wahs backpack?" He came over to get a closer look at the marvelous shiny Darth-Vader zip pocket and started a little conversation with me about his favorite characters.
Vigo, like us, is very interested in having the right things and doing things the right way at school. I sent a pencil box we had to school, trying to be frugal, and that evening Vigo explained to me that it was not an acceptable pencil box for German school. The German school pencil box zips open and has individual elastic loops to hold about 20 pencils and markers, a ruler, an eraser, and a pencil sharpener. We went to a to a tiny store with about twice the inventory of a Micheal's stuffed into it and it took Vigo 20 minutes to choose the right pencil box for himself.
On our fourth day, Friday, Vigo and I left home at 7:30 in the morning so we could have a nice, leisurely walk through the park to school. When we got there at 8, he went to the big kids room and I went in the little kids room, to greet the first graders as they arrive. The kids are adorable. When there were only three kids in the room I made an error in judgement of getting into exchanging paper-airplane-folding techniques with one little boy. Unfortunately, eight more kids arrived who were also very interested in folding paper airplanes. The folding part is a very nice, focused, calm activity. I even got the kids to decorate their planes. Unfortunately, I left just as the test flights began, leaving the daycare teacher with a chaotic situation on his hands. I apologized lamely on my way out the door.
We had been told that on Fridays we should arrive at 3:45 rather than 4:00, so that Vigo could show us his work for the week, in the classroom. This is pretty much the only time parents are allowed inside the classroom. Erik and I are even more eager than Vigo is to do everything right at the new school, so we rushed our grocery shopping to get to school in time. When we got there, all of the kids were outside. We spotted Vigo sitting around a tree stump with three little girls, pulverizing smaller rocks with larger ones. I went toward him and the first thing I said when he looked at me and I saw his face transform from happiness to crestfallenness was "You don't have to leave yet."
This being the first week of school, the teachers weren't organized for the weekly work-showing, so Erik and I waited outside until 4:00. After dinner we played a game where Erik and I wrote German nouns on cute little tags I had leftover from some project a long time ago. These are white paper tags with a loop of string attached. Vigo took the tags and strung or taped them on the objects they correspond to around the house.
When we got home, I said to Vigo, "I see you made some friends at school."
"No," he replied.
"But what about those girls you were playing with? Lioni and her sister?"
"Those aren't friends. I only was playing with them."
"Sure," I said, "Of course. It takes more than that to be a friend. What do you
think it takes to make a friend?"
Vigo thought for a minute and he replied, "About three days, I think."
The school is so far really great. Vigo's favorite class is pottery. In fact, he has discovered a real passion for clay and we got him a 6-Euro block of clay from the art supply store so that he can design and build a scale model of his future bedroom. Swimming lessons are a regular part of the curriculum, too. These begin on Monday. Another interesting detail about the school is that the kids are all
supposed to have slippers to wear inside the school. Many of the kids have Crocs for inside and tennis shoes for outside. We have to get Vigo his indoor shoes or slippers this weekend.
Saturday, our friend Christophe came to visit from Paris. Erik's sister Iris, her husband Dan, and her cousin Ingo all came over to (sort of) celebrate Erik's birthday. We went out for Thai food and had a good time. I brought Vigo home to go to bed at about 10 and everyone else went out in the rain.
Today, Sunday, we went to a cultural center built inside and old factory. They were having family day. We bought Vigo a mountain bike at a yard sale there. Erik and Vigo are at an adventure playground now, probably playing with fire. So far, after one week, we all like Berlin a lot.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Moviemaking in Bozeman
We made this movie in Bozeman, with Helmut's great friend Rudy's grandkids.
We just happened to show up at Rudy and Carol's house for a night when his daughters and grandkids were all there. It was really fun to meet Carol, Rudy's wife, and all his family. Vigo and little Rudy really hit it off. Vigo was very sad to have to say good-bye to him.
We just happened to show up at Rudy and Carol's house for a night when his daughters and grandkids were all there. It was really fun to meet Carol, Rudy's wife, and all his family. Vigo and little Rudy really hit it off. Vigo was very sad to have to say good-bye to him.
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Getting Ready for a Sad Good-Bye
We're leaving Portland this afternoon, on our way to Bozeman, Montana, where we'll visit Helmut's friend Rudy. Vigo is extremely sad about leaving Portland. The other night he had a long, long cry over leaving his friends here and in Boston. He's thinking in very final terms, saying that he knows he'll never see any of his friends again and not quite believing me that he will. He misses his friends back in Somerville. There's a general air of sadness today and it's going to be a tough good-bye.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
We're All Enjoying Portland
We've been in Portland for several days now. Vigo is really enjoying the kid companionship. The other day Di-Ann and Erik were getting ready to take the kids to a nearby park by bicycle. Vigo insisted that he did not want to ride on the trail-a-bike, and that he definitely could ride a bike even though he hadn't really ever ridden alone without training wheels before. So, we got out a bike, adjusted the seat, and he took off up and down the sidewalk to practice before the ride to the park.
And he was absolutely right. He can ride a bike.
Later this afternoon, we're going to all head out to Astoria and camp in a friend's back yard. Astoria is on the mouth of the Columbia River. It's crowded with sea lions, who gather there to munch on the salmon who come in and out of the river. It's a beautiful place. Vigo's excited about it.
We're planning to be off for the next leg of the trip this weekend.
And he was absolutely right. He can ride a bike.
Later this afternoon, we're going to all head out to Astoria and camp in a friend's back yard. Astoria is on the mouth of the Columbia River. It's crowded with sea lions, who gather there to munch on the salmon who come in and out of the river. It's a beautiful place. Vigo's excited about it.
We're planning to be off for the next leg of the trip this weekend.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Laguna Beach
It turns out the car repair is fairly minor. Erik, Vigo, and Sam are spending the day at Laguna Beach. The garage had a shuttle service for them! It looks like they'll camp there overnight and then be able to take off in the morning toward San Francisco. It'll be quite a long day of driving for them and for me, but I can't wait to see them tomorrow night!
Car Trouble
If you've been reading the travel log, you know that Erik and Vigo are having an amazing trip. Vigo is proud to be a junior ranger. Yesterday they were at Legoland in Carlsbad, CA. Vigo told me that he spent a lot of time in Miniland, which is a Lego replica of the United States. He found it disappointing, though, that Miniland did not include a mini Legoland, which would include a mini Miniland (and so on).
Unfortunately, after Legoland, they started to have some car trouble. I don't know any details, but Vigo informed me this morning that the check engine light is now flashing. Right now they are waiting for the Mazda dealership to open in San Juan Capistrano.
I have a ride to San Francisco early tomorrow morning. I'm sharing a car down with three other people and splitting gas and driving. Hopefully, Erik and Vigo and Sam will be able to make it to San Francisco aroudn the same time as I do. We're going to be hanging out with Erik's sister Birgit and her boyfriend Sam, who live there. Then we'll all drive back up to Portland together.
Unfortunately, after Legoland, they started to have some car trouble. I don't know any details, but Vigo informed me this morning that the check engine light is now flashing. Right now they are waiting for the Mazda dealership to open in San Juan Capistrano.
I have a ride to San Francisco early tomorrow morning. I'm sharing a car down with three other people and splitting gas and driving. Hopefully, Erik and Vigo and Sam will be able to make it to San Francisco aroudn the same time as I do. We're going to be hanging out with Erik's sister Birgit and her boyfriend Sam, who live there. Then we'll all drive back up to Portland together.
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Missing
Vigo and Erik are still having a great time. Be sure to click on their travel log link and follow them there. Vigo calls at least once a day to talk to me. I think it makes him feel like I'm sort of there in the car with them for a few minutes. Vigo says that he misses all of his friends a lot. I think that he is missing time with other kids and that Erik is missing time with other grown-ups, but they're also both having a wonderful time.
Saturday, July 12, 2008
Stock Car Racing in Arkansas
Vigo and Erik woke me up early this morning with a call from the road. They haven't had any internet access for a while, but maybe tonight they'll update their trip log.
The big news was their evening at the North Central Arkansas Speedway, which Erik had already mentioned in the comments here. They accidentally went to the wrong booth and got pit passes, so they really got the full stock-car tour. Vigo was excitedly reporting lightening-like sparks coming from some of the cars. He was loudly demonstrating the different explosion and revving sounds they heard at the track.
The other big news of the call was that Erik forgot his shoes at the camp site, so he's in dollar-store flip-flops now for the rest of the trip. His shoes were pretty old and ratty, so it's no big loss.
The big news was their evening at the North Central Arkansas Speedway, which Erik had already mentioned in the comments here. They accidentally went to the wrong booth and got pit passes, so they really got the full stock-car tour. Vigo was excitedly reporting lightening-like sparks coming from some of the cars. He was loudly demonstrating the different explosion and revving sounds they heard at the track.
The other big news of the call was that Erik forgot his shoes at the camp site, so he's in dollar-store flip-flops now for the rest of the trip. His shoes were pretty old and ratty, so it's no big loss.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Erik's Trip Log + News from the Road
Erik is keeping a Travel Log for friends of his who are really interested in the road trip, but who don't necessarily need to be following the life of Vigo after this trip. I've put a link to the blog at the top of the side bar here, on the right.
I spoke to Vigo and Erik a couple times yesterday. Vigo told me they had spent a day in Music City, which is another name for Nashville. They have been staying in Sleep Inn Motels the past couple nights because of thunderstorms. They only found one restaurant in Nashville that allowed people under the age of 21, on the strip where they were. Vigo told me he played a video game there.
Before they left Boston, I bought them this transformer you can plug into your lighter and then plug your laptop or phone or whatever into for charging. It has a regular plug on it and also an extra cigarette lighter plug. Experimental Erik wondered what would happen if he plugged the car's cigarette lighter into this thing, and discovered that it will blow a fuse. I think they got the fuse replaced already.
I spoke to Vigo and Erik a couple times yesterday. Vigo told me they had spent a day in Music City, which is another name for Nashville. They have been staying in Sleep Inn Motels the past couple nights because of thunderstorms. They only found one restaurant in Nashville that allowed people under the age of 21, on the strip where they were. Vigo told me he played a video game there.
Before they left Boston, I bought them this transformer you can plug into your lighter and then plug your laptop or phone or whatever into for charging. It has a regular plug on it and also an extra cigarette lighter plug. Experimental Erik wondered what would happen if he plugged the car's cigarette lighter into this thing, and discovered that it will blow a fuse. I think they got the fuse replaced already.
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
From Asheville to Nashville
Erik and Vigo plan to be in Nashville tomorrow. They stayed last night with Judy & Dave's friends in Ashville, NC. Vigo says the friends were really fun, and told me they had kids and Knex.
Sunday, July 6, 2008
An Extra Night in DC
Vigo and Erik decided to spend an extra night in Arlington with Elly and Helmut. It sounded like they were having a pretty fun party last night when they called. I was on speaker phone and there was a lot of laughing and happy-sounding voices.
They're planning to get to Ashville today and stay one night with friends of our friends Judy and Dave. If you have friends along the way you think Erik and Vigo should visit, be sure to call Erik and let him know about it.
They're planning to get to Ashville today and stay one night with friends of our friends Judy and Dave. If you have friends along the way you think Erik and Vigo should visit, be sure to call Erik and let him know about it.
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Vigo, Erik, and Sam are on the Road
After a couple nights camping out, Erik, Vigo, and Sam have arrived in Washington, DC. They've met up with Elly and Helmut and are getting ready to spend a great 4th of July weekend there. I spoke with Vigo on the phone yesterday and he told me, "We're going to see the fireworks in Washington DC. I think they're really big or something."
Vigo also told me that they saw a real live deer standing by the side of the road waiting to get across, "like a good deer." Not just charging in without looking like a danger deer. He said they did not see any bears while camping but they did get to roast marshmallows last night.
Erik had hoped to be able to disable the front air bag so that Vigo could sit up front with him on this trip, but it turned out we would have had to have the airbag removed at the dealership, which would have cost around $200. Yikes. Erik says Vigo is pretty content back in the back seat with Sam, anyhow.
Vigo also told me that they saw a real live deer standing by the side of the road waiting to get across, "like a good deer." Not just charging in without looking like a danger deer. He said they did not see any bears while camping but they did get to roast marshmallows last night.
Erik had hoped to be able to disable the front air bag so that Vigo could sit up front with him on this trip, but it turned out we would have had to have the airbag removed at the dealership, which would have cost around $200. Yikes. Erik says Vigo is pretty content back in the back seat with Sam, anyhow.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Vigo's New School
I got news today that Vigo got a spot at the Berlin Kids International School. This is a new school in the neighborhood of Friedrichshain. This is only the school's second year, so it's kind of exciting getting in on the beginning of a new project.
He'll get extra German lessons at school until he's up to the same level as his classmates. Every classroom has two teachers – one English speaker and one German speaker. English is used for roughly 60-70% of all teaching in the first three years of schooling, balancing out to 50% from Year Four onwards.
The classrooms are mixed age, like he would have had started having next year at his current school. Actually, there is a lot about the pedagogical concept of this school that reminds me of the Healey Choice Program.
It's a big relief having this major detail of our lives straightened out!
He'll get extra German lessons at school until he's up to the same level as his classmates. Every classroom has two teachers – one English speaker and one German speaker. English is used for roughly 60-70% of all teaching in the first three years of schooling, balancing out to 50% from Year Four onwards.
The classrooms are mixed age, like he would have had started having next year at his current school. Actually, there is a lot about the pedagogical concept of this school that reminds me of the Healey Choice Program.
It's a big relief having this major detail of our lives straightened out!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Summer Reading
Vigo and I went through his books to sort them into piles for sending to Berlin, selling on the yard sale, and keeping out for the summer and the road trip. Here's the list of books that he decided to keep out. For people who don't have any kids, these books might not be recognizable. His taste in literature leans very heavily to comedy with a smattering of science and mystery.
The entire Black Lagoon series by Mike Thaler
Every Captain Underpants book by Dav Pilkey
All the Tacky the Penguin books by Helen Lester
Judy Moody Saves the World by Megan McDonald
Junie B. Jones and the Mushy Gushy Valentine by Barbara Park
Junie B. First Grader Toothless Wonder by Barbara Park
Bionicle Legends, Legacy of Evil by Greg Farshtey
The Stars, by H.A. Rey
Dinosaur Time
Le Train
The Apple Thief Scooby-Doo Mystery
The Secrets of Droon, Race to Doobesh by Tony Abbot
Thunder and the Pirates
The Girl's Like Spaghetti by Lynne Truss
The Mole Sisters and the Moonlit Night by Rosalyn Schwartz
Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
Zen Shorts by Jon J. Muth
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems
I'm Still Here in the Bathtub by David Catrow
A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon
Cataline Magdalena by Tedd Arnold
The entire Black Lagoon series by Mike Thaler
Every Captain Underpants book by Dav Pilkey
All the Tacky the Penguin books by Helen Lester
Judy Moody Saves the World by Megan McDonald
Junie B. Jones and the Mushy Gushy Valentine by Barbara Park
Junie B. First Grader Toothless Wonder by Barbara Park
Bionicle Legends, Legacy of Evil by Greg Farshtey
The Stars, by H.A. Rey
Dinosaur Time
Le Train
The Apple Thief Scooby-Doo Mystery
The Secrets of Droon, Race to Doobesh by Tony Abbot
Thunder and the Pirates
The Girl's Like Spaghetti by Lynne Truss
The Mole Sisters and the Moonlit Night by Rosalyn Schwartz
Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin
Zen Shorts by Jon J. Muth
Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems
I'm Still Here in the Bathtub by David Catrow
A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon
Cataline Magdalena by Tedd Arnold
Monday, May 12, 2008
Vigo Brunar
Welcome to Vigo's new website! Come here to get the latest news about Vigo. Leave him a message in the comments.
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