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