Vigo Brunar

Nice Gets More Respect than Cool

2011-11-27T22:18:00.000-08:00

Last night we had a couple friends over to help us eat some of our Thanksgiving leftovers and light our first Advent candle. There were no other kids at the house, so Vigo was stuck hanging out with grown ups. He was very sweet and charming, and he even sang some Christmas songs with us around the Advent wreath.

When Vigo was in bed and I was turning off his light for the night, I told him that I was really proud of how nice he had been with the guests. He said, "Yeah... sometimes nice gets more respect than cool."

Summer Vacation in the Harz

2011-09-04T01:04:00.001-07:00

In August, we decided to go check out the Harz Mountains, which are only about three hours from Berlin. I'd love to get Vigo skiing again this winter, and these mountains would be our closest, easiest option. We want to explore Germany a lot more this year and Vigo is very interested in the Middle Ages, so the main focus of the trip was to see ruins of old castles. Vigo and Erik spent part of the train ride from Berlin to Bad Sachsa, looking for castle ruins on the map.

Our vacation rental apartment was fine. The best thing about it was the sauna in the basement. We bought some Deutschmarks from the landlady to use in the sauna controls. For about 1,50 Euros per night, we were sauna-ed to satisfaction. Vigo apprecaited the television. He slept on the sofa bed in the living room and got to watch cartoons on low volume until breakfast every day.

There wasn't much to explore in Bad Sachsa itself, but we spent the first couple days checking out all of the sights that were within walking distance.

The first castle ruin we hiked to was Scharzfels. This castle was built in the 10th or 11th century. Like most castles in this part of Germany, it was demolished by the French during the Seven Years War in the 18th century. The stairs up to the top of the ruin are pretty recent. Once you get up to the top, you have a great view of the area. All of the castles we visited were properly ruined for Vigo's taste. He was very disappointed last year when we visited Wartburg Castle and found it entirely intact.

Just a short walk from the castle, there is an impressive cave, called Einhornhöhle. That means Unicorn Cave. It's the biggest cave in the region, and the guided tour is well worth taking. The guide explains how the cave was formed and how it has been used by Neanderthals, Humans, cave bears, and other animals for millenia. The cave is full of bones, especially from the last ice age. One room of the cave is covered in graffiti, all written in remarkable old-fashioned print or calligraphy fonts. It used to be the done thing when visiting the cave to write your name on the wall in this room. Goethe's name is there, we were informed. Unfortunately, we aren't allowed to take photos inside the cave, so the only photo I can show is one I found on the website of a vacation rental.

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz is responsible for the cave's name. Apparently a better mathematician than biologist, he believed that they had discovered unicorn bones in the cave. The unicorn skeleton which convinced Leibniz had long front legs and a small wheel at the end of its spine. Yes, a small wheel. It had been reconstructed by the mayor of Magdeburg from various prehistoric mammal bones, plus a narwhale tooth.

Leibniz, who was a pretty good businessman, made this cave famous for its unicorn bones and supplemented his mining income selling various tinctures of unicorn-bone powder all over Europe.

The next day we went to explore the dwarf caves and another little ruin Vigo had spotted on our hiking map.

The brick work in the remains of this old tower was pretty interesting.

The dwarf caves are pretty cool. They are just big enough for Vigo to sit up inside.

After a few days of hiking around and exploring the nearby villages and sights, Erik took a train to the next slightly larger town and rented us this car. Those of you who know Erik well will be aware of the fact that Erik hates to look like a tourist. This car blew his cover, though I'm pretty sure every single person in Bad Sachsa personally knows every other person in the town by name, so we weren't fooling anyone.

We took this ambulant advertisement to visit a farther-off ruin which Vigo had found out about on the internet before going on vacation. Burg Hohnstein has a lot of its walls still standing, and much of it has been reconstructed or repaired. You really get a sense here of how uncomfortable and unpleasant it must have been staying there. These are military fortresses, not luxurious palaces.

Vigo and I did a photo series there pretending to be various medieval caslte charcters.

The Thief

The Knight

The Prince/Princess

The Peasant

This castle also had a great view, of course. You can see in this picture that we had pretty iffy weather. It was raining on and off for the whole trip.

The next day, we visited Kyffhäuserdenkmal and the castle ruins it was built upon. This impressive monument was built in honor of Kaiser Wilhelm to express the opinion of Prussians that Wilhelm was the legitimate successor to the German empire, in direct (spiritual) lineage with the medieval king Barbarossa. The whole affair is basically a bombastic love poem to Germany's military strength. Here you see Barbarossa slouching at the base of the monument. This was my favorite part of the sculpture. He looks like some slovenly Greek god, and there is a nice little chasm of raw stones preventing you from getting too close.

The monument was on the Soviet side during the DDR times. The Soviets famously decided not to touch this site, stating that the Germans must learn to live with their history and their monuments.

The monument is connected to two castle ruins. One of them boasts the deepest castle well in the world. The tourist attraction connected to this well is a machine where you can buy Barbarossa's gall stones in order to wake the ghost of the well. You have to roll the precisely-sized stone through a special hole in the well cover. As it falls, it triggers a recording of the ghost. There are three or four sad, comical statements which play in rotation.

On a lot of the tourist sites we visited, we saw signs warning us that we were in mortal danger if we failed to follow posted rules. Vigo and I found these signs kind of hilarious in their overstatement.

I am going to guess that you are starting to be as bored of castle ruins now as I was by the time we got to this place, so I'll just post the pictures of the view and the half-standing walls without further comment.

My favorite part of the vacation came on our last day, when we drove to Shierke and took the narrow-gauge railway up to the top of the highest mountain in the region, the Brocken. The Harzquerbahn has been running since 1897. It was fun standing on the back deck of the old train car, listening to the sound of the machine on the track. When we got to the top of the mountain, it was cold and foggy.

After the train ride, we had enough time to visit one of the other major caves. Baumann's Cave has a theater inside, named after Goethe, where you could see a performance of Little Red Riding Hood, if you were so inclined.

The best thing about the cave are the stalagmites and stalagtites. This cave has been a tourist attraction since the 1500s, so it's got orderly paths and lots of fancy lighting. I felt a little twinge of sadness thinking of all the stalagmites they cleared away to put in those stairs and walkways.

As with the other big cave, no photos were allowed. Interestingly, the guide at Baumann's also claimed that the cave was the largest in the region. Probably depends how you measure it.

Here's a postcard I found online.

We caught our train home on Sunday, the last day before the new school year started.

If you want to see all of the photos from this vacation, you will find them here

Birthday Party

2011-03-13T03:25:00.001-07:00

We finally got around to celebrating Vigo's birthday yesterday. He invited 9 friends for a movie and Indian food. We went to see Rango (in German).

Most of the kids met up with us at our house and at about 1:30 and we walked across the Volkspark Friedrichshain to the Kino. We met up with a couple other people there, got a couple giant bags of popcorn, and enjoyed the show.

After the movie, we walked to the grocery store to get some drinks for our after-movie snack and the boys ran around the park for about an hour. Our dinner reservation was at 7.

We went to Vigo's current favorite Indian restaurant, Chandni. Unfortunately, it took them a full hour to give us our food. The appetizers actually came after the main course. We were starving! The boys showed great patience and didn't even complain too much. We ate loads of chicken curry and everyone left too stuffed to eat Erik's beautiful cake. We've been eating it for breakfast.

It was a great party. Personally, I much preferred it to last year's "stay up all night" party.

Stranger Danger Play

2011-02-02T02:10:00.001-08:00

Vigo's class did a really interesting project. Working with the police and a local theater group, they performed a play about how to handle inappropriate advances from grown ups. It was a very well-done bit of work. It included not only strangers, but also the babysitter and the Karate coach. The main message of the play was, "trust your gut feelings."

Bathtime Language Lesson

2011-01-27T11:48:00.001-08:00

I was hanging out with Vigo at bath time tonight. He started asking me if I knew what some crazy-sounding words meant. I did my best to guess, but I was doing terrible. There are about 25 different nationalities of kids at his school, so I asked him which language these words came from.

"The ancient langauge," he replied.
"Which one? There are a lot of ancient languages."
"Elvish."

Vigo worked like a champ

2011-01-15T14:04:00.001-08:00

Enough productive weekends like this and we might be able to move in there before the end of Spring. This was last weekend. Iris and Hartmut came to help us out.

18. Internationales Elbe-Saale-Camp, Day 1

2010-08-07T02:12:00.001-07:00

For the last couple days of my vacation in July, I took Vigo and his friend Kiran camping for one night in Saxon Anhalt. Iris had sent us some information about the River Festival she was participating in and we decided to go and join for a night.

We packed up our little tent and sleeping bags, grabbed our inflatable boat, and packed everything onto our bikes. Erik just found himself a cargo bike on Craigslist, which made lugging all this stuff possible.

The boys and I managed to get ourselves onto the 9:00 train from Alexanderplatz on Saturday morning and rode to Magdeburg, where we barely made our change. We had an excellent tip from Iris about getting off at Gnadau instead of Shönebeck. Schönebeck was 12 kilometers from the town of Barby (near the camp) while Gnadau was only 7.

The weather report had been forecasting rain and wind for the region for the whole weekend, so we were all geared up with rain boots and ponchos, ready to brave the elements. When we got off the train in Gnadau, we were excited to see a partly cloudy sky and not a raindrop in sight. We changed out of our rain boots, repacked our bikes, and looked at our gps coordinates, compass, and map.

According to the map, we just needed to keep going West and South and we would eventually hit either the Elbe River or the Saale. To the southwest of us was a vast expanse of corn and wheat fields, with dirt tractor roads running between them. So, off we went between the fields. Every time we got to a fork in the road we would check our bearings again to figure out which way to go, until eventually we hit a paved road with a bike path next to it. There was an arrow-shaped sign planted there, reading "Barby 4km."

We took our time biking the last few kilometers. We could tell the threat of rain was an empty one. In Barby we stopped at the store to get some extra food and when we got to the camp we were greeted by Jutta, the event organizer, who had been expecting us. She told us to plant our tents wherever we liked in the camping area and we set off to find a good spot. The boys picked a place between two trees, thinking that we might want to put up our tarp in case it did start raining in the night.

Once everything was all set up, we went over to meet some more of our fellow campers and to explore the river banks. Iris was out on her impressive inflatable boat, paddling a group of people on a tour of the Elbe. When she got back, I went to meet her. Then we fetched the boys, who were playing a game in the tent, and soon it was time for a big camp dinner.

Vigo and Kiran were eager to get the campfire going. They were shown the fire pit and the wood pile, but asked to wait until it started to get dark. Instead of starting a fire, we blew up our Red Leviathan (that is the name of our inflatable boat) and played in a sheltered bay on the river, behind a little point, where the current wasn't flowing. The river was high and the current was really fast. Both boys would have liked to have floated our boat down river for a while on the fast current, but I would have had to swim alongside and I didn't want to have to be responsible for fishing the two of them out of the current if the boat got knocked over.

The boys were impressed by Iris's giant inflatable Red Army boat, a survivor from the East German days. It easily holds more than a dozen people. The Elbe River association, which she works for, uses it to give tours of the river and to educate people about the ecological and political battles that need to be fought to protect it.

When we came back from exploring the river, we noticed that our tent was looking a bit battered by the wind, and indeed one of our tent poles had snapped. Luckily for us, the camp was full of resourceful, helpful people and soon we had the pole repaired with tape and a metal cylinder. We moved to a more sheltered spot to avoid the wind and it held up the night.

The event organizers went out to a Bulgarian restaurant in Barby for supper that evening, but we were still full from our big, late lunch, so we decided to stay at camp and get the fire going. We had a big blaze roaring by the time everyone got back, and half a bag of marshmallows left. Our fellow campers were glad to see the fire and the boys felt pretty proud of themselves when they heard people pull into camp on their bikes and say "Oh! Look! The campfire!" We had a beautiful sunset behind us, the river to the right, and a big, fat full moon just over the horizon. The baby storks were standing on the edge of their nest clacking their beaks and it felt like the end of a perfect day.

(Next post... Elbe-Saale Camp Day 2)

Late Fall to Early Summer...

2010-07-19T06:59:00.001-07:00

The past few months have been pretty eventful and I have been terrible at keeping in touch. My main excuse is that I started a full-time job at Nokia Gate 5, working on their maps and navigation application. That started in February and unfortunately prevented us from going skiing this year. We plan to make up for that next year.

Winter was long and cold, with lots of snow and ice. We got out to do some ice skating and some sledding, and we generally enjoyed the nasty weather. We had one particularly memorable weekend with Iris in Dessau, where we built a snow fort in her back garden. We also took Vigo's friend Leander out for a weekend and walked on the iced-over pond as much as we dared and slid down Weinberg with no sleds.

Vigo had a stay-up-all-night theme party for his birthday this year. He invited three boys and they stayed up ALL NIGHT. I finally made them lay down at about 6:30 AM, though they protested mightily at the unfairness.

In April, we made a huge trip to the US. We were in Somerville, Western Mass, San Francisco, and Mendacino. Erik's sister Birgit had a beautiful wedding near Mendacino, which was the main impetus for the trip. It is always really great for Vigo to reconnect with his friends in Somerville. He also got to see Emiko and Tabor in San Francisco.

Vigo and his friend Kiran started a small business this Spring. They built themselves a stand and stood out on the corner hawking hot cocoa and cookies. They came back from their first experience with the realization that they should have coffee because grown ups are the ones with the money, and they want coffee.

Next time they had coffee and lemonade. They made 10 euros each.

We had a scare in May, when Vigo fell out of a tree on the school playground. He fell about three meters onto his head, but escaped without any injuries. He did have to stay two days in the hospital, though. He had just been complaining that nothing exciting ever happens to him. No more complaints of that now.

School let out a couple weeks ago and I have taken a vacation from work to spend my days hanging out with my family. So far, we have spent some days at the lake and some days at the park. We bought an inflatable boat, which we call Leviathan. We don't have any plans to go anywhere yet. I might try to get away for the weekend. Iris has told us about a great river float going on this weekend and I could see us in our little boat...

Busy Fall

2009-11-18T05:29:00.000-08:00

Vigo's favorite season is approaching slowly! We rode our bikes around Alexanderplatz the other night to see how far along they were building their Cheesy Christmas village, erecting the ice rink, and assembling the ferris wheel. We can't wait to start hitting the ice skating every day after school.

Erik and I went to the parent-teacher conference yesterday. Vigo is doing fine in school, and his attitude and behavior are improving all the time. He still has trouble shifting gracefully from one task to another and doing what he's supposed to be doing instead of what he wants to be doing, but don't we all.

Vigo is involved in a new afternoon club called D.I.Y. (Design It Yourself) on Tuesdays. He is totally nuts about this club and looks forward to it all week. It's run by one of the mothers at school, who s a designer. She joined me last weekend for Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art-School Cabaret Life Drawing Class and we had a good time. Vigo is also doing two electives at school, plus German club to catch up. One of his electives is reading Harry Potter in German and the other one I've forgotten already!

Vigo has also recently taken up knitting. He's working on a wrist band, with a button on it, and he's been going with me to the Monday-night knitting group in a cafe around the corner from home. They adore him there, of course. He knits a little, has a cup of tea, and then plays with the other ladies' toddlers.

We have been trying to find some good activites that would get Vigo doing things in a German-speaking environment. He's tried out tennis lessons the past two weeks, with a couple of his friends from school. It would be a great activity because it's inexpensive, a 20-minute bike ride from home on Saturday afternoons, and I get to hang out with a friend also speaking German for the 90 minutes he's in his lesson. Unfortunately, Vigo is saying that he doesn't care for tennis and would rather try something else. Erik found a rock-climbing class close to home, and I've been looking into gymnastics and pottery. Vigo is rather enthusiastic about pottery, which he has done a lot at school.

It's kind of funny that we live in Berlin and have to make an effort to get Vigo into a German-speaking environment. He has class for about half of the day in German, but when he is not in German class, he and his friends communicate in English. Even his German friends prefer to speak English with him. That said, Vigo is reading in German at his grade level and is able to do the work he is supposed to do. He really just hasn't yet become comfortable speaking.

Our social calendar has been rather full lately. Last weekend we went to the Komische Oper for the first time and saw a new production called Rote Zora (Zora the Red), based on a famous children's book. The opera hall was full of kids. It actually kind of smelled like diapers in there. Vigo loved the show and said that this was his favorite of all of the operas he's seen so far (all three).

We also went a couple weeks ago to a very fun art opening at Stattbad Wedding, where a friend of our friend Dan had a sound piece. Vigo particularly liked a couple of the art pieces. One was a train going around a track, coming from a different direction each time. The other one that really inspired him was an old bathtub filled with either milk or a milky liquid, with a video of water dripping onto a surface of water projected onto it.

Vigo and I also made another trip to Dessau, just us and Sam this time. We had a fantastic time there. We went apple picking and brought home as many apples as we could carry. We were eating apple pie, apple curry, apple sandwiches, and fried apples for a couple weeks!

For Halloween this year, Vigo dressed as a devil. He had very specific ideas about how his costume should look and we did a good job making it happen together. Of course he looked so adorable in his devil costume, the effect was not at all as terrifying as he had thought it would be. His friend Edward, who had moved away to Ireland at the end of last summer, came to town for a visit. That was wonderful, but also very sad for Vigo when Edward went back home again. He really loves and misses Edward. We are working out when we will be able to make it to Dublin now.

In the evening, we all went over to Leander's house. We had pumpkin soup and sausages and the boys got dressed up again and went out in the neighborhood trick-or-treating. Leander lives in a neighborhood that has been into trick-or-treating for years already. It was exciting seeing the boys go out on their own with their bags. They came back with a modest take. One person who was caught unprepared gave them bananas.

Erik's mom Elly is arriving on Friday, so I'm postponing Thanksgiving until then. You can totally do that when you live in Europe. I have a goose in the fridge, plus a pumpkin for pie, sweet potatoes, and cranberries. We're all looking forward to the visit.

Oktober

2009-11-05T08:40:00.000-08:00

Vigo had to learn this poem for German class. He made this little movie with pictures he took himself, reciting the poem from memory.

A Quick Update

2009-10-05T01:47:00.000-07:00

Vigo had an incredible week at school last week. His teachers reported excellent behavior and he finished all of his class work in school, which hadn't happened yet since we got to Berlin. He was quite pleased with himself, almost as pleased as we and his teachers were, I think.

This weekend, we did manage to get to see the Royal de Luxe performance at the Brandenburger Gate. Vigo and Kiran and I miraculously managed to get right up to the front of the crowd. First, we were lucky enough to get close behind an angry, drunken clown who was plowing his way aggressively through the masses, and then we jumped a couple fences with only a disapproving frown from the police security. Unfortunately, our efforts were not well rewarded. As you can see in this video, the sound system came and parked itself directly in front of us. Grrrr! We couldn't see a thing in the finale.

October Already!

2009-10-01T05:51:00.000-07:00

The first month of school has flown by! Vigo got off to a little bit of a rocky start with his new teachers this year. Erik and I had to go into the office one day to be told that his antics had gone too far. According to his teacher, Vigo threw his quarter red pepper at her and hit her on the back on the way to the lunchroom. According to Vigo, he was innocently swinging his arms in a completely normal manner when the lid came loose from his lunch container and the pepper "just flew out" and hit Ms. Pilsen. According to reports I've been getting this week, his behavior has much improved since our uncomfortable moment in the office.

We have been trying to make some extra efforts at home to help Vigo with Math and German. The school had a hard time keeping a German teacher on staff last year, and we think he could use a little catching up because of that. He's been doing math flash cards on my phone and Erik has been reading to Vigo in German. Vigo also recently began to read in German on his own, in ernest. He has been reading a translation of a book he loved back in first grade, the first volume of the Magic Treehouse series.

We have had a very busy social life this month. Everyone is taking advantage of the wonderful early fall weather. It has only started to get grey and rainy this week. The school had it's big party for the first day of school, which was very fun, and then a couple weeks later was the open house.

Vigo and I discovered a couple hazelnut trees near his school a few months ago and we managed to get some delicious tiny nuggets that the squirrels hadn't harvested yet. There are lots of hazelnut trees around, but most of them are of a variety that makes teensy tiny little nuts with thick shells which are hardly worth cracking.

Here's a picture of Vigo harvesting some nuts.

Mostly, Vigo has been spending a lot of time with his friends from school. There have been a lot of sleepovers. We still have the tent set up in Vigo's bedroom and it makes for a really nice camping-out feel when he has kids over. I've also been able to take Vigo and his friends to the park a few times after school, which is always great. We stop first at the store and get ice cream and then the boys can go to the playground while I sit on the grass in the sun.

Here he is at the park with his friends Oskar and Leo.

Erik and I took Vigo to an interesting contemporary classical music concert at the Wasserturm, which is near our house. The Wasserturm is an old brick water tower that isn't used anymore except as a concert and exhibition space.

We saw five pieces perfomed by bass clarinet, contrebass clarinet, and electronics. The first song was rather dramatic and cacophonous, and in the dark, shadowy water tower, it made quite an effect on Vigo. He crawled into my lap and hid his head under his sweatshirt hood. He whispered in my ear that he was scared. I whispered back that I could feel the scariness of the music, too. I said it reminded me of the wild rumpus of Where the Wild Things Are and I suggested it might be a very interesting opportunity to feel scared feelings in a place you know is totally safe. The other pieces were less dramatic and Vigo fell asleep during the last one. Here are a couple pictures from the concert.

Last weekend, we had Kiran over for a sleepover on Friday and we took the boys to the Lustgarten at 8PM to see a performance of contemporary Indonesian shadow puppets. We packed some fresh-baked cookies, hot sweet tea, and sleeping bags. The boys went up toward the front and watched the show with their treats and afterwards they spent about half an hour rolling around on the lawn inside their sleeping bags. They were both pretty well tuckered out by the time we biked home that night.

Here's a picture of a sword fight they had on the way to the show and another photo of the actual performance.

Tomorrow we are supposed to see the Royal de Luxe and their gigantic marionettes.

In mid-October we're planning to spend a few days with Iris in Dessau. Here are some pictures from our last trip to Dessau, when we helped Iris move her stuff to her new house.

Vigo is also soon going to be starting to take tennis lessons with a couple of his friends at school. He seems pretty enthusiastic about it. He might do a trial lesson next week already. I'm thinking about taking some lessons at the same time. I've never really known how to play tennis.

Apart from a few sniffles and a minor bout of lice (almost done with that laundry!), Vigo's health has been good. He had a bit of asthma last Spring but he passed his lung tests fine earlier this month.

Mochtest du ein Piece of Mich?

2009-08-26T23:42:00.000-07:00

Speaking German with a heavy American accent is currently all the rage with Vigo and his friends at school. It's fun hearing Vigo start to actually speak German, and he thinks his fake bad accent is hilarious. For a few days, he kept repeating this from Kiran: "Mochtest du ein piece of mich?" Apparently it was the funniest thing Vigo had heard all week.

End of Summer Update

2009-08-25T06:52:00.000-07:00

In exactly one more week, Vigo will be heading back to school. He has already been going to the school every day the past three weeks for Hort, which is something like day camp, so he's not got far to go to be back on a regular school hours schedule.

His best friend this year has been an Irish boy named Edward, who unfortunately just moved back to Dublin. Vigo was really sad about Edward moving away, but he seems to believe us when we say we'll go visit Edward's family in Dublin. We saw them off last week with a nice brunch. Here's Vigo with Kiran (in the middle) and Edward just before Edward hopped into the cab to the airport.

Vigo got to spend a lot of time with his other close friend, Leander, especially at the beginning this summer. He went camping with Leander's family for a few days when Erik and I were off helping Iris take the roof off her new house. They reported that unfortunately it "wasn't a frog year" at the lake. It's going to be interesting to see the groups of friends reform when school starts. Here are a couple pictures of an outing to the pool with Leander's parents, Vigo, and Edward.

In the past month, Vigo has become closer to a boy named Kiran. They've both been in Hort together and our families have gone to a couple free outdoor concerts together.

We've had a lot of sleepovers this summer! Up to 5 in a single week, with Kiran, Leander, Edward, and Markus. We've also been to the park a lot, and have had our share of picnics. Here's a nice picture of Vigo and Kiran playing video games together.

Vigo is still reading a lot. This morning before school he was reading in German for the first time I've ever noticed. He was reading Max and Moritz, which I think Dan gave him for Christmas.

We've been reading Harry Potter together as a family, taking turns passing the book around. We read a chapter or two almost every day, and are halfway through the third book. Vigo and I have also been reading another book series just the two of us, called The Chronicles of Mistmantle. Vigo reads out loud really well and it's a lot of fun. We take lots and lots of breaks to talk about the motivations of the different characters and make plot predictions. Anybody can interrupt the reading to make a point at any time.

Vigo and I have also been listening to audiobooks together. We finished the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio plays, which he totally loved and we're now listening to this great newish version of the Odyssey translated and narrated by Stanley Lombardo. I've got the Iliad for when we finish. All this talk in the Odyssey about the heroes of Troy has made Vigo curious. We usually listen the the audiobooks on Sundays, while we clean the house.

It's hard to believe that we have been in Berlin for almost a full year. We're thinking about trying to throw a party to celebrate.

Upside Down

2009-07-20T00:28:00.000-07:00

Maybe about a month or more ago, Vigo started standing on his head a lot. He seems to have an unfightable urge to balance on his head several times a day.

This is something I used to do as a kid, too. I used to watch TV upside down. I probably spent 10 per cent of my time feet in the air at his age. It's so strange seeing another person doing something that you think of as a personal peculiarity.

New Haircut

2009-07-18T01:59:00.001-07:00

End of the School Year

2009-07-03T01:22:00.000-07:00

Vigo has only about two more weeks of school left. Next week is his big class trip: three days in the woods. All the kids at school are buzzing about this. One difference between school here and in the US: children are allowed and encouraged to bring their pocket knives. They will be put in the care of one of the teachers, who will pass them out to the kids at the appropriate moments, and teach them some proper knife handling skills. Luckily for Vigo, he found a battered old Swiss Army knife on the street a while back.

Yesterday we went to Vigo's portfolio presentation, where he showed us his work and explained the marks he had given himself on his self-evaluation. I found that he was a bit hard on himself in some cases. He's doing well in school, despite having missed three full weeks (not in a row, at least) over the past month or so. He had a tough time recovering from the strep germ that caused his scarlet fever. He seems to be doing fine now, at last.

Vigo is struggling a little bit right now with the fact that his best friend Edward is moving back to Ireland at the end of the summer. Another good friend of his, Ruby, is leaving to go back to the US this week. Being in an international school, the families tend to be a little more mobile than in other schools. Hopefully as the school matures, the student body will become more stable. The picture attached to this post is from the little good-bye dinner we had with Ruby's family on Wednesday night. Ruby and her sister Lucy are the two blondes next to Vigo. On the Left are Sam and Katherine. Sam and Katherine's family live right around around the corner from us and Erik has become very good friends with their father Guy.

I bought a cheap tent while I was in France last week and Vigo has it set up in his room. He's been sleeping in it since Sunday. Sam seems to like to sleep in the tent, too, and Vigo is delighted to have her with him.

For most of the summer, Vigo is going to be going to the school summer daycare program, where he'll see a lot of his friends. We're also getting ready to spend a week in Dessau, camping out and helping Iris to pull the roof off her new house. I'm eager to try out the snorkeling gear I found in the basement in Paris in the small lakes of Dessau. Vigo is adament about going "mountain climbing" one time this summer. He still says that Vermont is his favorite place in the whole world so far. I think we should be able to figure out a long weekend somewhere mountainous enough to satisfy him.

For most of the next two months, though, we will be home enjoying Berlin. We encourage everyone who can to come sleep on our floor and enjoy it with us. It's beautiful, hot, and the sun is up both late and early.

I know it's way too brief, but here it is anyhow...

2009-06-26T03:38:00.000-07:00

These are some of the pictures we have to choose from for school pictures. I'm impressed by his jumping style!

I've been in Paris the past week, while Erik and Vigo have been in Berlin. Vigo's visit to Paris was a bit spoiled by another ear infection. The third one this year! We're going to talk to our doctor about this and maybe see a second doctor, too.

Otherwise, Vigo is doing great. He does miss his friends back in Somerville and wishes we could make another trip back there this year, but until Erik and I start making money again, that's not going to be possible. I just got a cheap, light, tent and we will spend all summer in Berlin with a few camping weekends thrown in. Hopefully a week in Dessau, too.

We just started reading the Harry Potter books, which are a lot better and more enjoyable than I expected them to be. We're also reading the Mistmantle Chronicles, which is super high drama and really nicely written.

Vigo and I recently went to see Swan Lake, which was danced by children. Some of the dancing was pretty, well, it was done by little kids... but the girl who danced the lead was beautiful. And the music was great as well. Vigo most loved the owl's entourage of bats.

The Marshmallow Test

2009-06-03T12:37:00.000-07:00

I know it's been months since I've written anything of substance. This is going to be disappointingly short, I'll warn you right off.

Most of you have probably already heard about Walter Mischel's marshmallow test. If you haven't, here's a great show about it on Radiolab you can listen to.

The basic idea is that kids who manage to delay gratification do better later in life than kids who don't and the kids who manage to delay gratification do it by finding strategies for not thinking about temptation.

The other day Vigo and I were on a long walk and I told him that someone had done an experiment where they said to kids, "You could have one marshmallow now or two later." I asked him what he would do. He got very excited about the idea of marshmallows and he said, "Well, I wouldn't even have to think about it for even a minute. I would definitely choose to have two marshmallows later, because two marshmallows is better than just one."

Then I told him that the next part of the experiment was that the guys left the kids in the room all alone with the marshmallow for a really long time and waited to see what the kids would do. I asked him if he thought he would be able to hold out.

Vigo said he thought he could. I asked him how would he pull it off and he immediately replied, "I dunno. Maybe I would sit under the table."

Good answer!

The Viking Genes

2009-05-25T02:56:00.000-07:00

A few people now have sent me this movie trailer because the 13-year-old Swedish boy in this movie reminds them of Vigo. Check it out. Vigo is cute when he's 13.

Funy Accents

2009-03-27T06:27:00.001-07:00

This morning, as I was getting dressed, I was talking out loud to myself in a funny accent. In saunters Vigo, and says, "Why are you talking in a funny accent?

"I'm just talking to myself. I've heard you talk to yourself in a funny accent plenty of times before," I reply.

Then Vigo says, in his excellent British accent, "I don't talk in a funny accent. I talk in an English accent."

Our Visit to the US

2009-03-04T09:42:00.000-08:00

We were in the US January 31st until February 8th, during Vigo's winter vacation. During out layover in Newark, Vigo got to try his first Shirley Temple. He was very impressed.

Back in Somerville, we borrowed our old car and drove up to Vermont, to stay for a few days with Justine, Michael, and Sienna. Erik and Vigo (and some days Micheal) went skiing and I hung out with Justine and Sienna at the house. Vigo had a half day of ski school and then went out on the slopes with Erik. Vigo was very proud to have come down his first real black diamond, only falling about five times, he told me.

All the time Vigo didn't spend out in the snow, he spent doting on Sienna, who was 8 months old at the time. He really found her fascinating and just showered her with attention. He was disappointed every time she went for a nap or to sleep for the night.

Vigo also did a little bit of shoveling, and got caught in an "avalanche."

After our time in Vermont, we spent almost a week in Somerville, visiting old friends. Unfortunately, I was having so much fun the whole time that I forgot to take any pictures. All I have are some cute shots from Photobooth, by Vigo and Shane.

Vigo was a little bit worried that our old next-door-neighbor Thomas, with whom he used to play pretty much every single day after school, might not recognize him. But he had nothing to worry about. He fell back in with all the old pals as if he had never been away. Loden and his mom Jen were so kind as to schedule Loden's birthday party to coincide with Vigo's visit, so he got to see almost all of his classmates.

We even managed to get out to Boston to have a nice long brunch with Derrick and Nina and Inka and Lumi. Vigo has always been very keen on little Inka, and she follows him around adoringly in return. The two of them at one point set up a tent around the feet of Lumi, who at the time was a little under 8 months old, and spent some time entertaining her peek-a-boo-style.

Our friends Judy and Dave let us invite some friends over to their house the Saturday before our departure, and this was one of the highlights of our visit. We just generally had a wonderful time during the entire vacation. It was nice to prove to Vigo that I wasn't lying when I said that we'd be back to visit and that he'd get to see all of his friends again.

More Winter News

2009-01-21T04:20:00.000-08:00

Recently, Erik and I decided to visit Boston during Vigo's February school vacation. We'll spend the first part of the week in Vermont, skiing, and the second part seeing our friends. All of us are really excited about it.

Vigo's eyes can finally be seen again, since Vigo gave himself one of his famous haircuts last week. He's had lots of compliments on the cut from the other kids at school.

Our calm little winter solstice party went really nicely. Vigo and I made bite-sized bottle cap cookies by using a bottle cap for a cookie cutter.

We all dressed up and walked up to the top of the hill in the park, where we discovered a couple of other groups, who were getting little bonfires going.

Vigo is eagerly beginning to plan his own birthday party, which is more than a month away. I won't give out any details yet, though!

Vigo's German is starting to blossom since we got a TV. We let him watch some cartoons in the morning before school every day, now. He still enjoys Caillou as much as he did when he was three.

We had a really nice Christmas with Erik's older sister Iris in Dessau. Iris is Erik's father's daughter from a first marriage, so we also got to meet Iris's mother, Berbel. Berbel made a delicious herring and beet salad for the festivities along with what seemed like a bottomless supply of homemade cookies! Vigo didn't mind too much not having other kids to play with and spent hours and hours putting together his new Lego set. I had an especially great time on Christmas Eve, when Iris and I walked through the dark woods to the boat house on the river where some of her friends were having mulled wine around a fire outside.

Erik and Vigo and I made Dan and Iris each a board game about themselves. Vigo was very excited to give these presents and he said something really funny about them:
"We made your presents ourselves. But don't worry, they look very professional."

Here's the game of Iris. I forgot to get a photo of Dan's.

On Christmas Day, everyone except for Vigo and I went to the opera. The Show was Fidelio and the production was set in a WWII concentration camp. We figured if we took Vigo to see that for his first opera experience, we'd never get him inside an opera house again.

A week or so after Christmas, I took Vigo to see a special kid showing of Hansel and Gretel at the Deutche Oper here in Berlin. He got a little bit scared about the witch in the first part and kind of wanted to go home at intermission. Here's a picture of him worrying about the fates of poor Hansel and Gretel during the break:

Once the witch actually come on and wasn't just peeking out ominously from behind the trees, he was fine and he really loved the show. He's excited to go back. Our next show will be Swan Lake in February. Here are a couple pictures from the show we saw, including the witch. The singing in this show was just super, too.

We had a free ice skating rink near our apartment for the holidays, but unfortunately we only managed to go to it one time. We also got a couple of sledding nights in, even though I wasn't able to find a proper Berlin-style sled because all of the stores were completely sold out. Here's a picture of Vigo and one of his closest friends, Leander, at the skating rink, and sledding with another of his closest friends, Edward.

We're all still having a great time getting to know Berlin, but we're also very excited to be able to make a qick visit back to Somerville!

Winter Party

2008-12-15T02:42:00.000-08:00

my movie

2008-12-08T09:53:00.000-08:00

Vigo's Lego Wishlist

2008-12-08T09:27:00.000-08:00

Vigo's lego

wishlist

Bionicle mistika:

toa gali
toa onua
krika
bitil
gorast.

bionicle matoran:

tanma
photok
solek
gavla
radiak
kirop.

T9s

axalara T9
jetrax T9
rokoh T9.

boxed sets:

50 years of lego
big brickbox.
creator:
convertible
monster dino
flier-set
city house.

mars mission:

etx alien-transformer
mx commandocentral
mx-41 switch fighter
mini robot
alien jet
mini spaceship.

CITY:

gas station
street sweeper
lego city port
airport
police station
policeman

spongebob:

chum bucket.

star wars:

at-te walker
hailfire droid&spider droid
jedi starfigter with hyperdrive booster ring
rebel scout speeder
imperial landing craft.

RACERS:

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

2008-12-08T06:36:00.000-08:00

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!

Legoland, Election Night, Soap Bubbles, New Bike, Lost Teeth, and More

2008-11-08T23:57:00.000-08:00

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!

Little Ninja

2008-11-01T06:15:00.001-07:00

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!

ninja kiwi

2008-10-30T02:08:00.000-07:00

this is a really awsome, doesen't work all the time,website called nija kiwi.
if it doesent work click here.

October

2008-10-26T02:57:00.001-07:00

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."

fantasticcontraption

2008-10-09T09:36:00.000-07:00

If you want to get to this site, click on this link.

Long Week!

2008-09-29T08:17:00.000-07:00

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.

Week Three

2008-09-21T09:53:00.000-07:00

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.

Week Two in Berlin

2008-09-13T00:22:00.001-07:00

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

Week One in Berlin

2008-09-10T05:49:00.000-07:00

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.

Moviemaking in Bozeman

2008-08-19T06:20:00.000-07:00

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.

Getting Ready for a Sad Good-Bye

2008-08-09T14:14:00.001-07:00

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.

We're All Enjoying Portland

2008-08-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

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.

Laguna Beach

2008-07-23T16:18:00.001-07:00

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

2008-07-23T09:02:00.000-07:00

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.

Missing

2008-07-16T19:29:00.001-07:00

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.

Stock Car Racing in Arkansas

2008-07-12T11:38:00.000-07:00

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.

Erik's Trip Log + News from the Road

2008-07-11T11:16:00.000-07:00

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.

From Asheville to Nashville

2008-07-08T17:27:00.000-07:00

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.

An Extra Night in DC

2008-07-06T13:11:00.000-07:00

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.

Vigo, Erik, and Sam are on the Road

2008-07-03T20:35:00.000-07:00

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's New School

2008-06-24T08:53:00.000-07:00

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!

Summer Reading

2008-05-21T06:19:00.000-07:00

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

Vigo Brunar

2008-05-12T19:35:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Vigo's new website! Come here to get the latest news about Vigo. Leave him a message in the comments.