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

Week One in Berlin

Our life in Berlin is going smoothly. We still have a lot of paperwork to deal with, but we are doing a good job of keeping on top of it all. And by "we" I mean "Erik" because my German is terrible. Especially my bureaucratic German. Vigo's life has been filled mostly with school this week. He managed to dodge the jet-lag bullet for the most part and made it to school at 8:30 am our second day in the country (8:30 am here is 2:30 am in Boston).

On our first day in town, Tuesday, Vigo wanted to go and visit his new school. He understandably was a little anxious to see the place where he's going to be spending most of his time. We showed up at a good time. All the kids were out in the yard, playing. The yard has several trees in it, all of which are open for climbing. One tree has a rope ladder and a tire swing hanging off it. There's also a cool playroom made of twigs, the classic favorite Pile O'Dirt, a bunch of boulders (one of which is shaped like a giant toad), a sandbox, and various ropes, straps, pieces of wood, and some old wheels some kids have built a cart onto. After about five minutes of hiding behind my legs, the teacher pointed out some older boys up a tree and Vigo ran off to join them. We let him stay about 10 minutes up the tree and then went home when the kids all went back into the classroom.

One of the best things about this school is that they spend a lot of time outside. All of the kids have recess three times a day. The playtime is considered as much a part of the learning as the classroom time. The children invent all kinds of elaborate scenarios and games together outside, without being directed by the teachers. Last year, we were told, the first graders started a little shop in the sand pile, selling and bartering stuff they found in the playground. At first the older kids managed to pretty much cheat the younger kids out of their good stuff, but quickly the youngsters got wise and began to run a harder bargain.

My favorite thing about the school is that there seems to be no homework. As I understand it, they believe that there should be a clear separation between school and home. Parents don't come in the classroom (parents are all over the school doing various work tasks--we all have to give six hours a month to the school, but not inside the classroom), and the classroom doesn't come home. Tuesday evening, Erik went to the parent information night and I stayed home to put Vigo to bed at the right time. He fell asleep on the couch reading a book at about 7:30.

Our second day in town was Vigo's first day of school. We got him there almost on time, at 8:30. We picked him up at 4:00 and he said to Erik, "you know, I think I'm already kind of used to this school." At home he complained that he was the only one in his whole school who doesn't understand German and after dinner he and I sat down with a picture dictionary and learned some words around the house. His favorite word was das Fenster (the window). Vigo told me that he thinks the school day is too short and asked if we could go earlier.

On our third day, we got to school on time for real. I put in a few hours making photocopies and binding booklets in the office while Erik went to do some administrative stuff. I saw Vigo in the hallway a couple times. I spoke to his Principle, who told me that Vigo was frustrated during the German part of the day because he doesn't understand German yet. The Principal asked me to try to help Vigo to not be so hard on himself. After all, he is not the only kid in school who doesn't speak German. I asked the Prinicipal to maybe introduce Vigo specifically to the other kids who don't speak German because one thing Vigo had told me the day before was that he was the only one who didn't understand everything. I also volunteered to fill a little gap in the morning daycare between 8:10 and 8:20 every day. This way Vigo can have his wish of coming to school a bit earlier.

Erik had mentioned that he was worried that we might be perceived as overly-commercial Americans because Vigo has Disney co-branded Crocs and a Star Wars Backpack. I figured that might be true, but didn't really care too much. When I picked Vigo up after school that day, I grabbed his bag and went looking for him in the school yard. He was up a tree again. While I was standing under the tree waiting for him to come down, Oliver said to me, in the cutest little-kid English accent ever, obviously very impressed, "Is that a Stah Wahs backpack?" He came over to get a closer look at the marvelous shiny Darth-Vader zip pocket and started a little conversation with me about his favorite characters.

Vigo, like us, is very interested in having the right things and doing things the right way at school. I sent a pencil box we had to school, trying to be frugal, and that evening Vigo explained to me that it was not an acceptable pencil box for German school. The German school pencil box zips open and has individual elastic loops to hold about 20 pencils and markers, a ruler, an eraser, and a pencil sharpener. We went to a to a tiny store with about twice the inventory of a Micheal's stuffed into it and it took Vigo 20 minutes to choose the right pencil box for himself.

On our fourth day, Friday, Vigo and I left home at 7:30 in the morning so we could have a nice, leisurely walk through the park to school. When we got there at 8, he went to the big kids room and I went in the little kids room, to greet the first graders as they arrive. The kids are adorable. When there were only three kids in the room I made an error in judgement of getting into exchanging paper-airplane-folding techniques with one little boy. Unfortunately, eight more kids arrived who were also very interested in folding paper airplanes. The folding part is a very nice, focused, calm activity. I even got the kids to decorate their planes. Unfortunately, I left just as the test flights began, leaving the daycare teacher with a chaotic situation on his hands. I apologized lamely on my way out the door.

We had been told that on Fridays we should arrive at 3:45 rather than 4:00, so that Vigo could show us his work for the week, in the classroom. This is pretty much the only time parents are allowed inside the classroom. Erik and I are even more eager than Vigo is to do everything right at the new school, so we rushed our grocery shopping to get to school in time. When we got there, all of the kids were outside. We spotted Vigo sitting around a tree stump with three little girls, pulverizing smaller rocks with larger ones. I went toward him and the first thing I said when he looked at me and I saw his face transform from happiness to crestfallenness was "You don't have to leave yet."

This being the first week of school, the teachers weren't organized for the weekly work-showing, so Erik and I waited outside until 4:00. After dinner we played a game where Erik and I wrote German nouns on cute little tags I had leftover from some project a long time ago. These are white paper tags with a loop of string attached. Vigo took the tags and strung or taped them on the objects they correspond to around the house.

When we got home, I said to Vigo, "I see you made some friends at school."
"No," he replied.
"But what about those girls you were playing with? Lioni and her sister?"
"Those aren't friends. I only was playing with them."
"Sure," I said, "Of course. It takes more than that to be a friend. What do you
think it takes to make a friend?"
Vigo thought for a minute and he replied, "About three days, I think."

The school is so far really great. Vigo's favorite class is pottery. In fact, he has discovered a real passion for clay and we got him a 6-Euro block of clay from the art supply store so that he can design and build a scale model of his future bedroom. Swimming lessons are a regular part of the curriculum, too. These begin on Monday. Another interesting detail about the school is that the kids are all
supposed to have slippers to wear inside the school. Many of the kids have Crocs for inside and tennis shoes for outside. We have to get Vigo his indoor shoes or slippers this weekend.

Saturday, our friend Christophe came to visit from Paris. Erik's sister Iris, her husband Dan, and her cousin Ingo all came over to (sort of) celebrate Erik's birthday. We went out for Thai food and had a good time. I brought Vigo home to go to bed at about 10 and everyone else went out in the rain.

Today, Sunday, we went to a cultural center built inside and old factory. They were having family day. We bought Vigo a mountain bike at a yard sale there. Erik and Vigo are at an adventure playground now, probably playing with fire. So far, after one week, we all like Berlin a lot.

Moviemaking in Bozeman

We made this movie in Bozeman, with Helmut's great friend Rudy's grandkids.



We just happened to show up at Rudy and Carol's house for a night when his daughters and grandkids were all there. It was really fun to meet Carol, Rudy's wife, and all his family. Vigo and little Rudy really hit it off. Vigo was very sad to have to say good-bye to him.

Getting Ready for a Sad Good-Bye

We're leaving Portland this afternoon, on our way to Bozeman, Montana, where we'll visit Helmut's friend Rudy. Vigo is extremely sad about leaving Portland. The other night he had a long, long cry over leaving his friends here and in Boston. He's thinking in very final terms, saying that he knows he'll never see any of his friends again and not quite believing me that he will. He misses his friends back in Somerville. There's a general air of sadness today and it's going to be a tough good-bye.

We're All Enjoying Portland

We've been in Portland for several days now. Vigo is really enjoying the kid companionship. The other day Di-Ann and Erik were getting ready to take the kids to a nearby park by bicycle. Vigo insisted that he did not want to ride on the trail-a-bike, and that he definitely could ride a bike even though he hadn't really ever ridden alone without training wheels before. So, we got out a bike, adjusted the seat, and he took off up and down the sidewalk to practice before the ride to the park.

And he was absolutely right. He can ride a bike.

Later this afternoon, we're going to all head out to Astoria and camp in a friend's back yard. Astoria is on the mouth of the Columbia River. It's crowded with sea lions, who gather there to munch on the salmon who come in and out of the river. It's a beautiful place. Vigo's excited about it.

We're planning to be off for the next leg of the trip this weekend.

Laguna Beach

It turns out the car repair is fairly minor. Erik, Vigo, and Sam are spending the day at Laguna Beach. The garage had a shuttle service for them! It looks like they'll camp there overnight and then be able to take off in the morning toward San Francisco. It'll be quite a long day of driving for them and for me, but I can't wait to see them tomorrow night!

Car Trouble

If you've been reading the travel log, you know that Erik and Vigo are having an amazing trip. Vigo is proud to be a junior ranger. Yesterday they were at Legoland in Carlsbad, CA. Vigo told me that he spent a lot of time in Miniland, which is a Lego replica of the United States. He found it disappointing, though, that Miniland did not include a mini Legoland, which would include a mini Miniland (and so on).

Unfortunately, after Legoland, they started to have some car trouble. I don't know any details, but Vigo informed me this morning that the check engine light is now flashing. Right now they are waiting for the Mazda dealership to open in San Juan Capistrano.

I have a ride to San Francisco early tomorrow morning. I'm sharing a car down with three other people and splitting gas and driving. Hopefully, Erik and Vigo and Sam will be able to make it to San Francisco aroudn the same time as I do. We're going to be hanging out with Erik's sister Birgit and her boyfriend Sam, who live there. Then we'll all drive back up to Portland together.