Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Stranger Danger Play
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."
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Bathtime Language Lesson
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."
"The ancient langauge," he replied.
"Which one? There are a lot of ancient languages."
"Elvish."
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Vigo worked like a champ
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.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
18. Internationales Elbe-Saale-Camp, Day 1
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)
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)
Monday, July 19, 2010
Late Fall to Early Summer...
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...
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...
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Busy Fall
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.
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.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Oktober
Vigo had to learn this poem for German class. He made this little movie with pictures he took himself, reciting the poem from memory.
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