Lyon, July 2008

We went to Lyon after Dijon and stayed with the Dury family... Michael works with Olivier... The Dury family is lovely... Elodie was a wonderful tour guide and chef; and the girls, Amelie and AnnieGirl were asolutely adorable. We visited the main square of Lyon, had a race and climbed a statue... we visited the Roman ruins and a park... we toured the old city and got soaked in a downpour...and in the end, we be-moaned the fact that arranged marriages are not so common in the U.S. or France... (As Rowan and Amelie clearly hit it off well... ) ;-)

Dijon, July 2008

Dijon was a lovely trip... it rained some, and lots of things were closed; but on the plus-side, we got to chase pigeons out of a cathedral, see giant wine presses and have good wine and the cheesiest pizza ever...

Hot air balloon

Rowan checking out a hotair balloon...

SISS Summer Olympics....

Rowan's school had their own "Olympics"... Rowan's class had water games, so they did "bobbing for apples" and water balloon games... The first game was to pass the water balloons without using your hands... one mom was very creative... and flexible...

Rowan went up against his teacher, Miss Jenni... Miss Jenni won by a landslide, but a few minutes later, Rowan also caught his apple...


Water balloon fighting....

Ahhh, Rowan being helpful to a young lady....

There are so many things wrong with this.... ;-)

"Roman Days" at School

As part of their History lessons, the kids in rowan's class learned about Rome. They went outside and built "Colloseums" (Colloseii?) and ate gelato and then had a Roman banquet where they wore togas and ate grapes and cheese....

Judo class pics...

Rowan took about 10 weeks of "Judo" lessons... I'm not sure what qualifies as Judo here, so I'm putting it in quotes because all they really did was wrestle a little bit, fall down a lot and run around screaming like wild wolf-children...
For 4 euro per week, I couldn't ask for more!
"Krebsfussbol"... "Crab-soccer"....
Learning how to properly fall down... this took most of the kids all 10 weeks to learn, and some still weren't getting it.... it was contrary to gravity and all sense of self-preservation...

Hessen Park

Back in Mai, Rowan's class took a trip to a place called "Hessen Park". It's a "colonial village" type thing except some of the buildings date back to the middle ages (I think one of them was from the 1100's!!) Here are some pics:



Leon, Sonja and Rowan enjoying some candies they purchased at the sweets shop...


It rained during lunch...

Ahhh, little boys....

They say everyone has a twin somewhere...

The old word I heard was "Doppleganger", though if you say that here in Germany, people look at you like you are speaking Chinese...

Rowan and I were waiting at a tram-stop a few months ago when we saw this poster...both of us stopped and stared... Rowan turned to me and said: "Look! It's Uncle Rob!"....

Look at the teeth Kate- it's like Rob's teeth if he'd worn braces!

Definitely not in Kansas anymore...

OK, I was just thinking about how Germany is really very similar to the U.S... then I started thinking about the few things which really stand out as major differences...in a negative way...

In Germany, homeschooling is illegal.
Yes, I said I L L E G A L. It's called "child endangerment" here... Wanna see danger, go look at the playground of Rowan's school... talk about child endangerment- everything there is sharp, hard or pointy...

There is also an interesting law in Germany that you cannot use an honorific (?) or professional title (i.e., Doctor) unless 1) you received the degree in Germany, or 2) the degree you received was reviewed and approved by the appropriate governmental agency in Berlin. Even if you have a medical degree from Harvard, you face 1 year in German prison if you use the title of "Dr." without the proper prior "clearance" in Germany...

If I come up with any strange laws on the positive side, I'll update....

One more: I just learned that it is illegal in Germany to spank your child... I'm still trying to find an english version of the law to see exactly what it says...

The Further Adventures of the Flat Stanleys...

One final adventure in Germany for the Flat Stanleys before they are sent back home to John Patrick and Marcus... We took the boys to the DarmstadterMess (Fair). This is the beginning of the Fair season in Germany...it just gets better and bigger from here....

Ouch, my leg folded-up....CRAMP, CRAMP!!!!!!

I want to ride the ponies!

At 2 euro per ride, only Rowan got to ride the ponies...

Hey boyz, less getta nuther drinkie-pooh, whaddaya say? Hic!

Oops, looks like somebody had a little too much... you gotta learn when to say when, man!

Flat Stanley, Part 2 (Marcus & JP)

About 2 weeks ago, we received another little friend in the mail...this time it was a Flat Stanley from Marcus Figarito (Rob's girlfriend's son...) We decided to take the two Flat Stanley's together with us to Felsenmeer...literally "rock sea". This beautiful place was created when the last iceage glacier retreated back to the far north. These boulders stretch for a few miles thru a little valley about 1/2 hour from our house. It is not an easy hike up the boulders, but it was fun. (Little German children, unguarded by parents, hop from boulder to boulder like little mountain goats... agile and unafraid... It was freaking me out badly!)

The boulders just end abruptly at the bottom of a little valley. This is where we begn our hike.

Rowan took a moment to bond with the Stanleys...

The Stanleys didn't have much work to do, they hitched a ride in my back-pack.

We took a little break about 1/2 way thru our hike...

There's one of those mountain goat German kids...

We went as high as the highest people seen in the distance of this photo, but that's less than 1/4 of the full felsenmeer... It was exhausting!

This pic gives you an idea of how big these rocks are...

As usual, after any activity in Germany, a little beer afterwards....