Canada - Eh?

It's 3/5ths official! We are still waiting on Mia's (had to go through a different office for hers) and Bryan may have to wait a lifetime for his (not sure if he is eligible), but Bailey and Camden just received confirmation that they are in fact dual citizens of Canada and the U.S. They have been citizens of both since birth, but we didn't really know it.  Crazy as it is, it is a pretty cool benefit!

Happy Easter!

We have such a weird schedule for the next several weeks. Mia has school vacation for 2 weeks, Easter has shut down "life" for 3 full days here in Germany, Bay and Cam have vacation the 4th week, Frank (our bunny) is sick, which prevents us from spending the night anywhere away from home, and poor Bryan has to work throughout all of it. It is funny because with the German minimum 6 week paid vacation, plus oodles of Holidays (including Good Friday and Easter Monday), most everyone we know is off on vacation. Such a different world! Anyway, in the midst of a weird schedule and a sick Bunny, we still had a very nice Easter. The original plan was to spend the entire weekend in Bamberg, but instead Mia and I traveled there to meet friends for Good Friday (the most religious of German Holidays, but one to celebrate with friends and family). Of course Bailey, Camden, and Bryan still had work/school on Good Friday - makes sense doesn't it??? With Frank sick, we drove back home though that same day and then we all returned to Bamberg to have Easter Brunch on Sunday with friends. Mia was very happy to have Easter morning at home. Even though it is quite a simple affair - those traditions mean so much!. It was all in all a really nice Easter Weekend though. We hope you had a great Easter too!

Easter Morning!

Only a bite of carrot left :-)

Frank - oh how we love him!!!!

Mia even made an egg with his name on it :-)

Easter Eggs!

Easter Morning!

Each village decorates the town square with Easter Decorations - so cute!!!

Typical Bavarian - I love it!

Easter Bruch with friends - Camden and Mia fell in love with "Hugo" the Dog

And I think Hugo fell in love with them too :_)

And a Swiss Raclette Dinner to finish the Easter Holiday - not so typical for Easter, but typical for Winter in Bavaria - so it works :-)

Rome, Italy

My family was really very kind and let me sneak away with friends for a long weekend in Rome. We had such a nice time. The weather, the sights, the food, the wine, and of course the company were all fantastic.   Our group is quite an international bunch and it was so fun and interesting for me to learn about other cultures, perspectives etc.  It is also a true vacation of sorts, when only having the responsiblility of yourself. No worries about meeting other peoples needs and expectations, and for me that is so important to experience every once in a while. It was extra special too being in Rome for such a religious time. We were there for Palm Sunday and also in a Julbilee year (a Holy Year - that usually happens only every 25 -50 years and they open the Holy doors  - it was quite special.

The Vatican (the smallest country in the World - Vatican City :-))

We went to the Vatican Musum and Sistene Chapel. It is unbelievable to see the miles of art and architecture! 

The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel was gorgeous. Michaelangelo did a pretty amazing job. 

The Post office at the Vatican :-)

A Swiss Guard

Gelato!!!

The top of the Pantheon (an architectural wonder - it has a hole in the ceiling and the rain falls right through (it was designed to give you direct access to heaven, but such an amazing building to have been so well designed for drainage so long ago!)

The Pantheon from the outside

My dinner one night. Fresh Pasta hanging before being cut up to be cooked. Delicious!

An evening procession (hard to see, but pretty cool)

One day, we just bought fresh cheese, pesto, sundried tomatoes, olives etc. for our dinner.

so yummy!

This was really neat -  The sacred steps - A church where you climb on your knees each step up - saying prayers along the way. It is said to have drops of Jesus' blood on it.

There was much more security this visit than the last time we were there. Not sure if it was for Easter or if that is just the new sign of the times.  

One of the Holy doors - they only open every 25 -50 years for the Jubilee.

Palms everywhere on Palm Sunday (really they were Olive Branches

One morning we went for a run - it was so neat to run around such amazing sights

We asked a police woman what her favorite "non tourist" thing to do was - she told us about a hidden cafe at the top of this bulding. The views were amaing!

The Roman Forum

Looking up to Paletine Hill

The view from the Restaurant that the Police Woman recommended. You can see the hills of Rome in the distance. Gorgeous!

The same view - but a little zoomed in and a little later in the evening.

Not sure if I could parallel park in this city!

If you look closely - this building looks like a Chinese statue with a hat :-)

Our yummy dinner of cheese, tomatoes olives, bread, and wine!

We ran into this line. We noticed it was all locals (not many tourists at all). People waited patiently for 5 hours!

The line went on for ever! It was to go through one of the Holy doors that is only open for 2 days (Palm Sunday was one of them). I think it must have been a pilgrimage and if you wanted to include all of the Holy doors of Rome on your pilgrimage  - you had to get in on one of those 2 days (the reason for the long line and also the patience for the long line also).

Beutiful view of the city

There is  even a Pyramid in Rome (we didn't see that the last visit)

As always, something has to be renovated on our trip. Here were the famous Spanish Steps all closed off. You could go up the side though and there was a beautiful roof top cafe at the top.

So pretty!

"The Pope" being checked out by the police to make sure he is in compliance with street enteratainers :-)

Another picture of the view from that special "non touristy" place - we went back for a second night too!

The Forum!

Romulus, Remus, and the Wolf

And if you look closely, we even had a view of the snowcapped Alps on the way home. Such a nice getaway weekend! And now back to much colder Germany!

Mia's school update

*Yes - once again, I will bore you to death, but it really is so fascinating for me and I do want to remember all of it - so here I go again.... :-)

Our family has gotten such a kick out of Mia's school. It is so cute and different for sure! One of the new things that makes me smile is the morning routine. The school kids (those that live in the surrounding villages) come into the city by public train and bus each day. Some of the kids in her class live in the city and some live in surrounding villages (up to 30 minutes away). Our town has about 7 schools to choose from, so you can image it is bustling with students each morning and afternoon. The latest daily "trend" is for several of her friends is to all meet at our house after they get into the city and then walk together to school. The doorbell keeps ringing as more kids pile in to our house :-). It is one of the cutest things to see and it really sums up the difference in child rearing between our two cultures. Once kids are in 5th grade, they are expected to act mature enough to function in society with independence. While the "helicopter Mom" in me is a bit nervous, the "German" in me has relaxed A LOT and is enjoying watching the confidence and growth that comes with independence and responsibility (even if it is only at the young age of 10).  It truly makes me smile - and sometimes laugh out loud too :-).

With regard to her schooling this is my new perspective... As an American, with a child who has the ability to go back and forth between the two school systems, I absolutely love love love the German School System. If I were German though and this was the only system that I was privy too, I may feel a bit differently. Let me explain... The German system is HARD. You get only 2 report cards a year (basically 2 Semsters of school). Each Semester, in each subject you have; 2 "X's" (pop quizzes), 1-2 "schulaufgaben" (these are tests, and there is never multiple choice or true false - they want o know what you know through short answer or essays) and the possibility of getting "abgefragt" 1-3 times). To be "abgefragt" means spontaniously (with out prior notice), you get called up to the front of the class to answer 10- 20 or so questions verbally on the subject matter (for a grade). Basically it is like a verbal pop quiz with your entire class staring at you. There is homework to help you learn, but the homework doesn't count for the grade. That is all. As you can imagine, it is very stressful and not easy. The other aspect to this is that the grading is extremely harsh. Things that would not be marked off for in our system, get marked off for in the German system.  She is getting an amazing education and learning; how to study, how to think, how to memorize, and to improve etc.  As Bailey is looking at colleges, I laugh at the fact that there are many schools in the U.S. with an average early acceptance GPA of 4.1. What that means is that those kids in the American System are told that they are better than perfect (how is that possibile?). The AP classes obvioulsy push the GPA's over 4.0, but still it really doesn't make sense. You would never get that in the German system and even the smartest kids in the class would not get all A's (or 1's as they would call it). I am not sure, but I think it is by design - that way kids always know that there is room for improvement. Bailey had a good friend who had gone through the middle school years in the German Real Schule (not the highest school, not the lowest either, but still a very difficult school). He received 3's for several grades that ended up transferring to C's on his American High School transcript. The funny thing though, is that they would probably be worthy of A's (especially for basic courses that weren't honors or AP). There is no comparison. Going back to my original thought here though, the reason I am grateful for having access to both school systems, is that I know Mia always has the option of going back into the American system , where she will be fine to go to University. If I only had the German system, it would be very stressful thinking about the future. So far, she is holding her own quite well. It is very hard though and I know she feels the stress. Next year, she will add Latin or French (she is leaning towards French) which will add even more stress. In 7th grade, Physics will be added, and in 8th grade a 4th language is added- yikes!!! Funny enough, I have a new friend here that was telling me that her child did not make it in Mia's school (he either had to drop a school level down or move to the American school). His father is American, so he switched to Bailey and Camden's school. He is now just about to graduate in the U.S. with an Engineering degree. Interesting though that he would have not been able to go to German University. Definitely something to think about. Yes - it is great having her in the system for the education itself, but I am glad that we always have a choice :-).

One more tidbit to add.... It is free for students to go to University in Germany. Of course, you still must pay for your housing and food (which by the way is much more reasonable than in the U.S), but the education and books are free. The kicker though (as you can imagine from what I wrote above) is that not everyone will be able to go to University. The good thing is that in order to make a decent living and have a good life, not everyone here has to go to Uni. Such a different system!!!

Again, pictures from the 5th grade biololgy book. The book is not nearly as thick as textbooks are today in the U.S. (maybe 120 pages as opposed to 200 pages), but kids will have learned every bit of it and will have to remember it to build on to later. Camden is taking 9th grade Biology and it is much easier than Mia's 5th grade Biology class.

Mia had her pop verbal quiz (abgefragen) and it was quite stressful. They have to memorize a Semesters worth of biological systems - definitely not easy!