From the Principal’s office Day 6…
Today was a lesson on flexibility. Sometimes Type A people have difficulty with this. Since I am a recovering Type A..I rolled with it pretty well. I guess I should start at the beginning. We arrived at the AGI and met up with the kiddos and their host siblings. we were all set to meet with them for an hour of discussion and reflection, an then off to the scavenger hunt at 10. Well…due to testing schedules, we had to have our host siblings back by 11:30, so we had to start early…before many things opened. So the kids had to skip a few items. while the students were scavenging…ie taking pics and making videos to correspond to the hunt, Kathryn and I ventured into the city to buy the materials we needed to make the schultuete- a cone filled with goodies and school supplies that is traditionally given to students when they enter school-to make with Herr Bower’s students.
We lunched at the university, and they were so very helpful and patient with our large group of school aged students. In the US, a Buffet is usually “all you can eat’, but this was not the case here. In any event, the kids had a nice lunch before we walked to the international school for schultuete. I was a little nervous about how this would work out because we weren’t sure of the head count, and we were sort of ‘winging’ it with the creation of the cone. It ended up working out, and I was so very impressed with the students as they used their German to introduce themselves, and interact with others. I would say the best thing about the international school was meeting kids who come from all over the world and are there to learn either German or English. I also met a kid named Jasper. I was joking that at approximately 9 years old, my guess he was named after the character in twilight. Guess who was right! Yep.
Just before setting off the the AGI so the kids could get picked up, we got an emergency call that one of the kids had to get a cab to the train station stat, because the river is at flood stages and causing problems with public transit. Elaine rushed with the boy to the station and got him reunited with his host family, and we all made it back to the AGI. After the students were safely with their host families, the adults headed out for some adult beverages and dinner with Rosi.
Meanwhile, back on the home front, my poor husband can’t get in contact with me because I had no signal in the city center. Jake had an orthodontic catastrophe, and Don was ready to hop a plane to claim my corpse. Turns out Jill saved the day and took Jake to Ortho, and Don isn’t a widower. I guess after yesterday’s butt dial fiasco and hearing the happy screams and shrieks of children at play (which could also be interpreted as shrieks of terror) it is no wonder he is a little on edge when he couldn’t get in contact. Sorry honey.
After a lovely meal and conversation, and beer, Rosi drove me back to Hall in Tirol just in time to see the river had risen again- did I mention that there is a huge river outside Laura’s house? It rose significantly overnight, but over the course of the day, continued rising. Laura’s family had to move everything out of the basement and plug in a sump pump. Kathryn is now camped out on the living room floor.
And now once again, I am wrapping up another busy day!
