Fiona's goodbye party

Of all the things we'll miss about life here in Weimar, it's Fiona's school that we'll miss the most. I was so nervous to send her- we headed for Germany and she'd never been to school before, never spoken German, and we'd never seen the place. We were going on its location (right down the street from our school) and recommendations of teachers at school (who we'd never met).

I think we were lucky. Fiona's school has been the single best part of our experience here. She's fluent in German (something we're going to try to keep up at home, but will not be easy) and speaks effortlessly with her friends, their parents, and locals- in a local accent. (A side note- the local accent is about the equivalent to an American having an accent from Arkansas or maybe Missouri. But. It's cool for her to speak without an American accent anyway). She's learned to ride a two wheel bike, climb a rope ladder, and hop on one foot. She has done science experiments and learned all sorts of things about trees, plants, and flowers. Did you know snowbells are the first flowers of spring? Fiona does.

Aside from all the academic and physical benefits she's gotten from Kindergarten, she's gained so much social confidence. She is now the kid on the playground who will race up to another child, grab hands, and become best pals for the afternoon. Fiona is, I think, more confident approaching children in German (it's her language of play- she doesn't really interact with any English speaking children) than in English, and we're delighted that she's so confident. Her school friends are lovely little girls (and one or two boys) who are disappointed to see her go.

Fiona's friends threw a goodbye party for her on Saturday. These charming little ladies (and their parents!) gave Fiona gifts (one of which is an autograph book, very popular with the elementary school crowd here in Germany, with a page dedicated to each child in her class, with photos, information about favorite food, color, animal, etc, and address), and made their own pizzas. It was touching that they will miss her so much and thoughtful of the parents to invite her to this party. Fiona was thrilled and honored to be the center of attention.

There are things we'll miss about our lifestyle here, like traveling, all the fests and markets, and Russ will miss the sausage, beer, and the lack of an open container law. And while we're delighted to get back to Target, red meat, friends and family, if we could only pick up Fiona's Kindergarten and its students, teachers, and curriculum and place it in Haverhill, we wouldn't blink an eye about getting on that plane next week.