Do you know where your child is?--Woche 30

We were down in numbers this week.  Dan traveled to Antwerp and was gone for most of the week.  Dane had his class trip and was gone from Wednesday to Friday night.  For his trip, he went to St. Johann and stayed at a Jugendhotel.  From what I gather, it is kind of like a youth hostel, where they have several activities that the kids can do like ropes courses, swimming, and zip lines.  The school plans their yearly overnight trips at the beginning of the school year because there is so much turn over in the school from year to year.  Having the trip at the beginning enables all of the new kids and all of the old kids whose friends moved out, to get to know each other and create bonds of friendship before the school year really starts.  Another way the school enables more team building is by not allowing any parents to attend this trip.  There are strictly no parents or cell phones allowed.  All of the chaperones are the teachers and school staff.  Dane really enjoyed the trip this year.  He still had a couple of friends from last year and was able to make a couple of new friends too.

Deagan got to pick his instrument to play and he got to bring it home.  He is going to play the viola!  He is very excited.  They have learned how to hold it properly and how to take care of it.  During the next couple of weeks, they have to earn their bows and their rosin.  Deagan has practiced and practiced holding his viola.  He has just started to learn to pluck the strings to get to know the sounds and notes.

Dan had his business run this week.  He returned home from Antwerp on Thursday night and headed straight to the start line for his race.  He was running a 4.1K race.  He was on a team, and the three of them would use their combined time to place.  Dan was able to run his in 18:49.  He came in 2nd in the men's group for all of Lilly and Elanco.  His team mates were not as fast, and his team ended up coming in second to last.  Dan was proud of his run (as he has not run for a couple of years since the doctors told him not to run anymore) and was glad he met his goal. 

Deagan got to have a fun experience this week.  I dropped him off at soccer practice on Friday afternoon.  Dyllan and I parked the car and then went to watch.  We were informed that we were not allowed to watch this practice.  We were told that the coach would be back at the gate in 2 hours with a ticket.  I would need to take the ticket and then head into the stadium to pick up Deagan.  Well, we waited for 2 hours, then we waited by the gate.  And we waited and waited and waited.  At 6:30, I finally gave up and texted the coach.  He called me back, but the coach does not speak any English and we couldn't communicate very well over the phone.  He finally handed the phone to Deagan.  I talked to Deagan and asked him if he was finished.  His response, "I don't know"  When will you be done? "I don't know."  Where are you? "I don't know."  So, finally, I told him that I needed to leave to go pick up Dane, but that Dan was there and would meet him by the gate.  Deagan said he would go over to the gate and meet him there.  Fifteen minutes later, Deagan was still not there.  We found out that there was a professional game going on that night.  Dan bought a ticket and headed into the stadium.  Just as he got into the stadium, he saw Deagan on the field with a professional player.  Deagan's whole team was able to run out onto the field with the professional players at the beginning of the game.  It would have been a lot more fun, if we knew what was going on.  Dan finally found Deagan and they watched the half of the game together before I came back to pick them up. 

Saturday morning, Dan and I were able to go for a run along the Danube.  We loved having the time together and being able to visit.  There weren't too many people out on a beautiful morning.  The biggest hazard of running in the early morning is avoiding all of the huge slugs out on the trail and dodging the homeless crowd and smell under all the bridges and by all the subway stops.  We have decided from now on, that all runs will go north along the river out of the city instead of into the city.  We passed by a lot of graffiti that we don't normally get to see when you drive by.  Here is a sample of some of the quality stuff around town. 







The kids had the annual kick off BBQ at the school on Saturday morning.  They had food and tons of activities for the kids to do.  We played for awhile then we headed back home.  Deagan enjoyed the face painting, as he got to be a vampire.  Dane played soccer and Dyllan played with Danyon and had fun exploring the fire engine.  As this is our second BBQ, we realized that arriving on time just meant that you had to wait for the food.  Coming late guaranteed immediate gastronomic satisfaction and a shorter line.  It pays to be a veteran at these things.  We also broke down and bought some school sweatshirts.  The school is always asking for money, and we found this to be a way to donate to the school but not just handing out cash for who knows what.  You would think that the very steep admission fees of more than 20,000 Euro/kid/year would be enough.  Allynn has vowed, however, that if they promise to use her money for a parking lot that parents can park in, she would be a platinum sponsor!  This makes Dan very nervous, but come on, what are the chances they are going to tear up the brand new outdoor classroom to make way for a safer, more convenient way of picking up our children without blocking all surrounding roads.

The Artis Theater

Dan and I headed out to a movie on Saturday night without Danyon.  We thought it might be interesting to mention how they do movies at one of the English movie theaters in town.  The movie started at 6:00pm.  We were at the box office at 5:40.  We bought our tickets and then headed to concessions.  We bought our popcorn which is reasonably priced.  We can get a large bucket of popcorn, 2 drinks, and a bag of candy for under 10 Euro.  (The other theater across town was priced at over 20 for just the popcorn).  We headed to our theater.  The door was closed, but, after opening it, we found no one inside.  So we went in, and found our seats (we have assigned seats at this theater).  Right at 6:00pm, the doors opened, and a lady told us something in German, of which we only caught the last bit:  have fun.  Then people started coming into the theater.  From what I gather, we were not supposed to come into the theater until the doors were opened.  I guess when the movie starts at 6:00, it means that the doors open at 6:00.  The previews do not last long--there were only 2.  The theater was far from being full.  Out of 250 seats, only about 30 of them were taken, but since they were assigned seats, we were all lumped together towards the middle.  I felt a little cramped in space, especially since there were so many open seats around the theater, but we were all stuffed together.  Making out in the back of the theater would not be an option here!  We had a great time and were glad to spend time together.