Guten Tag!
If you can believe it, Missie and I decided not to go spend the next Eid vacation diving somewhere. I actually thought about it and wanted someplace green and maybe a little bit chilly – and of course with pork and good beer. So, yes we are headed to Germany on November 2nd until the 12th. Some of you might know that Missie spent time in Germany after high school with a group of Pilots she had met in Phoenix while they were attending pilot school. They treated her like the little sister and showed her the real Germany. Later, a couple of them visited us in Flagstaff and even later, both our boys went and lived with one of their families for a summer when they were 8 and 10. So, now we will be headed over to re-visit old friendships and see how well we have all aged. I have never been there, so I am really excited to see Germany with friends.
I really apologize for not having any pictures for the pasts several weeks – but we have really been hunkered down just trying to keep caught up. The process of adding in MYP this year has been a challenge to say the least. On top of that, the school has begun the process of becoming “Accredited” as a US school – lots to say about that, but I will hold my tongue. This equates to every teacher being appointed to 2 additional committees and all the glorious meetings that go with it. With 17 different committees all running in different directions, an unrealistic time line and in a culture of “inshalla”, things should get very interesting. Starting when we get back from Christmas holiday, there will be a team of auditors at the school for a week plus doing an evaluation. Along with that, the certifying agency, will be posting a series of anonymous surveys to be completed by teachers – wow, the reaction by administration after the outcomes of those should be extremely ………. volatile?
We went to an amazing concert the other night during South American week at the cultural center. Apparently, the Flamingo is believed to have originated in Uruguay – that might be argued by Argentina, but since they were the same country at one point it really makes no difference. So, we went to dinner with our friends from Argentina and then to see a Uruguay Flamingo Presentation. The musicians were made up of a pianist, 12 string guitarist, 6 string guitarist, upright base player and an incredible squeeze box player. The music was joined with three different vocalists and was a real treat of culture. We have tickets to go back to another event this next weekend.
We have been getting to see Koen on Skype about every other week and that has really cheered us up. He is growing so fast and we wish we were there to see every minute, but we are getting to see the changes from afar – miracles of technology.
Lesson of the Week: Always important to reunite old friendships.
Love to all,
Doug and Missie
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