First day of school

For a family that is used to school starting on Tuesday following Labor Day, it seemed slightly premature with the kids heading off to school a week earlier. The fact that we got up at 5:30 AM made it even more evident. Nonetheless, all of us were pretty excited this morning. Walking as a family to the U-bahn, riding south to Zellendorf, waiting for the bus, riding the bus with a number of other families, and then seeing more and more families the closer we got to the John F. Kennedy School...all of it was an exciting transition into the next phase of our life in Berlin. Owen was having an easier time of it than Lily, and we think that his age is good for seeking new friends and wanting to be part of the group without having to be too cool. Lily, on the other hand, is now a teenager and the at the orientation meeting last Friday, we could see the young teenage girls sizing each other up. Gina and I feel for Lily, but then she has a tremendous amount of self-assurance and we are confident she will do fine. Still, it is tough to watch Lily wading in these waters.






When I returned home this evening, I found a different family. Lily and Owen had spent the bus ride home from Owen's new friend house trying the best to annoy each other. So, when I entered the house, no one was talking to anyone. Owen was playing upstairs with Lego's and gave me a muffled, "hi dad". Lily was working on an art project..."I don't want to talk now, I'll talk at dinner", and Gina was working on email...as it was now prime morning time in Oregon. Hmmm. We Shellhammers are at the mercy of low blood sugar, so dinner did it's magic and with some patience we returned to ourselves and the kids could share the details of the day. Owen loves his homeroom teach, Frau Pape, but is still surprised at how much moving around he does relative to his school day at Garfield. Lily has 13 different subjects...make my head spin a bit. The vote is still out on who and what she loves and what she doesn't. We'll fill you in when we know more.