Sunday, September 16, 2007

Der Erste Schultag...

or first day of school in German. Oddly enough, Emily started first grade on Saturday. In Germany, first grade is the first day of school as kindergarten is a private affair where kids primarily play. The day started with a church service, one for Catholics and another for Protestants. Coming from a country that at least feigns separation of church and state, this practice seems extremely odd, particularly given the large population of Muslums in Germany.

After the church service, we all went to the school for a presentation by the second graders. Unfortunately, Robert didn't participate. That's a "whole 'nother talk show" as they say. We're hoping he'll be included in this type of activity once his German improves. I'll limit my rant to that.

After the presentation, the kids were divided into different classes. Emily's teacher is one of the most highly regarded at the school so we're very excited. Although she gets frustrated when she doesn't understand German, I'm pretty sure she'll absorb it quickly. The kids spent some time getting familiar with the classroom then we took Emily to Jumpinn where she had two consecutive birthday parties. Quite a day!

That evening B and I went to Schwetzingen with her mom and grandmother, who are visiting from Brazil. We had dinner at Zum Ritter (like we did last weekend). While our lives are getting quite repetitive, with the number of guests we've had we've learned it's best just to go for the "easy money" locations. A great time was had by all and, between Hefe's, I was able to take some decent shots.

There was a wedding car parked near the Truckster. I finally made one of the highly stylized HDR shots I've seen alot poking around the Web. The others are HDR as well but much more conventional.

Finally, Vovó (grandma in Portuguese) brought the kids super hero costumes as promised. The kids are already wearing them out. Cute, no?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great pictures! Kids pick up the language very quickly in no time. I wish I could say the same for me. Maybe I ought to enter German Grammar school too?