Saturday, August 30, 2008
New Blog
I've added yet another link to the Blog Column, that I pirated from my friend Amy's blog. I have no clue who this guy is but s/he apparently used to snap interesting pictures and comment on peculiar things. Maybe this mystery person has gone home cause they haven't posted since December?
Check out the Kinder Blog
Check out Chance's class blog (in blog list below left) for some updated pictures of our little guy in action. I love seeing what he is doing everyday. He must really love it cause yesterday when I picked him up he said "Mommy, what day is tomorrow? Is it Monday? I want tomorrow to be Monday so I can go to school again".
Friday, August 29, 2008
TGIF
Yeah, it's Friday. We've had a great week settling in to our new routine, and Chance has come out with flying colors...still full of energy and eager to go to school today. Looking forward to a relaxing weekend.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
The Not-So-Good Samaritan
The current theme at Chance’s school is “Community Helpers”. They are learning about all the different professions one can hold and how they each help their community, such as doctors, dentists, firefighters, etc.
The quote of the day on the way to school this morning was “Mommy, when I grow up I want to be a dentist. Everyone else in my class wants to be a firefighter, but I don’t want to cause that is too dangerous.” Now how at the age of 4 does one become already so cautious? It’s amazing how the personality of someone is fixed in the genes.
And on the subject of community helpers, we’ve been reading the Bible story with Chance of the Good Samaritan……
On our way home from school, we have to switch from the 9 tram to the 8 tram which are on opposing parallel tracks, and sometimes the 8 and 9 arrive at the same time, so we are forced to run thru the hords of people disembarking the 9, run across the tracks and jump on to the 8 before it takes off. It’s always chaos, and to add to the mess I am always lugging my heavy bag, Chance’s 100 lb backpack, and his scooter, while at the same time making sure he doesn’t get hit by the racing traffic speeding by just to our left. It’s fast and furious and I’m not always thinking or prepared for anything to stand in my way of getting us on to the 8 tram.
Yesterday there was a slight obstacle in my way, an old grey haired blind man standing in the tracks of the 8, right in front of it, very disoriented and waving his blind stick while shouting something…..to which I didn’t understand a thing. But I could deduct that he was trying to figure out to where to go, I just didn’t understand where.
Clearly I am overloaded but instinct tells me to help this poor man. Keep in mind I have never lead a blind man before nor can I speak or understand much Swiss and in hind sight there should have been a couple things I should have kept in mind…….
I probably should have announced that I was going to help him instead of startling the poor already-distressed guy as I grabbed his arm to lead him across the street. I too probably should have let him hold on to me instead of me holding on to him.
I was focused on getting this guy out from the tracks, and me and Chance onto the tram. I figured if I got him up on the platform, someone else could take over. So in the heat of it all, I probably should have noticed the large pole on the platform that I walked that poor man straight in to. Peripheral vision is just something blind people don’t have, and I was sadly reminded of that as he straddles this pole and bonks his head…..then begins to scream obscenities. Then If I could have deciphered the Swiss, I would have known that all he wanted to do was get on the 8 tram just like me.
Meanwhile the tram driver is seeing this atrocity play out right in front of his eyes, along with the other 100 passengers looking on. Finally the poor man makes it on to the tram with little help from me, and I get the worst stares from all the spectators as we too shamelessly board the tram.
I think I need some more training in good samaritanism, or leading blind people….one of the two. Poor little old man.
The quote of the day on the way to school this morning was “Mommy, when I grow up I want to be a dentist. Everyone else in my class wants to be a firefighter, but I don’t want to cause that is too dangerous.” Now how at the age of 4 does one become already so cautious? It’s amazing how the personality of someone is fixed in the genes.
And on the subject of community helpers, we’ve been reading the Bible story with Chance of the Good Samaritan……
On our way home from school, we have to switch from the 9 tram to the 8 tram which are on opposing parallel tracks, and sometimes the 8 and 9 arrive at the same time, so we are forced to run thru the hords of people disembarking the 9, run across the tracks and jump on to the 8 before it takes off. It’s always chaos, and to add to the mess I am always lugging my heavy bag, Chance’s 100 lb backpack, and his scooter, while at the same time making sure he doesn’t get hit by the racing traffic speeding by just to our left. It’s fast and furious and I’m not always thinking or prepared for anything to stand in my way of getting us on to the 8 tram.
Yesterday there was a slight obstacle in my way, an old grey haired blind man standing in the tracks of the 8, right in front of it, very disoriented and waving his blind stick while shouting something…..to which I didn’t understand a thing. But I could deduct that he was trying to figure out to where to go, I just didn’t understand where.
Clearly I am overloaded but instinct tells me to help this poor man. Keep in mind I have never lead a blind man before nor can I speak or understand much Swiss and in hind sight there should have been a couple things I should have kept in mind…….
I probably should have announced that I was going to help him instead of startling the poor already-distressed guy as I grabbed his arm to lead him across the street. I too probably should have let him hold on to me instead of me holding on to him.
I was focused on getting this guy out from the tracks, and me and Chance onto the tram. I figured if I got him up on the platform, someone else could take over. So in the heat of it all, I probably should have noticed the large pole on the platform that I walked that poor man straight in to. Peripheral vision is just something blind people don’t have, and I was sadly reminded of that as he straddles this pole and bonks his head…..then begins to scream obscenities. Then If I could have deciphered the Swiss, I would have known that all he wanted to do was get on the 8 tram just like me.
Meanwhile the tram driver is seeing this atrocity play out right in front of his eyes, along with the other 100 passengers looking on. Finally the poor man makes it on to the tram with little help from me, and I get the worst stares from all the spectators as we too shamelessly board the tram.
I think I need some more training in good samaritanism, or leading blind people….one of the two. Poor little old man.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
New Years Resolution, Take 2
My last years New Years resolution was to blog more, try every day to put something up there so we can have as many memories of our time here as possible. Well, I'm still working on that one....but working to post a little more now than usual, so here goes. More pics have been posted to the left under LATE SUMMER 08.
Across the street from Chance's school is the Glattzentrum, known here as "The Glatt". It's about as close to a mall as you can get here in the Zurich area, and walking around it brings back comforting memories of strolling the Barton Creek Mall. But here it's smaller, but good things come in small packages: like the huge grocery store they have there - almost like a Super Walmart, equipped with all the things one could want and more. In 30 minutes I was able to get Chance a painting apron for school, Ryan a couple more bike shirts, and groceries for dinner tonight. Then I stopped off at the post office and pharmacy while there, had a coffee with my new friend from Serbia, Katarina, and browsed all of the new winter clothes just coming out in all the store windows. I really like efficiency.
Today when I was leaving the Glatt, I had to walk back past Chance's school and there he was just leaving the playground. There was at least 50 kids out there, all different ages from what I could tell from their heights, and I quickly hid behind a billboard so that he couldn't see me. It was so fun to watch him in action. They had paired the little kids with older ones, and each was holding an older kids hand. It was so nice to see him happy and at ease.
We are thinking of enrolling him in soccer one day a wek after school......it's for K-2nd grade, so we'll see if he has any interest again today when I ask him. It'd start tomorrow.
Across the street from Chance's school is the Glattzentrum, known here as "The Glatt". It's about as close to a mall as you can get here in the Zurich area, and walking around it brings back comforting memories of strolling the Barton Creek Mall. But here it's smaller, but good things come in small packages: like the huge grocery store they have there - almost like a Super Walmart, equipped with all the things one could want and more. In 30 minutes I was able to get Chance a painting apron for school, Ryan a couple more bike shirts, and groceries for dinner tonight. Then I stopped off at the post office and pharmacy while there, had a coffee with my new friend from Serbia, Katarina, and browsed all of the new winter clothes just coming out in all the store windows. I really like efficiency.
Today when I was leaving the Glatt, I had to walk back past Chance's school and there he was just leaving the playground. There was at least 50 kids out there, all different ages from what I could tell from their heights, and I quickly hid behind a billboard so that he couldn't see me. It was so fun to watch him in action. They had paired the little kids with older ones, and each was holding an older kids hand. It was so nice to see him happy and at ease.
We are thinking of enrolling him in soccer one day a wek after school......it's for K-2nd grade, so we'll see if he has any interest again today when I ask him. It'd start tomorrow.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Phew!
Today when I picked Chance up from school, he was happy as ever and told me with excitement "Mommy I had a really good day, and I was nice the whole day!". I spoke with his teacher after class to see how things went, and she re-iterated to me that this was the place he definitely needed to be, and that he was on par with the rest of the kids in terms of skill level and social/emotional development. I keep worrying that he is the youngest in the class but I guess we can continue to monitor him. I just keep thinking of my munchkin and how much he has grown since the first days of being a little longhorn...
But a big relief off that the second day of kinder was a good one! PHEW!
But a big relief off that the second day of kinder was a good one! PHEW!
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