6:45 came painfully early for all of us. But we got the kids up, dressed, fed, and out the door in good order. The kids start school at the same time, so I took Alex in, while Dennis took Ella. I'm sorry to say that Alex's day didn't quite go as planned, however. He, Joey, and I stood in the entryway, with little kids buzzing around with their paintbrushes and smiles, looking bewildered, and I finally asked for Alex's teacher by name (no one looked likely). She came out of a work room, threw up her hands, and said "No, no! No one told me you were coming!" Alex's teacher has a long grey ponytail and kind eyes. She welcomed Alex nicely and shook his hand, but apologized and said that taking him today would be just impossible, and asked that I give her a day to prepare. He also needed to have some supplies of his own: a change of gym clothes (they have gym twice a week) and, of all things, a pair of soft-soled school shoes to wear strictly in the classroom.
Her English was shaky but present--I have no doubt that she'll be able to make Alex quite comfortable and happy in her classroom. And the room looked lovely, as, I'm sure you'll agree with me, a Kindergarten should: musical instruments hanging on the walls, dress-up clothes on hooks, paint sitting out for the kids to use, kid art everywhere, and not a desk in sight. I couldn't get a feel for how many other little kids will be in the class with Alex, but I'm sure it's fewer than twenty. They looked like nice little kids, too.
Alex was a little embarrassed and bewildered about being turned away--he'd steeled himself for this big day, and then it didn't happen. But he was happy enough to trot away with me, although it meant a morning of tagging along on chores...
Ella, on the other hand, fared much better. There are two second grade classes at her school, and she is the 13th child in her class. (There was also another new girl who started today, so before Christmas there were all of 11 children in her class!) The schedule at her school is unusual. The class is divided into two teams, red and blue (Ella is a red); Mondays, only the blue team has school after lunch, and Tuesdays, only the red. That means Ella only had school from 8:10-12:00 today. The class divides for other subjects and activities as well, creating an extremely low teacher:student ratio.
The kids break for an hour and a half each day and head home for lunch, and then return from 1:30-3:30. They also have three recesses throughout the day, and, on Wednesdays, everyone has a half-day, not returning after lunch. Ella will end up having a little extra school: her German-as-a second-language classes will happen before school twice a week. Luckily, she's firmly a morning person.
Ella's teacher is actually about to take a 3-month leave of absence. Dennis wasn't entirely clear on the details, but she's going to be working on a movie in New Zealand. But he said she spoke extremely good English, and she said that her long-term substitute speaks perfect English, British English. So our little Ella will be just fine.
We didn't have a supply list for Ella, either; she, too, needed special shoes and gym clothes. The rest of her list was short: just two pencils, a pair of scissors, and a set of colored pencils. Oh, and a bathing suit, a towel, and a swim cap for Wednesdays, when the class swims for gym class! But it's a nice, welcome change from American schools where the school supply list runs the length of a page and costs upwards of a hundred dollars.
Because Ella had gym today, Dennis had to hurry home and get fetch clothes for Ella. He said when he returned the class was just breaking for recess, and Ella was in the middle of a huddle of three girls, all eager to take Ella outside to play. She looked overwhelmed but happy. He said all the kids seemed very nice, and I believe him. Later, when I went to fetch her, the sweetest little girl, her classmate, walked partway home with us. She was all smiles and innocent charm.
But that was later. Dennis and the boys and I had to go across town today to the American consulate to meet with their notary about some mortgage refinancing papers. It was a dull errand, but the boys had some crayons and were really good and patient. Once again, we goofed and forgot the passports for the boys. The consulate building is secure, with metal detectors and a visitors log, and the entry guard was quite stern with us: this just wouldn't do! It's impossible! It's a grave mistake! And...I'll let it slip, just this once. Whew.
I got home just barely in time to pick up Ella. At first she was bubbling over with complaints and outrage: there was so much German! It was so hard! She didn't know the rules and used the wrong playground equipment by accident! And, worst of all, she had to change in front of all the girls in her class for gym class! The indignity!
So I just listened to her, letting her decompress. She and Alex ran off to her room as soon as they got home to play the board game that Ella's been creating over the past several days. They were doing so nicely together that I just let them stay in there, comforting each other and eating lunch, for an hour.
When she came out, it was different: the second graders are learning English in school, so that was really neat. And she not only learned how to read a clock today, but she learned how to use a 24-hour system (e.g. 17:30). And the girls were really nice. And they played a really fun game in gym class and she surprised all the boys by how fast she was. And her teacher was really nice. She wanted to learn how to say "I'm sorry," so that the next time she used the wrong playground equipment, she'd know how to apologize. (Here, I reminded her that her teacher speaks English. Oh, yeah!)We just stayed home for the rest of the day--the kids played, Ella did her homework (more clocks), and I took another stab at furniture assembly and tidying the house.
So the trash system is interesting here: instead of buying a trash service and paying by the bin, you instead purchase trash bags from the state, and you pay for your trash disposal that way. At 3 CHF per bag, there's high incentive to recycle. Unfortunately, the recycling collection schedule is haphazard and infrequent, and instead of dumping recycling in bins, all the cardboard and paper has to be stacked neatly and tied in twine. Courtesy of IKEA, we have piles of funny little bits of cardboard to try to organize and wrestle into some sort of bindable state. So that was my frustrating project of the day.
But I was straightening up for a reason. We got good news: our crate of belongings from Seattle is finally, finally arriving tomorrow afternoon. Not a moment too soon: the four books I've been reading and rereading and rerereading to the boys are getting more than a little stale. Although it is interesting to see how resourceful the kids are, creating toys out of cardboard scraps when that's all they have.
When Dennis got home from work, we had a quick frozen-pizza dinner, and then we walked over to the local Migros (the Swiss version of Target) to get groceries and those special shoes for the kids. The ladies at the shoe store were so incredibly helpful, measuring the kids, helping wrestle Alex into his shoes (it actually was impossible to get one style on--he has a very high arch), and explaining the whole school-shoe thing to us.
We thought we found some that would work for the kids, but we're still not sure...and so we learned about another funny Swiss system. Instead of allowing you to return items for your money back, you can "borrow" items from the store for up to three days. If you decided you want them, you return to the store and give them the payment; otherwise, you simply return the item. Dennis and I asked several time: you don't want our money now? Really? Really?? Nope, they just wanted our name and address.At the train station, at the consulate, at the shoe store (not to mention the general honors system they have about purchasing bus tickets--our tickets haven't been checked once, yet), the Swiss seem very trusting.
In addition to the shoes, we had all kinds of cleaning supplies and foods to pick up, and it was 7:00 before we trudged home for bath, and ice cream treat, and bed. All three kids are happy and tired, though. And I am, too.
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