So far, so good

Both kids seem to have blended in pretty seamlessly.  Z left on his own (without guidance from the neighbor) to the bus, managed to get off at the right stop, and went to school.  He is amazingly self-confident, especially given his somewhat quiet and reserved presence in new situations.

The one major glitch we had was yesterday.  Z had a 2-hour P.E. period.  Now, I prepared the bag with gym shoes, tee-shirt and jogging pants, so he should have been all set, right? Right???  Guess what the topic of the day was: swimming.  They actually took a bus, and went to a private indoor swimming facility in downtown Kiel!

My first reaction was serious empathy for poor Z, who had to sit on the side of the pool for 2 hours while his classmates had all kinds of fun in the water (recall that Z is absolutely amphibious, so this must have been particularly painful).  Later I thought, "Wait, they took a bus into the city and went swimming.  No permission forms, medical release, emergency contact, etc.  They just went.".  Is this a good thing, or a bad thing?  They  definitely save an awful lot of paper.

He had a 2-hour music period today.  That's right, another 2 hours.  Per week.  Art, P.E. and Music all have weekly 2-hour periods.  Considering that the school day is a little over 5 hours long, that's a big chunk.  In addition, the music teacher played the piano to accompany the students when they sang.  They discussed the Magic Flute, which my poorly informed son referred to as 'obscure'.  Probably because in his music class in the U. S., they sing along to a recording on a boom box, and the only musical instrument they have met in person is the recorder (I think 'musical instrument' should be in single quotes in the preceding sentence.  Anyone else?).

Anyway, Z loved the class.  They also sang "Country Roads", which must have been a blast.  I would pay good money to hear a bunch of German kids singing "Mountain Mama" in their British English accents.

J had a play date all afternoon yesterday, with a little boy from his class.  'L' phoned J up, they conversed in German, and then he appeared at our doorstep.  A very nice kid, again.  He invited J to his house (just down the block!) and we went over together so I could meet his Oma and make sure no one was cooking meth or anything.  L has a Wii, so I expect play dates will happen largely at his house.  (Though his mom claims she does not know how to turn it on, so L has to wait for his dad to come home to play it... Sounds plausible...)