The first week of school...

Well, the first week of school is over and I'd say it's been pretty successful. After tears on day 1, it could only get better and it definitely did.

As expected, the biggest concern has been dd#1 and getting her schedule right so that she can finish high school on track. The new school, ISF, wasn't particularly forthcoming with information on what courses were available to her and there seemed to be little input on our parts as to what she'd be taking. This was a big change for us, given that her old high school had a course selection book similar to one from a junior college and she pretty much had her last 2 years planned out. So, when she got her schedule on Monday and saw that she had no time for lunch on Mondays and Tuesdays, no time for the much-touted SLO (student life organization) activities, and at least 6 periods a week of Chemistry, even though she took it at her high school last year and got a 100% on the final exam, it was not a big hit.

Fortunately, over the course of the week, she seemed to come to the conclusion that chemistry isn't going to be too bad, as she will be covering some things she hasn't already done and, besides, she really does like chemistry. She has the same teacher for biology, which she took as a freshman, but says this class is going to cover very different topics. So, if they get that lunch issue worked out, her schedule won't be half-bad.

The only issue w/dd#2's schedule was that she was put in intensive math based on the results of her placement test. Given that she's always been in the gifted math class, and getting straight A's, this was a concern for us all. However, we told the teacher, department head, and secondary school advisor she wanted to move up and on Friday she did. Mostly, the whole thing was a combination of terminology differences and testing after a summer of no math thinking. :) Also, they had placed her in beginners Spanish, when she's already had 6 years of it. But, when I mentioned this, they immediately moved her to intermediate Spanish.

DD#3 likes her schedule and seems very happy so far. Everybody has made some friends, which is a very good thing. They all tried out/signed up for sports, so we should find out this week who's taking lessons and who's on the team and when. They're going to have more homework than before, so maybe it's a good think the sports will take up less time as well.

The school is very small, only 34 students in grade 11, as opposed to the 650 in dd#1's class back in Illinois. It'll be a big adjustment for us all to get used to things on a much more intimate basis, but I also think it'll be a bonus in many ways, as the school is willing to do what's necessary to help every student succeed.

The bus failed to show up at all on Wednesday morning, so I had to take the girls by taxi to school and they arrived about 2 hours late. But, the bus company is paying for the taxi (70 Euro, round trip) and has apparently straightened out the problem. Hopefully nothing like that will happen again. They've been very good about adding a late bus to cover when the girls get done w/sports.

All-in-all, I think the girls had a successful week. I'm sort of spinning my wheels, partly because the activities of the Women's Club I joined haven't begun yet, nor has my German class, and partly because I'm sick, again. Also, the bus/taxi fiasco on Wednesday caused me to miss my hair appointment. However, I was able to get the recycling picked up, get a package delivered that was nearly a month overdue, and get a leaky faucet fixed. I also found a grocery store at the local mall that carries Oreos and a lot of the items we picked up in France. And I found a store on the Zeil downtown that has cheddar and grated Parmesan cheeses.

On next week's schedule is buying my car, buying a new vacuum, getting my language class scheduled, paid for, and begun, and getting organized for the Destination Imagination teams I'm going to be coaching at the school. Meanwhile, I've been watching a lot of US television, on DVD, on my computer. Oh yeah, buying our TVs is on this week's list as well.

After nearly a month in Germany, I can say we've made a lot of progress. We still have some key things to accomplish in order to get our household running more smoothly for everyone, but we're in pretty good shape and having some fun. The weekend trip to Strasbourg was a big hit and the girls definitely want to go back there as well as plan some more weekend trips. I'm also researching options for their week-long vacation in October. We have family planning to visit in early October and during spring break in April, as well as friends of dd#1 coming for their Thanksgiving break in November and possibly during the second half of Christmas break as well as their spring break in March. And dh's former boss just announced that he's coming to Germany in late-September and will stop in to visit - as well as delivering any US goods we want to "order" from him beforehand. :)

So, all-in-all, I'd say we're doing well. We're off to the Frankfurt Newcomers Festival today, hopefully to get a lot more information about what's around us and maybe meet some more people. That's still on the top of the hit parade for me - meeting women and couples to socialize with. I can only watch so much MASH and Moonlighting before going bonkers! :)