Prom and Graduation #2

As June spun quickly to the end, and the date of our move back to the U.S. drew closer and closer, life became more hectic but also more exciting. On June 20th, DD#1's boyfriend Joe and his mom Jane arrived for a 10-day visit. They are just the nicest family and we truly enjoy spending time with them all. The next day was the ISF Prom, what DD#1 had been planning, organizing, and raising money for all year long as her Girl Scout Gold Award project. We took her to the Intercontinental Hotel early in the morning to decorate the room with the other members of her Senior Class Council - and it looked great. Very classy, with a black & white theme. Although Joe slept through that, due to jet lag, we woke him to meet for lunch at the Chicago Meatpackers restaurant afterwords. Then it was home to prepare for prom.

ISF had never held a prom before, so it was great fun watching all the kids arrive at the hotel that night - Jane, DH & I hung out in the lobby and took pictures. It sounds like they had a great time, although not a lot of dancing was going on. Early the next morning, Jane & I caught a train to Berlin for 3 days of sightseeing while DD#1 and Joe caught a plane with many of the 12th graders to Barcelona for a 4-day class trip. We had a wonderful time in Berlin and came home on Tuesday, just in time to pick up my sister Kate at the airport on Wednesday morning for her surprise visit for graduation. DD#1 and Joe returned on Thursday, while Kate, Jane & I were visiting Heidelberg.

Friday morning was graduation practice and then, at 5 p.m. on Friday evening, was the graduation ceremony itself. It went very nicely, with 35 graduates in the class and speeches by 2 of the students, one parent, the school director, and an invited speaker from the board of the school. After the ceremony was a short champagne reception at the school followed by a banquet at the Radisson hotel. Everyone was pretty fancy for the banquet and we sat at a table with two of the teachers leaving the school. Although the banquet went late for me - with us not getting home until after midnight - it was nothing compared to the hour (4:30 a.m.) that dd#1 and Joe got home.

The next day was our family's graduation and going away party, with about 40 people, including many of the recent graduates as well as friends of our other two girls and some of our friends as well. It was a great chance to say good-bye to many of the people who have been so important to us while we've lived here in Frankfurt and the last chance to see many of them before we move back to the U.S. I think the girls really enjoyed themselves, as well as the adults.

It will be hard for us all to leave behind our friends here in Germany, even though we are anxious to get back home and see again the friends we left behind when we moved here. Overall, I think our two years in Frankfurt was a great experience for us all. We all loved the ability to travel inexpensively, often and to so many varied locations. Our favorites, as a family, seem to have been Italy and Spain - for the food, the people, and all the beautiful sights. There are many places I wanted to visit but didn't have time to, but hopefully we'll be back someday. Although I was unhappy with the academics at ISF, and am anxious to get dds #2&3 back to Elmhurst to get back on the REACH and honors track, I think it was great for dd#1 academically to have a chance to be here for her last 2 years - especially in terms of her college acceptance rate. She was able to do an incredible Girl Scout Gold Award project here that she might not have had time to even think about back in the U.S., and I think it really helped her get into the program she's entering at Penn. While she missed her friends and the atmosphere at York, she made great friends here - all of the girls did. Career-wise, these past 2 years have been good for dh, though we're glad that he's been transfered back to the U.S. now, so we'll still all be living together. For me, it's been a mixed bag. I've made some good friends, although I found it hard to have so many of them leave at the end of last year. I wasn't able to work and spent a great deal of time home alone, especially in our first year. This year, I was very busy with Girl Scouts and Parents Network, which helped me a lot, but didn't bring in any money toward that Ivy League tuition payment due this month. With all the positives and negatives we've encountered, it was definitely still a great experience and one I'm glad we took on. That being said, I'm really looking forward to going home.