Can we say excited?

Our cruise this summer is all booked -- excursions, transport, final payment (gasp!), etc. Can you tell I'm getting excited? Someone on the Disboards generously made these signs for our door. This one is going to be the cover to our trip scrapbook:
I've got a few generic signs downloaded as well:

I wish I'd seen this last one before I ordered Fish Extender gifts, but I guess you win some and lose some.

Alice in Wonderland

Last night, Abbie had a sleepover birthday party, so we took the boys to our first movie in Zurich. They wanted to see How To Train Your Dragon or Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief. Unfortunately, neither movie was playing in English at a time that worked for us, so we settled on Invictus, which was playing at a good time, in English. But, if you noticed the blog title, that didn't quite work out. We got a bit lost on the way to theater, had actually GPSed the wrong theater, and took an extra 45 minutes getting there. It worked out great though, because we arrived in time to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D, which was a better choice for a movie theater experience. We all liked the movie, and agreed that it was a good choice without Abbie. She would have been really scared. Even Brendan thought that parts were a bit scary.

As I had read, movies in Switzerland are a bit different:

• When you purchase your tickets, the seats are assigned.

• Age limits are strictly enforced. Alice in Wonderland had a minimum age of 6, and a recommended age of 10. Even if a parent brought a 5 year and said they were "ok" to see the movie, they would be denied entrance. The boys wanted to see G.I. Joe when we first arrived in Zurich, but they weren't old enough.

• The theater is spacious, and clean. In addition to a full bar, the snack bars have select your own candy, Ben & Jerry's ice cream, and nachos! (C.J. was quite excited about the nachos. They were good, but the cheese was a bit more Swiss than the processed American food stuff we get at home.) John enjoyed a Heineken with his popcorn.

• You have to buy the 3D glasses. They recommend you keep them for the next movie you see!

• The movie ran 25 CHF per adult and 18 CHF per "junior" but that included 5 CHF each for the glasses. So, the movies are definitely more expensive but about what we anticipated.

• Snack bar prices were comparable to the States. Popcorn sizes were the same, but you could only buy .5L of soda -- there were no supersized fountain drinks.
  

• The previews/ads are all in German. (Not that I expected differently...) The movie was subtitled in German, but I knew that going in.

• Halfway through the movie, the movie abruptly stops, the lights come on, and a message saying "Let's have ice cream!" flashes on the screen. Yep, it's an intermission. (The kids thought the movie projector broke down.) I'd looked forward to experiencing it, but it feels really abrupt when the movie ends mid-dialog when you're fully engaged. Oddly, the end of intermission was just as abrupt. No warning at all; the light just went off and the movie started.

• There is free wi-fi. Brendan called Nana to say 'hi" during the intermission, via Skype.

• No one leaves the theater until the credits are done. We figured there was some cool 3D scene at the end, but sadly, it was just people being respectful.

• I'm sure it's unique to this theater, but there are flat screen tv's embedded in the floors throughout the theater. Let's just say that if the men's room is anything like the women's room, no newspapers would be needed.
  

After the movie, we walked through the mall next door to return to our car. The boys were very sad that the Lindt shopping kiosk was closed.

Student Led Conferences

Yesterday, Brendan and Abbie had their "student-led" conferences. These conferences are basically a semi-private Open House. Each conference is scheduled for one hour, and there are 3 conferences happening at the same time in each classroom. The student has the hour to walk his or her parents through their classroom work and experience. The teacher is present in the room, but not expected to participate in the discussion at all.

Brendan and Abbie had both drafted a "conference" plan which included showing us their work portfolio, playing a classroom game (a phonics game for Abbie, and a probability game for Brendan), admiring the classroom decorations/displays, and touring specialist classrooms. In addition to seeing the classroom, we visited the art room, music room, computer/IT room, library, gym, and drama/dance studio. It was a relaxing experience, with plenty of time to explore and let Brendan and Abbie discuss their school life. There's just no comparison to the Open Houses we've been to in the past where you can barely move, let alone hear what your child wants to tell you. The only downside was that we didn't get an opportunity to check out the next grade level.

The conferences didn't take away too much school time either. They had a half day on Tuesday and Wednesday, and conferences were scheduled from 1-4pm each day. And, you know what? The majority of the kids had both parents attending. Somehow, the dads all found a way to take off a few hours from work and visit the school during the day.

C.J. has a unique Open House as well. We are invited to attend classes for the day. They schedule math, science, humanities, English, German, etc. classes for parents one day and teach "real" lesson so that we can understand/appreciate their school day a bit more.

Scholastic & Soccer

I felt like I was back in the States today. I'm co-chair of the Scholastic Book Fair, and I spent the entire day at the school, supervising classroom visits and organizing books, etc. After school, I had to get Brendan to German lessons (ok, that part is a bit different) and C.J. to his first soccer practice. Somewhere in between, I had to figure out how to get to the grocery store and make dinner. I also had to hit the ski shop to return a pair of boots I borrowed over the weekend, but I forgot about Swiss hours and went during lunch. They were, of course, closed for two hours.

I am very optimistic about our soccer experience. We were told that getting C.J. on a team would be a difficult process and we would be on long waiting lists -- possibly over a year. At his age, teams get very competitive and we were trying to get on one of the more popular teams. (It happens to be the closest field to our house.) C.J. started practice today, after sending in the applications just a couple of weeks ago! (We're still waiting for placement for Brendan and Abbie.) I was a bit nervous today when a mom at school asked me, "Really? You'd put him on a local team when he doesn't speak ANY Swiss German? How do you expect him to participate?" Well, we showed up at the practice and I introduced myself and C.J. to the coach. After talking with him for a few minutes, he assured me that C.J. should ask him if he ever had any questions, as he spoke "a little English." Ha! I am pretty sure that no matter how hard I study, I will never speak "a little German" like this coach speaks English. C.J. said that the coach introduced him to the rest of the team and explained that his primary language was English. All the players spoke to him a bit in English, and welcomed him onto the team. Already it's a drastically different experience than the hockey team. My Austrian friend assured me that our hockey experience was atypical and even the Swiss thought the coach lacked communication skills and didn't foster a team spirit, but I couldn't help to worry that all our sports experiences would be similar. It looks like we are, once again, a soccer family. I've got to go update my calendar with the practice and game schedules!

St. Moritz

This past weekend, we traveled to St. Moritz for John's work team's ski weekend. We stayed in Celerina, which is one town past St. Moritz, and the hometown of the team member who organized the trip. We stayed at the Hotel Saluver, which is both a restaurant and a small hotel. We ended up with a "suite" of 3 hotel rooms -- 1 double, and 2 singles (with an extra cot in 1 single). There was a door blocking the hallway to all 3 rooms, so we were able to close and lock that door while leaving all the hotel room doors open. It worked out really well! The nice thing about Celerina is that you get the same gorgeous views of the Alps, but since it is a smaller town, the hotel prices are less than half price. If you're going to the region just to enjoy some hiking and skiing, it's a great place to stay. You miss the bigger town atmosphere of St. Moritz, but it's only a 10 minute bus ride away.

Even though it was only a 2.5 hour drive, we got a late start on Friday, so we didn't have enough time to ski in the afternoon. Instead, we took a scenic hike.
After awhile, we reached an outdoor bar/cafe where we stopped for some hot chocolate, beer, and tea. They had chairs and tables positioned to admire the view. They even provided wool blankets!
We were right next to the Engadin Ski Marathon course -- the second largest cross country race in the world. Last weekend, over 10,000 people participated in the race, including both Martin, the "local" on the team, and Cologna, the Swiss man who won gold in the 15K race in the Whistler Olympics. (He won this race as well.) We hadn't realized that they actually groom the cross country race and carve tracks for the skis.
We ended up staying out for a couple of hours. The downside was that Abbie wore Keds instead of her snow boots, so her feet were soaking wet and frozen solid. Towards the end of the walk, I spied a pole and lifted her up. John thought I was going to rub her feet to try to warm them up, but no, I was actually just trying to get another picture of the view! You can see that she isn't the happiest of campers in this photo. Something tells me she'll remember to wear boots the next time we go for a winter hike!
We skied on Saturday at Corviglia. John's team member used to teach skiing here and knows the resort better than most kids know their own backyard. He was an excellent guide! The views were breathtaking. We were skiing on top of the mountains and had panorama views of the Alps. Well, at least for a few hours in the morning. Around lunch time, we had white out conditions and could only see from one pole to the next. Abbie said that we were "treasure hunting" again. We stopped for lunch at a great little restaurant -- John and I had fondue, and the kids all had Rosti. All the expats had Swiss specialty dishes, while the Swiss team members had hamburgers! Go figure! We're lucky we didn't lose a kid on the final run of the day. We had about 10 feet of visibility. To give you an idea, at the end of the run, we were about 30 feet from a restaurant/bar. Other than hearing the music, it was impossible to make out its existence. We had skied off course a few times on the way down and had a really hard time spotting the course markers. Regardless, we loved the resort and can't wait to go back! We're planning to book it for John's birthday weekend next year. Hopefully, we'll get some better weather! That's the upside of being here for a few years -- instead of being upset that we had bad weather for our "one" weekend in St. Moritz, we can just plan to return!

Here's a team photo with the people who work with John -- and our kids, who, for some odd reason, think they work for him as well. The spouses chose not to participate in the group photo. We aren't even at the top of the mountain in this picture!
Today, we drove through St. Moritz to explore the town a bit. Along the way, we spied the Olympic Bob Sled course! They re-make it every year. We saw a group of boys walking along the course and taking a team picture, so we pulled over and walked along it a bit -- figuring if they were on it, it must be safe enough to walk.
This picture gives you some perspective of the size of the curves:
It was a little bit icy. Okay, a lot icy, since it's basically carved out of ice! By the time we slipped and fell through the "Devils Dyke" turn, we decided to exit the course.
Further down the road, they had a bobsled on display. The kids had fun exploring it.
Of course, now they are all clamoring to take a ride on a bobsled when we return!

Kinder Holzwerkstatt

Brendan's current 'unit of inquiry' at school is Native Crafts. As part of the unit, he was tasked with making a craft by himself. Being a clever child and very much wanting to own a pocket knife, Brendan chose wood carving/whittling. We figured we'd work with him on whittling something complex like an arrow from a twig or a rudimentary stick totem pole. That was until his friend's mom called. She suggested we send Brendan with his friend to the Kinder Holzwerkstatt in our village. Apparently, they have a workshop fully stocked with all the woodworking tools you can imagine in the town center. It's also staffed with a teacher. The woodshop is open 2 afternoons a week as well as Saturday morning, and it is free for village residents. You just pay for the cost of the supplies used. How cool is that?

So, Friday after school, Brendan walked with his friend from school to the center of town. (It's the equivalent of walking from Lydiksen to Albertsons -- so not very far, but more than most American parents allow their 9 year olds to do solo.) They both chose to build canoes, and the instructor showed them how to do each of the steps. Fortunately, Brendan's friend is a native German speaker, so he was kind enough to introduce Brendan to the teacher and explain that he only spoke English. Brendan said that after that intro he didn't even need his friend -- the teacher was able to show him what to do without words. It worked out great!

They didn't finish their projects on Friday, so John took Brendan back on Saturday morning. While the glue dried for his canoe seats, Brendan got to work on another project -- a knife with embedded jewels in the handle.

Both projects came out great, and Brendan was so proud of doing the whole project by himself. He loved being able to use all the tools.

Rumor has it that there is also a kid's pottery workshop where we can send the kids for 10 CHF a session to cover the cost of supplies. Abbie is absolutely dying to go so I'll need to figure out how I can send her and make sure that not speaking German won't be too much of a problem.