So, fifth grade for Oscar. He is so smart and I am excited to watch him learn this year. I think this will be a big year for him. Yes, he is growing his hair out and is really proud of it. 
Siobhan will attend school every day until we leave. This will be no different for her because to Siobhan school is all about socializing. Her friends are upset that she is leaving and she has had several offers to let her live here with friends. From parents. I think I'll keep her. I need my BonBon, she is too fun.
She chose a Power Ranger backpack for this year. Grandma got it for her on her birthday. Her dad bought her the shoes. That was a long process. You can make custom Converse on their website. These are actually the extra tall ones, though you can't tell with the pants over them. She chose all the colors and patterns. Then she wanted the writing on them. After a cancelled order due to the mention of the phrase jackass and a separate copyright issue, she chose Party Ranger. So, party ranger is at school today and happy to be there.
I decided that it would be to hard for Hans to start here and then again at a new place in two weeks. So, I kept him home and he is anxious for Utah. I felt really bad when the kids were preparing last night and he felt left out, but he'll have his day soon. Plus, today is Sauls 4th birthday! So, a party will be had tonight. This leaves me with the list. In celebration of the first day of school let's share 5 school memories. Here we go....#1. I remember Kindergarten clearly. Especially the boy who peed in class. Also, my cousin Serena attending my class when she was here from Germany.
#2. In 6th grade my mom, who chose our outfits, had me wear a sweatshirt dress. Popular at the time with leggings. The school counselor made me bend over in front of the english class and then sent me to the office to call my mom for another outfit. Too short for her liking and my mom was not happy with the call.
#3. Handball, handball, handball!
#4. Hearing about my parents from most every teacher I had. Growing up in a small town is great for that. Middle school was all about my dad. High school was about my mom and dad, usually stories of them kissing in the halls, or about my grandma Jane who was a teacher at the high school. I also heard a lot about my cousins, the Sheppard twins.
#5. All of my friends. I had really great friends and a lot of fun in all my grades. In elementary school my best friends were Nicole Cavallaro and then Caroline Geisler. In middle school Nicole and I held strong but then in high school she switched to Monterey High and I became best friends with Sara Russell who lived a few blocks behind me. I recently found her on Facebook(love that) and I am looking forward to seeing her this month. School friends are so important. My heart is breaking for Siobhan right now, although I know she will quickly find a new group of friends in Utah and I only hope they are half as fun and nice as the girls she has here. So, that's the list for the week. I plan on keeping up with my posting even throughout this chaos. Hope you will too!
6 comments:
That’s a good one!
1. I remember going to kindergarten with you - talked with my mom about it just last night!
2. My bus ride to school. It took me an hour to get to the german-american John F. Kennedy School. I left the house at seven, got on the public bus and then changed to the school bus. When school was over it took another hour to get back home.
3. My class room teacher in 3rd grade was Mrs. Mattern. She also teached science – I rarely understood what she was talking about (it got much better in 4th grade though).
4. In 8th grade my class went to austria for ten days to go skiing. We had lots of fun and nobody got seriously hurt.
5. During highschool I also took a trip to france. It was an exchange my french teacher had organized. We went there by train and stayed about 10 days. Six months later the french students came to visit us in Berlin. Their german was so good that we didn’t have to speak any french! We did a lot of seightseeing, went to the zoo, had picknicks and went out in the evenings.
I’m sure Siobhan and Oscar will make new friends pretty fast.
Congratulations to Pete and good luck for the move!
Much love
Serena
Serena-
I am so glad that you posted a list! It sounds like you had some awesome school experiences. I can't wait to read more of your responses to the list! Love to you, Matilda
Way to represent Germany!
1. Kindergarten. I too had the wet the pants experience only it was a girl. At that age it seemed like such a shocking thing. I also remember my mother sending me in short pants, something my best friend at the time still talks about.
2. Elementary school. We once found the tool the custodian uses to turn on the sprinklers. My friend waited for a victim and then signaled me to let them rip. Too bad the victim was the principal! I also was a lieutenant on the traffic patrol. Cool uniforms. I once stayed home sick but got up and went to do crosswalk duty and then came home.
3. Junior High or Middle School as it is now known. First girl friend first kiss Friday nights at the movie theater. This was when my buddies from earlier years and I started to go separate ways. Most of them became jocks and I became a hippie.
4. High School. As Matilda mentioned this is when her Mother and I got together. We both had my mother for Spanish and sat in the back of the class, not a happy Mom. First car, a Studebaker which I drove till it died. Gas and insurance meant my first real job too.I remember ditching class to go to your Mom's house, I think for hard boiled eggs and popcorn and having Senora Sheppard call from the school. This was a good time in my life.
5. I just realized there wasn't much mention of studying in my memories. Having watched Siobhan over the years I know she'll make new friends quickly which doesn't make it easier to leave the old ones behind. Thanks for shaking good memories loose.
I am so happy that I was there to see the kids off on the first day of school. They are trend setters.
1. I went to Catholic school till the beginning of 8th grade. Every Columbus Day, the Knights of Columbus would come and give the whole school Musketeer Bars. I still don't like Musketeer Bars, but I loved the pomp and circumstance. With their little hats.
2. My Oscar Mayer bologna sandwich on white bread with iceberg lettece,a banana and oatmeal cookie.
3. Riding the public transit to get to our school. There were some other,older kids that rode too. I remember an old black man who had quarters in his ears. His name was Pat. I found him fascinating.
4. Going to public school in 8th grade. What a shock! I remember this cute boy telling a newly made girlfriend that I was Bitchin. I was so embarassed, I dodged him all year, only to learn bitchin was a compliment. He was also in my English class. I was called on to read outloud. The word was psychic and I pronounced it "fizz chic" The teacher, Mr. White, was so nice and gave me kudos for sounding it out the way it is spelled. A story I should never have told John.
5. High School. Yes, Spanish class with your Dad and Grandma. We were called on all the time. A strategy on her end, to catch us off guard. I remember showing off one time and referring to feet as patas. This is what my family said for feet. Only to find out patas are duck feet. My family had a lot of slang words..not proper Spanish. More Mexican-American. Yes, Pat, popcorn and hard-boiled eggs, popcorn and sardines, popcorn and Ginza shrimp....I'll eat it Mom!
A day early, but happy birthday Grandma! Hope you're eating popcorn, hard boiled eggs, sardines, Ginza shrimp, and duck feet?
1. In kindergarten I lost a bow off of a patent leather shoe chasing Ben Ottmar. Did someone mention that the women in our family are boy crazy?
2. Being enrolled in GATE. No one in Ms. Snows' regular third grade class was squishing cows eye balls between their fingers.
3. Not just handball, but I have a lasting scar on the back of my hand from playing with Katie Gotch, my best friend at the time, in fifth grade.
4. My only semester at SF State. My chemistry partner was a flamboyantly gay Italian man who lived in the Tenderloin. We used to study at his studio, and he would make me dinner. One night he said to me, "Presh, (my nickname, short for precious, how precious) you know I'm gay right?" I might be boy crazy but am I really that naive?
5. My mom and I took a couple of semesters of Spanish at Monterey Peninsula College. John joined us for the first one. Aside from some stand up comedy (at Johns expense), I got the highest grade in the class.
So many fun memories!! Can't wait to see you next week...and if I can find an Esprit skirt with farm animals on it, I am totally wearing it when we get together ; - )!
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