School PIctures - 2009

Abby, Alex & Isaac (you can tell that Alex is still trying to find his smile :)







Abby's Class picture

Alex's Class picture

Unfortunatly, we do not have a class picture for Isaac yet for some reason.

Abby in the news!

Abby is the 3rd one from the left holding up her paper which you will see below.
English Translation:
"Jordan wins golden pencil"
PRINCE ALEXANDER - The annual tradition of the Childrens Book Week at the Dr. Martin Luther King School closed with the reading contest and the awarding of the gold and silver crayons and brushes. The stories were chosen on the theme food and sweets. The golden pencil this year won by Jordan. Her story was drawing on the most among the eight nominated artworks. "As a school that really wants to educate properly, the Children's Book Week is very important to us, which is why we have throw a party" said one teacher.

Here is her paper with artwork:


It Reads:
Candy is nice but some children are allergic to sweets such as chocolate, ice cream and lolly pops and sometimes they may only eat a little candy on Halloween! But if you eat too many sweets you can get fat.

What a cute girl, we are very proud of her.

Language Problems

Coversation between Hannah and myself:

Me: "Hannah, I need your new schedule (class schedule for school). Do you have it yet because you should have had it by now. It's been over a week."

Hannah: "We don't have a vaste (this is a Dutch word meaning permanent or regular)..."

and then she sits there with this funny look on her face as she realizes that she can't think of the right word in English. After a couple of seconds of me laughing hysterically and her still sitting there with the same funny look on her face I give in and help her out.

The same night at the dinner table:

Abby: "Mom, can I have some...rice?"

I look at her strange and try to figure out what she is talking about because there is no rice at the table.

Me: "Do you mean the corn?"

Abby: "Oh, corn! I have to remember that."

2009 Vacation - Part 5 - Milan, Florence & Pisa

Our first stop in Italy was Milan. We traveled from Frankfurt, Germany, through the Swiss alps, literally, going through possibly over 100 tunnels, some as long as 8 km. We arrived in Milan late at night the 25th of July.

This was meant to be a short stop. My parents and I wanted to see "The Last Supper" by Leonardo Di Vinci. We figured the kids would be bored so they went on their way to the National Museum of Science and Technology which has some hands on things and scale models of Leonardo Di Vinci inventions. So, my parents and I headed towards the painting. It is in the convent of the Santa Maria delle Grazie ("Our Lady of Grace"). More specifically, it is in the refectory, or dining area, of the convent. On the night of 15 August 1943, bombs dropped by British and American planes hit the church and the convent. Much of the refectory was destroyed but beforehand they had sandbagged "The Last Supper" which protected it. For a long time, this old painting was out in the open air following the bombing.

There have been many attempts to move the painting to a more secure location but they have been unable to without destroying it. Instead, in the 90s they made the room climate-controlled to make it the ideal temperature and keep humidity at the ideal levels to keep the painting safe. When you visit it, you walk walk through one set of doors and when those close, another set opens, there is never a direct opening to the outside world.



We left Milan the evening of the 25th and arrived in Florence a few hours later. In Florence, we visited spent much time walking the streets. In reality it was a very dirty run down city but there were very interesting areas. We did see some amazing churches and the tombs of Raphael, Michelangelo and Galileo among others. We saw the statue of David by Michelangelo andf many other works of art.



The last stop before arriving in Rome was a quick stop in Pisa. Now, when I say quick, I mean it. I think we were there for a total of 2 hours. All we wanted to do was see the leaning tower.



After taking our pictures with the tower, we continued on to Rome. More about that coming very soon.