What are we doing here ...

Greetings,

Logan on his scooter shortly after we arrived

Several people have expressed confusion or wonder about what we are actually doing, so I thought it might be good to give our basic scenario. As mentioned in an earlier post, we taught in Saudi Arabia at The KAUST School for four years. Now we are teaching at the International School of Stuttgart (ISS), in Stuttgart, Germany, which is in Baden Wurttemberg, the third largest of Germany's sixteen states. We have a two-year contract and hope to stay longer, I would guess at this point. I teach English and David teaches mathematics. Our sons, in 8th and 3rd grade, both attend the same school where we teach. This year I am teaching one section each of grade 6, 7, 8, and 9 Language A English, which means kids who are native speakers or very proficient. I also have half of the 7th grade in a homeroom class of 21 very excited and talkative students. David teaches math to grades 6, 8, 9, and he has an 8th grade homeroom group. Fortunately, Hayden does not have either of us for his teacher this year, which is a nice change from grade 6 when he had both of us and grade 7 when he had Mom for humanities. Hayden is heavily involved in basketball, playing on U14 and U16 teams, studying classical guitar, and planning for days of skiing. Logan has a wonderful teacher, originally from the US, for his 3rd grade class. He is reading like crazy these days, playing a lot of soccer, and gearing up for skiing this winter.

Our apartment before we moved in

Our apartment building - autumn

We have rented an apartment in Plieningen, a village of Stuttgart, which is about 15 minutes by bus or car from our school. David nearly always rides his bike and I usually drive the boys and myself to school. After living in a fully furnished house for the last four years, we had to purchase furniture and a TV (finally), as well as arrange for internet, phone, TV, cell phone service, rent, electricity ... the typical bills of modern life, which we cleverly avoided for four years at KAUST. It is, surprisingly, a big adjustment to the world of bills, rent, and taxes once again.

Our apartment with furniture and shipments from US and Saudi

Our students are mostly German, American, or a combination of one of those with something else or both of those nationalities. We have quite a few Japanese, Chinese, and Korean students as well as a smattering of students from other European countries. Most of our students have parents, usually fathers, who work at Bosch, Daimler-Benz (a.k.a. Mercedes), Porsche - the dominant but not exclusive German companies in Stuttgart - or they work for one of the US Installations, or Barracks, around Stuttgart, where Africom has its headquarters, for example.

I have found the students to be well-rounded, multilingual (nearly everyone speaks at least two languages among students and teachers), knowledgeable, eager to learn (particularly in the middle school), funny, generous, and kind. I love my classes and look forward to seeing my students each day. As is typical with many international schools, there is a preschool for 3-5 year-olds, a lower school for grades 1-5, and an upper school for grades 6-12, though the 6-8 grade students do have some separation from the high school students in assemblies, morning announcements, and expectations around school.

Hayden at the Wasen, the Stuttgart Oktoberfest

Though the transition has been a bit daunting at times, frustrating, and challenging, we also have experienced tremendous kindness from strangers, neighbors, colleagues, and our landlord in making the transition work. Our landlord, for example, arranged for her father to wait outside our apartment one afternoon until I could get home from work early because the Internet serviceman was due to arrive. She and her father have been immensely kind and generous with advice and time. Despite all, we have accomplished so much as well and need to remember that.

An evening walk in our neighborhood, early fall

Though we want to learn German, and I do learn a few words each day from the two hilarious and gregarious women who run Conny's Cafe in our school, I find that an inordinate number of people speak excellent English. Even on Saturday when we went to buy our Christmas tree, I started to stumble along in my minimal German when the woman said, "English?" Once I acknowledged that, in fact, as a lame American English was virtually the only language I was coherent in (other than Thai which is really not so useful in Germany), she and her colleague switched to impeccable English. Nonetheless, I want to learn German well enough to communicate more than just the basics. I hope to start German classes after the holidays.

Late summer - park in Stuttgart with huge play structures

Up next ... the incredible diverse and beautiful Weihnachtsmarkt, or Christmas markets!

Thanks for reading. Send more questions ... Jennifer