Public School

The first day of school!!!  

We have to be up at the cities official bus-stop at 7:40 AM.  Last year it was at 8:45 AM, so this is a lot earlier than we are used to.  The girls were so excited!  I felt like throwing up for them since I was sending them off to a German public school where they were the minority and they didn't speak ANY German.  The only German phrase they knew was "where is the toilet?".  But when you ask that, don't you need to understand the answer?  Yeah, I was just slightly  nervous for them.

These are the kids' HouseShoes.  When they get to school they have to change their 'dirty shoes' into their 'house shoes'.  They also came home later in the week telling me that they also needed sports shoes and sports clothes, and Emi also needed a swimming bag since she has a swimming class every Wednesday.  Miles was gone and I had to end up doing it all by myself ... yeah I was lost for about a week and a half ... I also cried every other day after talking to Miles on the phone because I didn't know what I was doing.  Nothing like throwing me into Germany, huh?!

This is the sign for the bus stop ... not to be confused with a Hospital since I'm on the lookout for hospital signs whenever I enter a new city.

Here are the girls getting on the bus (on their second day of school actually).  It's this little van that picks them up and takes them the 3 km to school.  The bus driver is so nice and humors me when I practice the few German phrases I know on her.  There is a little girl who rides with the girls who is really sweet to me when I mess up and she has to correct me.  She speaks fluent German and English.

This is the sign that indicates that it is a school bus.  These signs are all over these little vans all over the place.  I love this little sign!  The bus drips the girls off right in front of our house at the end of the day ... at random times I might add.  I honestly don't know when the girls come home each day.  Some days it is 11:30, others it is 12:30 and others it is 1:00.  It's a lot different than the U.S. but I think in the long run it will be well worth it.  The girls already are getting a better education than I anticipated.