So on Tuesday morning the kids started online school with the International Connections Academy. Basically the kids have 6 classes that are aligned to the common core so when the kids go back to the U.S. in December they'll be able to make a smooth transition back. There were lots of technical frustrations and issues with the first couple days. For example, the first day the kids were online from 9:00 am to 9:00 pm. They didn't realize that for some of the classes they had two days to complete the assignments. Even with a twelve hour day they are still happy to not be at the local school.
The next couple of days the amount of time they spent at school went down a bit. It looks like they'll be able to be done in about 6 hours. It doesn't help that Jake is done in about 4 hours!
We've decided to go a different route with Ashton's school. He's been telling kids to talk to the hand when they speak Luxembourgish to him at school. So we're going to drive him into town to a private French school. He'll learn French along with the rest of the family. He'll do English 1/2 day and French 1/2 day where the main goal is to help him learn French. He'll probably speak French before the rest of us!
Kim is not real excited about where the school is located. She'll have about a 20 minute drive to and from his school. But he'll stay there from 8 until 3 vs. coming home during the middle of the day for a couple hours. The local schools all work on a schedule where they go to school, after 3 hours come home for 2 hours and then go back. We swapped out for an automatic car and Kim drove for the first time. We didn't talk for a few hours after our first driving experience, so you can guess how that went! Most cars in Europe are manual transmission. It is going to be hard to buy an automatic and they are a lot more expensive. That is the story of our life here. EVERYTHING is more expensive.
Work is going well. One of our developers made it in country this week and we've started really narrowing down what is required for the June release. We still haven't heard word on our Visas. We can't buy a car until that happens. I hate flushing money down the drain, so I'll be glad when it finally comes through.
On Friday morning we moved to Kehlen into the Barn. It is a really nice 4 level house in a very small town. It is owned by a really nice couple that lives next door. He is English and she is French. Their kids switch between French, English and Luxembourgish without even skipping a beat. We are excited to get to know them better.
We love the Barn because it is much bigger than our 2 bedroom apartment in Limpertsberg. In the end, it wasn't bad living in a small apartment. We definitely felt closer as a family, but it is nice to have a little privacy and more room. I think we have about 2500 sq. feet divided among 4 levels.
Level 1 has a bathroom, laundry, living room and Kim/Ben/Ashton's bedroom. There are two king size beds on a wooden platform about 2 feet high. Ashton has his own king size bed right next to us, so it is really sort of nice if he wakes up in the middle of the night.
The first two floors both have radiant heating in the floor. It is really nice for the house to be the right temperature without the air coming on. The bottom floor is tile, but most of the rest of the house are really nice, natural oak floors.
The second floor has the kitchen, family room and dining room that leads to a porch. The southern wall is the original stone barn wall. There is a really nice Oak table that would make the Rippy's proud!
The third floor is Emmy's room and her bathroom. She has a nice european open shower, toilet and sink right off her bed. It is very nice and better than home because she doesn't have to share it with gross brothers! She's nodding as I write the blog...
The fourth floor is Jacob's and Spencer's room. It has two smaller beds and then a bathroom in the room. 3 bathrooms is a total luxury in Luxembourg where most homes only have 1 bathroom!
We're super excited to be here in this little city. It is quiet, is surrounded by farms and forest and tons of running/biking trails. It will be nice when springtime comes. I'm sure we'll spend lots of time outside. We also love the bakery. It is only 3 minutes away. We have a little Catholic church which rings every 1/2 hour a cute little tune. We are about 15 minutes from the center of Luxembourg and church if you're not in rush hour. I'm sure it would take about 45 minutes during the bad time of the day. But luckily I'll be on the bus, which has its own lane!
Ashton lost a tooth and got 2 euros from the Luxembourgish tooth fairy. Spencer pulled it out with string and Ashton was super excited to have lost a tooth. He should lose another one fairly quickly because one another one is coming up through his gums.
We found a super good home for Hammy the hamster. One of Ashton's friends from school named Alix was looking for a pet. Her Dad works for Amazon.com here in Luxembourg. So she got a free hamster, food and cage! Ashton had lots of advice to teach her how to get Hammy not to bite her.
In the new house, Ashton got permission from the Landlord to get a water turtle, so I'm sure we'll be off to the pet store again this week! More euros out the door!
Saturday we played soccer again with the Portuguese guys and the Nepalese team. It was raining the whole time and we were soaked to the bone and freezing cold. We also played afterwards with the ward, the missionaries and some people that are investigating the church.
Later that day the kids went to a surprise birthday party for a really cute 16 year old girl in the ward named Alinor. She speaks really good French and English. Most of the youth showed up and played games for 3 hours. When I came to pick them up we went down to a super nice futebol de salao court. That is a Brazilian name for futsal court. The kids played hard for an hour. They all can play really well. Sam and I were the goalies.
The kids have been going to seminary on Friday nights, but it looks like they are going to attend Skype seminary with a group of early morning students back home. They'll still go to their Friday class to practice French, but they'll attend online to get credit.
Today was the day that the missionaries challenged us to bare our testimonies in French. Everyone was prepared, but all chickened out, except Emilee and me. Emilee did a great job and was a huge hit! She had practiced over and over. It even inspired one of the members to get up and bare his testimony. My French is pretty much PortuFrances! I immediately switch to Portuguese whenever I can't find a word. I'm not sure that is going to be a good thing long term. Short-term I can understand quite a bit of written French, but somehow I need to compartmentalize the two in my brain.
Tonight was a really fun holiday called Liichtmessdag, the festival of the lights. On St. Blasius's day all the kids go out with little tiny poles that hold a home made paper mache animal or creature. The light goes in the creature and they go around door to door singing a song and getting candy. The idea is that they are bringing light to winter.
http://www.luxembourg.public.lu/en/visit-luxembourg/vibrant-culture/festivals-and-traditions/
Ashton was in 7th heaven with the other kids running around Kehlen. We got to meet some of our neighbors and met a 14 year old boy named Julien that could be a really good friend for Jake. He only speaks French! We are hoping they can become good friends so that Jake can get even further ahead speaking French.
We've had probably 5-6 groups of kids come around for candy. The song lasts 1-2 minutes, which seems like an eternity. They really make the kids work for their treats!
Finally, on Saturday Jake played a little pick up basketball game with Kobe Bryant. Jake noticed that Kobe's shorts weren't secure so he pants'd him and I got a picture during the exact instant. It was classic!
Here are this week's pictures. We've haven't uploaded much because we've got slow Internet until tomorrow. But tomorrow we should have fiber! 50mb up and down!
https://plus.google.com/photos/103549940612929148835/albums/5975882609819641009
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