Signs of Encouragement

The kids' school offers high school students the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Program. The IB program is taught in 1,976 schools in 134 countries, including the U.S., and its primary aim is to provide an internationally accepted education for entry into higher education. Students take six subjects, and must also complete 3 extra requirements: the Theory of Knowledge course, a 4000-word Extended Essay, and at least 150 hours in CAS (Creativity, Action, Service) areas. If students pass a foreign language component, they can receive a Bilingual Diploma.

The IB exams are coming up and are a big deal. Families have put up signs at the entrance to the school to wish their kids good luck.

This sign caught my eye. I blurred the names to protect the innocent (or not-so-innocent, as the case may be).

School Uniforms

Since Christmas, rumors have been flying around the international school that uniforms were to be implemented the following year. One minute we would hear that it was true, then we would hear that it was only to be optional, then that it wasn't true at all.

I would have gladly voted for uniforms when we lived in the U.S. I had previously taught in a private school that switched from a dress code to uniforms. The kids just shrugged over it and complied. In fact, a month into the school year, a 16-year old girl admitted to me, "It makes getting dressed every morning so much easier!"

Besides making the morning routine less stressful, uniforms also leveled the playing field. At most schools, even the private ones, there is a wide range of family incomes and uniforms does help make that range a bit less apparent. I have heard that in the higher grades at our current school, certain girls wear Gucci, Prada, etc. There has been talk that it is getting out of hand.

And as far as uniforms stifling kids' individuality? Sorry, but I never saw a sign of that while I was teaching. Kids will always find creative ways to express their individuality.

My only hesitation would be cost. Those uniforms my students wore cost a small fortune and many families needed financial aid to help cover the extra expense. I would only agree to it if the uniforms were affordable.

But all of that was not at the forefront of the debate among other parents. Recently, a mother from the Netherlands asked my opinion about uniforms. I was ambivalent. I like the idea of uniforms, but not if they were very expensive, and, in the end, we should be moving home anyway after next year. It didn't matter much to me.

The other mother continued, "Well, I and many other parents are not happy about this at all! Uniforms in Germany, especially among children, is too reminiscent of Nazism and the Hitler Youth. And it's not just non-Germans who are against it. The German families don't like how this will make the school and their children appear."

When I asked if other schools in Germany have uniforms, she replied, "I have never heard of a school in Germany having uniforms for the exact reason I gave you. (I have checked and there are only isolated cases of German schools having uniforms.) And we feel it is just an attempt by our school to stand out, to make it seem better than other schools. It needs to distinguish itself somehow and the administration thinks uniforms will help do that. Why do we need to stand out that way? My kids would be so uncomfortable if they had to appear in public in their school uniforms."

Finally last month, we received the final word from the head honchos and there seems to be a compromise. There will be uniforms -- mandatory for physical education (some girls were dressing too scantily for gym class), but the daily uniform would be optional.

Land's End is the uniform supplier and the company put up a display in the school's lobby. I had to admit to Micaela that I found the uniform choice unnecessarily boring. The only pattern on any of the clothes was found on the tie.

Emilie wants to get the cute little white dress. The thought that immediately sprung to mind was, "Not in a million years. That dress would be stained after one day. What are they thinking?"

The cost of the clothes, while still more than I would pay for similar regular clothes in the U.S., is not unreasonable. We are required to buy the uniforms for gym class, but my guess is we won't buy any other pieces from this collection.

It will be interesting to see how many students wear the optional uniform next year.

France Trip Day 12: Parc Astérix

Our original ideas for our trip to France included a stay at Disneyland Paris. We had gone to Disneyland last year and had a great time. But when I looked at the website to see what deals were being offered, I noticed that they were still celebrating their 15th anniversary and all the shows and parades were exactly the same as last year's. I suggested instead we spend a day at Parc Astérix, a theme park located only 20 miles from Disneyland outside Paris.

A few weeks before our trip, I checked out several Astérix books from the school's library in English and put a few Astérix movies with English tracks on our Netflix list. That first night I pulled out an Astérix book to read to the kids, James surprised me by exclaiming, "Mom! I've read a few Astérix books in German!" Excellent. The movie Astérix and the Vikings (2006), though a French/Danish production, had English as its original language.

The Adventures of Astérix is a series of French comic strips that first appeared in the French magazine Pilote in 1959. As of 2008, 33 comic books in the series have been released. The Astérix series is one of the most popular Franco-Belgian comics in the world, with the series being translated into over 100 languages, and it is popular in most European countries. Astérix is less well known in the United States and Japan. This is not a series just for kids. The books are loaded with political and cultural satire and wordplay, which makes for interesting translations.

The series follows the exploits of a village of ancient Gauls as they resist Roman occupation. They do so by means of a magic potion, brewed by their druid, which gives the recipient superhuman strength. Astérix, along with his friend Obélix, the menhir delivery man, have various adventures. In many cases, this leads them to travel to various countries around the world, though other books are set in and around their village.

David and I thought this would be the perfect last day of vacation activity. A little reward for having made it through our trip with little in the way of illness, fights and whining. I was looking forward to comparing this park with Disneyland, and was a little proud that we were going to a place that few Americans think to visit, or even know about.

The first difference came as we entered the parking lot. If you have ever driven to a Disney parking lot, you know that there is an entire crew directing you through the parking lot, to a particular spot and even a worker telling you exacting how far forward to pull into the spot. All very efficient.

The Parc Astérix parking lot was a free for all.

In the park, we do what makes sense for our family. David takes off with Micaela and James to hit the rollercoasters and other thrill rides, and Emilie, Rebecca and I make a beeline for the merry-go-round and other gentler rides.

This sculpture near the entrance of the park shows how every Astérix book begins: It's the year 50BC. All of Gaul is occupied by the Romans. All of it? No! A village of diehard Gaulois is still and always will resist these invaders.

You can sit in Obélix' bottom on the merry-go-round.

In one of the Roman soldier bumper cars, or as I grew up calling them, dodgems

I had to translate throughout the dolphin show, which Emilie and Rebecca loved.

We saw many different characters from the Astérix series on the viking ship ride. Astérix and Cleopatra was the first Astérix book I read. In our French composition courses during our second year of college, we had to write a book report on one of the books.

The village laundromat

Astérix, Obélix and the little dog Idéfix

Emilie was very excited to ride the swings. At this point, the swings had barely started moving. Many of the rides for small children were pretty much glorified carnival rides. But I've heard the same thing said of the Dumbo ride at Disneyland, and Dumbo always has one of the longest lines and is the highlight of the day for many little kids.

Under a dolmen

The village chief is usually shown being carried on a shield

Meeting Astérix. The park is similar to Disney in that there are character meet and greets, though not a lot; there are shows where scenes from the series are acted out; the park is divided into different lands (Gaul, the Roman Empire, Ancient Greece, the Vikings, Traveling through Time); and there are plenty of gift shops and restaurants.

There are spinning cauldrons instead of spinning teacups. That was just one of the differences from Disney. I was mildy annoyed by the inefficiency of the loading and unloading of passengers at the rides (there was only one person in charge of the rides, so he/she needed to load/unload riders which involved helping almost every rider with their safety belt, and then operate the ride. It seemed to take forever.) My annoyance was tempered by the short lines. It was rare we had to wait more than 5 minutes for a ride. It was just the opposite of Disney where the lines are long, but the loading/unloading of riders is very efficient.

By Disney standards, the park was dead. That might be because there was chance of rain and the sky looked questionable the entire day, but we lucked out and had no rain.

What you noticed right away was the lack of souvenirs in plain sight. There were no souvenir carts along the walking paths and the shops were tucked away and looked from the outside like part of the scenery. That was a very welcome change and just made it easier when you're walking through the park with two little kids.

Em was too afraid to stick her hand in the real Mouth of Truth in Rome. She didn't hesitate here, in the Roman Empire section of the park. I couldn't resist buying the girls Astérix caps. No Mickey Mouse ears here.

Emilie was nervous about driving this little car. I assured her that she could not have an accident, so she gave it a try.

Emmie was waving to some other drivers when this photo was snapped.

Bex getting cozy with a sphinx.

Park Astérix is proud to be French, is geared toward the French and is unapologetic about it. For example, the park's website is in French, and only French. Brochures in the park were available in French and only French. During the entire day, we only heard English two times, and that was when we passed by British families.

This castle couldn't be more different from Sleeping Beauty's castle.

These half-timbered houses were giftshops.

We met David, Micaela and James by chance at the Menir Express flume ride.

There were plenty of roller coasters to keep the big kids busy today.

David and Becca on The Little Storm ride.

This ride, labeled as a kiddie ride, was deceptive. It flew, forced the riders to the side of their little boat and went on about three times longer than it should have. I know that from experience.

We suddenly heard some music and here came the big parade. It consisted of 4 people on a wagon playing what sounded like bluegrass music and some clapping costumed people walking behind the wagon. That was it. That was the big parade.

A acrobatic show in front of a roller coaster

The cast of the show posing for pictures

Passing by the Colosseum where you could see a stunt show

These boys were the proud owners of new Roman Soldier spears and stopped every shopper exiting the store by crossings the spears in front of him/her. The shoppers were not amused. I was.

Maybe one day we'll get to see the real Mannequin Pis in Brussels.

Leaving the park

Emilie looking very Astérix-ish

I had to snap a picture of a roundabout as we made our way back to the hotel. The French love roundabouts. I mean love as in "You love them so much, why don't you marry them?" love.

Over the past 20 years the number of roundabouts in France has mushroomed from just 500 to more than 30,000. French officials have embraced modern roundabouts for their inherent safety when compared with other "forms of junction." We have roundabouts in Germany (more about that in a future post), but France is the King of roundabouts.

France Trip Day 11: Paris

Our day in Paris was planned to be an easy one. We did not plan on touring anything. I said, "Let's just take a double-decker bus tour so that we can see the big sights, but just relax, too."

We took a train from the hotel north of the city straight to Notre Dame Cathedral. Beforehand, I thought, "OK, we don't need to go into Notre Dame. The line will be long and we've seen plenty of other cathedrals here in Europe."

When we exited the train station and Notre Dame came immediately into view, it still took my breath away. We may have seen other cathedrals, but Notre Dame is immense and just seems to stand above all other churches.

You could spend quite a bit of time studying the front doors of Notre Dame, but we had hungry children to feed.

It was Nutella crêpes for breakfast at the playground behind Notre Dame.

James and me behind Notre Dame. David, Micaela and James visited Paris in April 2008 and I wrote about their day in this blog, including a little on the history of the Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre.

Em on a spinning disc

James and Emilie trying to figure out what they were supposed to do with this thing

Point Zéro in the courtyard in front of Notre Dame. This is the place from where distances to Paris are measured. So when a sign on the highway says "Paris 324 km," it means 324 kilometers to this exact spot.

By this time, the lines to tour the Cathedral and its Museum crossed the courtyard and wound around the church. We just smiled and said, "Lines we don't have to stand in! Hooray!"

We caught the bus right at Notre Dame and settled in for a 2-1/2 hour tour. Les Invalides is a complex of buildings containing museums and monuments, all relating to the military history of France, as well as a hospital and a retirement home for war veterans. Napoleon Bonaparte is buried here.

View of the Seine

The Louvre, home of the Mona Lisa, among many other masterpieces.

We could see the bum of Rodin's The Thinker from the upper deck of the bus.

The center of the Place de la Concorde is occupied by a giant 3,300 year old Egyptian obelisk decorated with hieroglyphics exalting the reign of the pharaoh Ramses II, often believed to have been the Pharaoh of the Exodus.

The Place de la Concorde is most famously known as the location of the guillotine during the French Revolution.

Underneath the Arc de Triomphe is the tomb of the unknown soldier from World War I.

L'Opéra. At this point I turned to tell the kids, "This is where the Phantom of the Opera lived, guys!" and they were all half asleep, or in Emilie's case, completely asleep.

Detail from the front of the opera house

Bridge over the Seine

Demonstration in support of the Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka

The Eiffel Tower seems to be just like how you see it in movies and pictures. Then, you find yourself right beside and you can't help but be struck by how truly massive the structure actually is.

Beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower as we exited the tour bus.

A large, happy crowd was gathered at the Eiffel Tower. We were immediately accosted by people selling cheap Eiffel Tower keychains and scarves.

David's favorite way to take a picture at the tower.

Ice cream break



Another view of the river

We ended our day back in front of Notre Dame. Here is the portal of the Last Judgement.

The weighing of the souls in the center of the door, is a rather terrifying image.

The gargoyles 2/3 of the way up the cathedral, looking like they would love to spit on the crowd below.

The west rose window, unlike several of the other rose windows of the cathedral, only contains a little of the original 13th century glass.

Typical French café

Emilie's souvenir of choice.

One thing we couldn't help but notice during our visit to Paris was how many Americans there were. They were everywhere! James remarked at one point, "Mom, it's true. Americans really do talk loudly. They seem to be shouting all the time."