DAY 318
Thursday 24 May 2012
Luzie had two classes to teach at the kindergarten in the next town so Nicole and Dian decided to join her. Charles and Heinz stayed home to keep an eye on the puppy, Fred and his big brother, Don.
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| Photo by Dian |
At the school Dian and Nicole participated in Luzie's music class with the 4, 5 and 6 year old kids. Each class had about 10 children who seemed very excited to have Luzie there and jumped right into her curriculum. She handed out homemade ceramic cuckoo whistles and told each child to play the 2 notes on his or her whistle a few times and the rest of the class would count. One child had Nicole and Dian plus the rest of the class cracking up as he went "cuckoo"(or pretended to be) and kept going way past the number of whistles the other kids had played. When a cuckoo version of "duck duck goose" was played Dian and Nicole each got to have the egg placed in their hands behind their backs and had to run around the circle. Luckily they both made it back to their place without getting caught. There were participatory exercises that included drawing and you would have thought Dian and Nicole were kindergartners themselves as they happily sprawled on the floor with the others and drew the Cuckoo Bird from a photo. Finally the mother/daughter team was asked to sing "Down In the Distant Forest I Hear A Cuckoo Song." A standing ovation was received, no wait, that was recess.
Luzie, Nicole and Dian stopped at the post office for the last postcard stamps to be sent from Europe then headed home. The delicious meatballs Luzie had prepared were served at dinner - what we would call lunch - (their largest meal of the day) along with rice, tomatoes and cucumbers and pesto sauce. Heinz left for a bit of physical therapy for his elbow while Dian painted a piece of driftwood she had found to look like a barracuda. The pond erupted in frog choruses from time to time, birds swooped in and out and the puppy was always rough housing with his brother in the glorious backyard.
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| Choosing a cuckoo bird |
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| Photo by Dian |
At 3:30 PM Luzie strapped her backpack on, said her goodbyes and walked to catch the train to Carlsrud to visit an old friend for a few days. Just before she left Dian's originals with Nicole singing harmonies were recorded on Heinz' camera then transferred to the computer. The bathtub was a popular destination for each of the Happy Trails Gang (individually) since throughout the year showers had been prevalent but bathtubs not so much.
Heinz served octopus from Spain (yummy), sausages, many varieties of cheese, pesto, tapenade, bread with horse radish and wine or beer.
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| Napping |
After dinner, Dian, Charles and Heinz added up the columns of trip expenses from Dian's journal. Charles used "mental math" and Heinz used a calculator sort of like John Henry the Steel Driving Man's race against the steam-powered drill. Charles did very well and we got a clearer picture of how much we had spent on things like museums/sights, ferries, tolls, camping, food, souvenirs, parking and metros. While Nicole had a chance to Skype with her dear friend Ariana, Charles, Dian and Heinz sipped wine downstairs and discussed different breeds of dogs. It was amazing how little trouble we had communicating and that reminded Dian of her family in Dresden.
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| Heinz and the dogs |
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| The spread |
Heinz served octopus from Spain (yummy), sausages, many varieties of cheese, pesto, tapenade, bread with horse radish and wine or beer.
At the school Dian and Nicole participated in Luzie's music class with the 4, 5 and 6 year old kids. Each class had about 10 children who seemed very excited to have Luzie there and jumped right into her curriculum. She handed out homemade ceramic cuckoo whistles and told each child to play the 2 notes on his or her whistle a few times and the rest of the class would count. One child had Nicole and Dian plus the rest of the class cracking up as he went "cuckoo"(or pretended to be) and kept going way past the number of whistles the other kids had played. When a cuckoo version of "duck duck goose" was played Dian and Nicole each got to have the egg placed in their hands behind their backs and had to run around the circle. Luckily they both made it back to their place without getting caught. There were participatory exercises that included drawing and you would have thought Dian and Nicole were kindergartners themselves as they happily sprawled on the floor with the others and drew the Cuckoo Bird from a photo. Finally the mother/daughter team was asked to sing "Down In the Distant Forest I Hear A Cuckoo Song." A standing ovation was received, no wait, that was recess.
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