Biddy

Another note home from a host family in Germany.  We had to look up what a biddy meant!

“Hey Kevin,

My name is Felix and I´m your guest brother for the the 5 days you were in Germany.

I´m 14 years old and my birth date is on the 2/10/1996 and I play piano since 10 years.

I go on a secondary school near by my home and and it´s called ´Emil von Behring Gymnasium´. I There I study English for 4 years (I am always aboveboard for corrections in my english =) ) and Latin for 2 years.

My primary interests and activities are Snowboarding, jog, play piano, meet friends and hear music.

My fathers name is Jens D. an he works at the Fire Department of the Hamburg airport.

My mothers name is Simone D. and she works as a Database Administrator. .

I have one brother and one sister both play an instrument. My brother plays guitar and my little sister plays violin in the orchestra stormarn scool ahrensburg..

We have 4 biddys, four cows and one old rabbit and lot´s of birds.

I hope you´ll write back!!

Nice wishes from Germany,

Felix D.”

Vacation – Day 1 – Times Square

We landed in NYC around 2 pm; took a taxi to our hotel and, then, having skipped lunch, headed out for an early dinner at John’s Pizzeria. 

 

Aside from the pizza (which was awesome) the big attraction here is that the pizzeria is on the site of a former church…this is the stained glass ceiling in the restaurant

This mural dominates the wall on one side of the restaurant…it’s drawn in an older style so we thought at first it was an older ‘picture’ of Manhattan but the World Trade Center is visible at the top, so, not sure what date the mural represents.

A view of the pizzeria; you can see the pizza oven on the right.

After dinner, we walked up Broadway to Central Park and then walked back down to our hotel on 7th Avenue.

 

Looking north from the middle of Times Square.  It was a beautiful day, highs in the 70’s….the bleachers directly ahead of us are where I take one of the panoramas below from.

Looking south.

A panorama looking north…chopped off all the people though.

Columbus Circle

And a view of the circle from the fourth floor from the Time Warner Centre…..the Samsung store had 3D displays and were showing the Germany-Ghana match in 3D.  When I watched it, it was 3D like in the theatres but when Suzanne came in there was something buggy with the broadcast, and, glasses or no, you saw double images on the screen

This fine looking statue commemorates the sinking of the Maine

Took this panorama after we returned from our walk; I’m standing on the bleachers and did my best to match up the LCD images on the screens…

Vacation - Day 1 - post 1

Typing from 31000 ft over Ohio as Suzanne and I are on our way to New York City.

...I'm blogging on Suzanne's new Ipad, my anniversary present to her ( crystal is 15. Screen is some sort of crystal, right?). The irony that I'm using it right now is not lost on us.

We're both in 1st class....Suzanne again enjoying the benefits of my frequent flying.

No new Kevin news, he leaves France tonight to head back to Germany. Another 16 hour bus ride. Did send a short email confirming he was having fun and adding that they stopped for two hours in Limoges.

Fric and Frac arrived safely in Florida. Flights went well and they are swimming and wii-ing away.

Tonight is pizza, Billy Elliot, and a trip to the open all night Apple store to try and sort out my Iphone issues

More French

After that first detailed email we’ve been left with a series of not so enlightening facebook updates.  “Kevin is in France”  “Kevin is in Chateauroux” and “Kevin likes the cheese here”….the last one at least made me laugh and makes me really hope for a “Kevin’s found a booth” post!

Found this in a ‘magazine’….think the picture is from some other group but the text is from this year…I’ll wait for the formal translation to know for sure

(edit:  translation ahead)

60 American musicians in concert at Chateauroux

Chateauroux continues to maintain its good relations with the American continent. After the arrival of American Veterans for the purpose of dedicating a statue, the Town will welcome sixty young musicians straight from Michigan.

The 60 young American musicians who will perform in concert in Chateauroux on June 29 come from the prestigious summer camp Blue Lake. This academy welcomes young artists so that they can improve in their artistic discipline. The best musicians who participate in this camp (literally internship but that’s weird in English) are chosen to participate in a European Tour during their next year. This year, the string orchestra is making a stop in Issoudun and Chateauroux. The Rotary Club of Levroux, the one of Issodun and Chateauroux, got together to organize this event for which the conservatory and the Town are partners. The young kids will be welcomed in families. This trip has several objectives: to give the students the opportunity to make strides in their discipline, but also to live a cultural exchange with Europeans. The musicians will arrive in Issoudun on June 28 and will play that night in town. They will be at St. André Church in Chateauroux Wednesday night before going back to Germany. “ The profits from the concert will be put back into the conservatory and will serve to buy new musical instruments” indicates Marc DuFond….

Another Kevin Sighting

If you go to this link here you can see the article and make the image bigger than I can here on the blog

http://www.ladepeche.fr/article/2010/06/26/862984-Blue-Lake-debarque-a-Figeac.html

I will post the translation of the article once I receive it from Valdosta.  :) 

(edit, it’s here)

Blue Lake lands in Figeac (fee-jacques)

Le Blue Lake Concert is, as of now, the gathering that marks the start of the summer festivities. For about 10 years young American musicians come to Figeac. “This year, Figeac welcomes the 1000^th American” declares Lion Club President Jacques Rigaud. “We’re very happy.” Beyond the concert, Blue Lake is above all an arts academy located in Michigan under the direction (literally under the control of but I made an artistic decision) of Fritz and Gretchen Stansen. On four hectares of woods, a 3000 seat amphitheater, pavilions that welcome the different artistic disciplines: music, dance, theater….(it’s not a complete sentence in the original. Very weird) Each summer, 8000 people come to the stage to perfect their artistic discipline (literally practice..but I made another artistic decision)

It was a meeting at Puy-l’Eveque where Jacques Rigaud discovered the Stansens and decided to ask them to come to Figeac. Since then, the gathering takes place ever year at the beginning of the summer. (cultural note…school typically gets out at the beginning of July in France and thus…this is why they call it the beginning of the summer) .

Music above all.

Two concerts, on stage, some travels, all motivated by music rehearsal.

60 musicians, aged 14-18, touring Europe arrived yesterday afternoon. They are staying with Figeacian families (I made that word up) and are leaving Sunday afternoon after their performance. From Monday, 100 American, French, Spanish, Andorran, and German musicians will be at Jeanne d’Arc High School for an International Academy. Between two rehearsals they will discover the region: Rocamadour (the translator has heard that this is a really cool place to go), Saint Cirq Lapopie, and of course Figeac and its heritage.

Each year the Lions Club of Figeac offers a three week trip to two students of the intermunicipal school of music of Figeac.

“This operation happens because of the sponsorship of the city of Figeac, which has always supported us,” concludes Jacques Rigaud.

A Week With Blue Lake

Tonight at 9, a strings concert at Mitterand Place, with an orchestra of 60 American musicians from Blue Lake touring Europe. (the utter lack of complete sentences in this article is mystifying…) 12 euros

No news

Kevin spent the day in Wiesbaden today; mostly at the school today with a concert in the evening.  They left a midnight for the 15 hour bus ride to Figeac, France.

 

Growing Up

There is too much going on this week!  Did I mention that between now and the season ending on Saturday that Matthew has 5 baseball games and Christopher has 4???

Anyway, Tuesday night, as the boys are going to bed, Christopher asks Mom to come into his room and give him a hug.  Mom complies, and there, in the darkness, the question comes out….

“Mom, is there really a Santa Claus?”

It’s never been phrased quite that directly before; the last time I recall being asked it was being accused of doing it and being able to redirect it to being accused of going out on 12/24 at midnight to get the gifts and being able, in all truthfulness, to say “no, we don’t do that”.  Heck, on Sunday, as I walked to the car, Christopher was out in the front yard with Maddie and asked “Dad, do you put money under our pillows when we lose teeth?” and again, I was able to say “No”…not adding the “Mom does it” part.

But, this time, there’s no way out and Suzanne starts by asking Christopher if he finds out that there isn’t a Santa Claus would it bother him and ends up with the truth and Christopher crying a little as the discussion comes to an end.

On Wednesday, Matthew comes home from camp with two teeth….and talking about the tooth fairy coming that night.  Not sure what, if anything, Christopher has said to Matthew about the previous night’s conversation but find it amusing that Suzanne reports (to be clear here, I flew to Dayton Tuesday night and am getting this info secondhand) that the tooth fairy adventures are still on.  I guess the possibility of cold hard cash is enough to overcome any doubts in the system……

Wednesday night another tuck-in is requested.  Christopher has only one thing to add after the hug and the kiss

“Thank you for telling me about Santa Claus”

World Cup Uber Alles

….wish the US would stop with the cardiac arrest performances.  Happy that we’re not playing Germany on Saturday for Kevin’s sake.  Had a ‘meeting at the client’s office’ today during the game and it was pretty exciting at the sports establishment when Landon finally scored…..

Not much to report on the internet-stalking front; Kevin has a down day today in Wiesbaden before a performance tomorrow evening and a midnight departure for France.

But….that doesn’t mean that it wasn’t a non-Kevin-news-day, far from it.  First was the email from Calbe with the pictures from his host family….every time I look at that I’m still amazed by how nice it was for them to make that for him (and us!).  Second was a shocking phone call from Kevin himself.

Suzanne decided to work from home today, that way she could watch the US-Algeria match and also patiently await the arrival of our new Iphones.  So, that’s coincidence #1.  Suzanne never, never, answers the phone if she doesn’t recognize the number, but, after one call from the ‘unknown’ number decided on call #2, in the middle of making breakfast for Fric and Frac, to pick up the phone.  Coincidence #2!  “Hi Mom, it’s Kevin”

After the obvious question (“Are you ok, everything is all right?”) it is simply that his host family offered him the chance to call home and he took it.  Suzanne reports that not much new ground was covered on the brief call….highlights that I can remember are

• hasn’t spent much money at all; hasn’t tried his ATM card like we asked him to (try it before you really need it….).  Suzanne asked him again to make an effort to do this.
• food seems to be going ok “there’s lots of sandwiches”.
• he was going to visit a castle today
• Unlike other blue lakers who had a partner with host families, he was by himself and wasn’t sure if this would change on the trip.

And that was about it.  Happily, Kevin asked to speak with Fric and Frac, so, he earns brownie points for that and the boys were excited to hear from him.

Tryout Fallout

(a therapeutic post for me, written for an audience that will probably never read it)

Last year, as the coach in charge of the tryouts for the soccer team, I had a relatively easy task.  We had 20 kids for 22 spots, and the only decision was to figure out which 10 kids would end up on each team.  We tried to create two equal teams, or, do our best job of doing that, and I think it was apparent early on that we didn’t succeed (but, by the end of the year, I think it was much closer).  But, everyone made the two teams and there wasn’t much controversy.

Last year we divided equally, this year, the mandate was to create a team of the top 11 players first.  We again had 20 kids and everyone was going to make one of the two teams.  But, it became very clear after the first day that there were six kids that were very closely bunched together in the rankings and only four of them were going to be invited to be on the top team.  Go into the second day and ask the evaluators to take an especially hard look at these six kids.

One kid is only in this middle group because a) he’s new and b) he’s ranked low because of my hurried ranking on the first day.  It’s apparent very quickly that I had misranked him and we agree that he should be on the team.  Five kids for three spots now.

One of the kids is mine.  Four kids for two spots.  My other son was one of the seven that on the first day were clearly ranked on the top team.

Look closer at these four kids…go back and take a look at the ‘data’, the drills we run the boys through to give us some numbers to go with the observations.  We collect numbers in two ways.  The first is by rating the ‘kicks’ the boys take on 6 different attempts, both right and left footed.  The second is by timing the boys in a sprint, a longer distance, and dribbling with the ball.  In these drills, one boy is clearly best when compared to these four, one boy is clearly the worst when compared to these four.  Two kids for one spot.  An aside: my son, if placed in this group, by the data, was not the highest of these four, nor was he the lowest.

Last two…….By the ‘data’, one boy is ranked higher than the other.  Ask the evaluators, they agree, and I agree, that the one ranked higher is the better player.  He’s the last one on the team.

I’m very familiar with the last four players and families; they have all played last year and we are friends with all of the families.  So, the two phone calls are going to be tough.  The first isn’t so bad, that boy’s family isn’t completely surprised by the news and look at it as a learning opportunity for their son.

The second call is bad; can’t understand why their son isn’t in the top eleven as they watched the tryouts (I can understand this response….), didn’t attend any other tryouts because they thought this was a sure thing (….don’t understand this response…), and my inference of the last statement was that they thought I was going to put him on the team because he was friends with one of the boys.  I’ve had a hard time with this one…..if I would have done the ‘favor’ I would have been doing another kid, another friend, a ‘disfavor’.  Don’t know if the family understands that slant on things.  Do know that it’s probably going to be uncomfortable seeing them at school events for a while. 

For reference, of last year’s team, four of the players went on to other things.  Each and every one of those four players would have been rated higher than the group of six discussed above.

One of the other parents of that last group asked me before the tryout what they should do; my advice, knowing that he might be borderline, was to attend as many tryouts as he could so that he would have multiple options open to him.  I wish the other family had asked this same question because then they would have heard the same message…..

Sigh…

More pictures culled from the ‘net

Man, there’s so much to post about if I don’t get these up here I’m going to be way behind!

 

 

Fric and Frac finishing the Rhino Romp

 

Found these two pictures at the web site of the host school in Calbe.

and these two were posted by another Blue Lake’r on facebook.

Wow!

Completely blown away by this awesome .pdf file that the host family in Calbe sent us!  Some awesome pictures of Calbe, Kevin, and the days he spent there.

First time I’ve used Scribd to upload documents…..let me know if it doesn’t work out for you.  I think you’ll have to download the .pdf file to view it (edit, no, you can view it there, but it does take a while to load, it’s 5 Megs.  Second edit.  Hey, I can embed it!)

Kevin

Bacon?

Wouldn’t have thought bacon would dominate the first email home from Kevin, but, that’s the way he rolled.

Dear Mom and Dad,
     Guess where I'm sending this e-mail from? I'm sending this from some town outside of Wiesbaden. Right now, I'm with the Bleumer's. I got to Wiesbaden an hour or so ago. Calbe was great! The Gehrmann's were awesome and bought me lots of stuff (I didn't ask them to). Steffen's English was verz good, although he was very modest about it. The castle was really cool! The Roland Festival was really fun. All the first stands in our orchestra (including me) got to play a warm-up concert and I sat first chair. My solo at the concert was good except at the beginnning. Mrs. McDonald gave a terrible cue, I am came in but Sarah didn't. So after playing one measure by myself, Mrs. McDonald decided to restart the movement. So we restarted as my first four notes echoed through the church in front of a packed house, almost all of Calbe, and the president (?(I'm not sure what he was)) of the county. So that was somewhat embarassing. Other than that, the first concert went pretty well. I also got to play soccer with Paul and some of his friends and they were somewhat impressed by my talent. The Gehrmann's didn't want to accept my gift (fudge, berries, card) at first but I insisted. They also (with a lot of my help) make an 'American' breakfast. It consisted of scrambled eggs and bacon. They didn't quite seem to know what scrambled eggs were so I described it as a mashed up omelette. The making of the eggs went very well but the making of the bacon was different. I had to cook it in the pan and that was my first time ever having done so. I had to go off of having seeing other people make bacon in a pan. After Steffen melted some butter in the pan, I started. The bacon seemed like it was too big for the pan, but after a few seconds it shriveled so it was less than half its original size. The bacon cooked fast so I constantly had to check and flip the bacon. Paul and his friend loved the bacon and they all enjoyed the 'American' breakfast. Steffen said that after having the breakfast and the fudge (which they thought was delicious) that we would be very fat in America. Leaving Calbe was said, but now I'm in Wiesbaden. I'll try to send some e-mails when I can. Europe is really fun!
From Kevin

A few notes:

• Read somewhere else that german keyboards have z’s where y’s should be….noted that Kevin’s first ‘very’ turned up as ‘verz’.
• the warm-up concert is what is pictured when you can see the back of Kevin’s head in that one picture.  We didn’t know they would be pulling the 1st chairs out like that….
• I don’t think I posted Kevin’s thank you card here…

Book

Found a great thing the other day, a website that, for free (I guess there is a donation page, and really, I should go back and do that) will take your blog and convert it into a book (a .pdf file) that you can print.

719 pages later, my blog is a book!  Each year is a chapter, and I’m going to have to give considerable thought to printing out 2007 through 2009.

it even grabs the comments!

the embedded video doesn’t show, but, the pictures come out pretty well.

Half a Kevin is better than none…

(created this post this afternoon as google-stalking turned up evidence of the boy in Germany…..)

Another newspaper article from Calbe, this time with a picture where we’re pretty sure you can see 1/2 of Kevin (since he’s first chair viola…he’s in the front row, so, we think that’s him on the far right).

No word from him yet, no indication he’s been able to access the internet at all.  Suzanne and I have agreed if we don’t hear from him tonight we will ask Steffi to ask her parents to allow him to email us once he arrives tomorrow.

“Calbe ( tli ). 54 young people aged 14-19 years currently attend Calbe. The young musicians are part of the Blue Lake project, which serves in the State of Michigan ( USA) gifted students in the fields of music, theater , art and dance. Selected in an international program to go on a three-week European tour. In return, young people from Europe visit the Blue Lake Fine Arts Summer Camp ".  The trip is financially responsible for the guests from the U.S., not exactly chicken feed , despite free accommodation in private homes.   "For our young people the tour is a distinction. For this they save all year , "said musical director Dorothy McDonald.  The tour opener was after strenuous and 24 -hour trip through Chicago , Paris and Frankfurt in Calbe Saturday night . Blue Lake took the string part in the demanding Mass in G Major by Franz Schubert, who has been with the choir Schönebecker Kantorei , conducted by Beate Stephani performed better in the church.
Blue Lake is the second time in Calbe. The Friends of the saalestädtischen Schiller Gymnasium established the contact to Michigan . Its chairman Alexander Sieche got a tip in 2006 by Dieter dab, which is in Saxony- Anhalt Ministry of Interior project officer . The international youth exchange of the Blue Lake Summer Camp 1970 was launched. Founder 1962 were the German-born Fritz and Gretchen Stansell”

Update:  Another article.  The translation here is, well, interesting…..

We think, but, again are not sure, that we’re looking at Kevin’s back in the photo….and we’re amazed by the crowd!

“Calbe celebrates Blue Lake and colorful Rolandfest By Manuela Langner

When a large fairgrounds on Sunday presented the Calbenser downtown. Around the Square became the 16th now Rolandfest celebrated . The Blue Lake String Orchestra has been preparing a warm welcome.

Calbe. A single taste of its capabilities would have been quite enough. Two pieces seized the nine instrumentalists of the more than 50 musicians comprehensive Blue Lake string orchestra on top. With snappy titles like "The Entertainer " they brought the audience to cheer. The official reception of the young musicians from Michigan ( USA ) opening of the 16th Roland Calbenser festival on the square was turned out of both sides very cordially. "I am delighted that Blue Lake is back in Calbe a guest , "said Mayor Dieter Friedemann . "Welcome to the city. " The young people were most Friday evening arrived in Calbe and travel on their European tour on Tuesday next to their station .

But the Roland chorus , who had been on the Sunday as the first on stage with songs like " A song moves to the world "is the motto for the specified Rolandfest and the Gospel Choir of the Schiller Gymnasium had conquered the audience with their performances for themselves.

Welcome to the official Dr. George Hamm expressed as chairman of the City Council of its belief that all stakeholders, including the 16th Support again the " reputation of the City Festival " needs. To the young people of the Blue Lake Ensemble , he turned the same in English. Otherwise, with Jan Kirchhoff was a student of the Schiller Gymnasium as the translators available . With German customs and habits of the young people of America do not only in their host family acquaintance. The ascent of white doves and saluting , they learned to Rolandfest know. The shots fired from the town hall balcony , the members of the Calbenser marksman, the Blue Lake from musicians in his honor. Free beer and punch and " Americans rounded to bite " the opening hours on the stage from the market place.

On the market place , in the Castle Street and the Wilhelm- Loewe- street stalls, waiting to look, and purchase information . Children experienced on the carousel or the bouncy castle, face painting or tinkering with exciting entertainment . Both stages, before the City Hall and the Castle Street , offered throughout the day program without interruption. For example, pulled the boys and girls of the integrative care center " little ones "at least as many cameras as before on the big choirs the city and the school. And even though the children had with the traditional Boll peeling on the second stage a strong competition .

From the children's institutions in the city five women came to the 13th Edition of the competition against each other . Although flowed despite the concentrated force no onion tears, but first blood. The small incision was immediately provided . Bollen was peeled with 17 Silvia Brandt the competition behind. During peeling , although they managed only three - Anke Baumgart against six onions - but the dice , it provided the finest result and was named to the winner . Overall, women were 70 , peeled onions. This brings the winning Kita "Rainbow "70 € in the till. For all participants there was a small sack of onions as a reward. " Super, the ladies are really great, " cried the Queen Marlies Calbenser Boll Kuhnert. The impression of many visitors also had Rolandfest”

Update Update:  He’s alive, he’s alive!  We have photographic proof!

"Americans for Americans : with the German pastry , the guests were greeted from Michigan.”

From Facebook

One of the nice things about facebook is that it give us (me) access to pictures I wouldn’t normally have.  These pictures (of Kevin) are dutifully copied down from facebook and saved in our files.  And presented here…..

The last day of the 8th grade orchestra

I’m not sure what class this is and Kevin isn’t here to tell me.

Ditto for this action shot

These two are not from facebook; they were taken at the ‘photo booth’ at the 8th grade dance. 

…also from the dance, the caption on facebook was “Kevin showing off his six-pack..”

   

You may have noticed that there are no pictures of Kevin dancing…he says he did, in groups, but, alas, no pictures of the event.

Rhino Romp

Saturday was the Potter Park Zoo Rhino Romp; the boys did this race last year, a mile-long run in and around the zoo.

Fric and Frac finished in about 10:30.  Picked up a cool medal and shirt with the zoo’s penguin on it so that’s always a plus.  We spent the rest of the day in and around the zoo checking stuff out.

All of the cousins after the race. 

 

The same type of pictures as last year from this bird exhibit, but, I’ll point out they closed it right after the event last year (the birds were sick) and only recently reopened it.  This year, the boys were really trying to feed the “eastern rosellas”; the red birds.

The boys have my iphone and are sneaking up on the peacocks and peahens on top of the structure at the bottom of the path.

Christopher has turned into quite the docent at the zoo….as we moved along, even before we made it to an exhibit, he would start telling us about what was coming up AND have other facts about those animals to share with us.  Chided Mom to “stay with the group”, told us when we were done “Moving on, we have the….”. 

Before we arrived at the lion you could hear him roar throughout the zoo….apparently a peacock had intruded on his are and the lion wasn’t very happy about it….

   

The giraffe sculptures were new; Matthew was being silly and auditioning to be a giraffe-jockey in the bottom photo

I have video of all finishers (along with the penguins and the baby mandrill) and will post it later this week.