Marvelous MadHatter

Each week, one of the students in 2L (MadHatters class) has an entire week dedicated entirely to them.  They student of the week fills the bulletin board with pictures of their lives and descriptions of what makes them unique- their family, their cournty, their favorite foods and their friends to name a few.  They put them all up on Monday morning while the rest of the class is settling in.  I am sure that all of the students are very excited about their week - and MadHatter was no exception.  She couldn't wait for her class to learn more about her life and her family.  And she proudly selected each and every picture for each and every topic.

Monday morning - she proudly led her class through her timeline...and answered questions.

Tuesday - she shared her love of everything Disney and brought in a few of her souvenirs to share with the class.  Including all three of her signature books (one from her trips to Disneyland, one from her cruise/DisneyWorld and the one from her trip to Disney Paris)...

She even brought in her nesting doll set from Russia.

Wednesday - she brought in her Papa.  She selected one of her favorite books in Spanish (Pooh, Te Quiere!) and Papa read it in Spanish as she translated it to English.  It always amazes me that all of these children speak a minimum of two languages and they are still astounded by the fact that someone speaks a language that they do not.  The kids loved the story but I think they were more interested in B.  He really is quite exotic to them as most of them had never met anyone from South America (most of our students are from Europe and Asia).

Thursday - I got invited to come in and teach the kids a little bit about Chile and taught them how to make rainsticks (which legend says originated in the Atacama desert).  The kids loved listening to stories about MadHatter's time in the southern hemisphere and how the Chilean people live.  And they are always up for a good craft...

Finished rain sticks!

Friday brought MadHatters final day of her Marvelous Me week.  This time, she decided that she wanted to share her magnet collection.  When we first moved to Europe, we started picking up a magnet in each city we visited.  We couldn't bring them all so she just brought her favorites and explained whey she picked each one...

It was a fabulous week, focused on a Marvelous girl and she was so excited to have her classmates learn all about her life and the things she loves.  Thank you to Miss Erian for the pictures and a glimpse into what goes on behind the scenes in 2L!

It was a day for the Birds

Earth day and the birds of prey go hand in hand at the girls school.

It is a highly anticipated event - the birds come and hang out in on the lawn outside of the cafeteria.  The kids are then brought out to watch demonstrations of what they can do and then have a hands-on session with those that won't relieve them of a finger or two.  I just happened to be walking back from a photoshoot in the neighborhood when MadHatter's class was on the lawn.  So I pulled up a patch of grass, and grabbed my camera.  It truly was amazing...

(MadHatter is in a jean shirt and brown boots - almost directly in front of the gentleman with the bird)

JB and G - and the bird that grazed the top of their heads...

The kids got called up to hold the birds...

and then let them fly away again...

Afterward, we got to see them up close (again, far enough away that we wouldn't lose a finger) and I can say that they were simply amazing to see...

I didn't get there to see Stinkerbell's class interact with the birds, but thanks to my friend C, I got to see this adorable video of her petting an owl...

Relay

Back in January I got an email from RunCzech, the organization that puts together many of the competetive races here in the Czech Republic.  They were trying something new and wanted to give me the chance to sign up first.  It was the first annual Prague Relay.  Teams of four would run a total of 20k (12.43 miles) or 5k (3.1 miles) each member.  I signed up right that moment (these things tend to sell out fast) and then I asked my workout partners if they would like to run.  Within minutes we had our group of 4, and we just had to sit back and wait until race day.  Which was last Tuesday.

The day was cold and windy!  And it never got above 50 degrees.  But I just put an extra layer on and a jacket and laced up my sneakers...

I trammed it down to the park and waited for the others to meet me outside of the starting hall.

We checked out the grounds and selected the spot where we would do our hand off of the timing band.  Though it got a bit confusing at the time of handoff because the J banner we had chosen to meet at had been moved to another spot making it difficult for JB to find me in the corral.

We snapped a quick picture of us outside and then went in to have a cup of coffee - yes, it was that cold!

 JB ran first (and killed it) and I took the second leg (and did pretty good myself).  We got our shiny new medals - and our shiny space blankets and after a quick picture and interview on the Czech radio station (think they understood us at all?), we went back out to cheer on R and see H off on the final leg.

3 of the 4 runners down on each team.  We are waiting to snap our closers as they cross the finish line. (There were quite a few friends that also ran with us)

 We all had such a great time.  We ran fast and hard.  And we were a bit hungry after we finished at 7 pm.  Thankfully, RunCzech also provided us with a free picnic for after the race so we all sat down and fueled up again before heading home and calling it a day.  I only wish I would be here for the second annual relay...Munich isn't too far so we will see.

A Day of Water

Our final full day in Dubai and we had nothing planned.  Except to have fun, of course.  So, I let the girls set the itinerary.  They talked between themselves for a bit and then brought me their proposal - first we would head to the beach, rinse off and play in the showers for a bit before hitting the pool.  We would stay there until we were hungry and then go get ice cream/smoothies with our last tokens.  Once we finished desert we would head to our favorite lunch spot to dine al fresco.  When our bellies were full be would get ready to go to the Dubai Mall so we could spend some time at the Aquarium (do you sense a water theme to their day?).  We would finish the day off with dinner at someplace that the girls picked (I did reserve veto power) and head back to the hotel in time for bed.  Sounded like a great plan to me, so we made it happen!

We picked up our towels and headed out...

The beach flags flying said that we had to watch for jelly fish.  We didn't see any but made sure to watch where we stepped. 

Looking for jellyfish...

And then not caring so much about it and splashing to her hearts content.

And MadHatter preferred the sand today...

 We gathered our things and wakled past this...

 And headed to the showers to rinse the sand off...

 

OK - and play a bit...

Clean and hungry - it was time to spend our last tokens...

 We cleaned up and headed out.  The girls were ready for a bit more water...This time watching others play in it while they stayed dry.  The Dubai Aquarium, like many things in Dubai, is over the top and still so very incredible.  It has the World's Largest walk through tunnel holding 10 million liters of water, over 140 different species and measures 51 meteres in length.  Impressive to say the least.

 We spent some time oooohhhing and aaaahhhhing at the things that kept floating by over our heads (or under our feet) and then walked up two flights to see what else the aquarium has in store for us.  Which was a lot of cute creatures...including my own.

We then got a special tour in a glass bottomed boat.  We floated above the tunnel to watch the from above this time...

And then we called it a tour.  And headed next door to the RainForest Cafe to have dinner.  Girls choice.  And since the Hallmark store (Hallmark!) had made me a bit homesick, I didn't have the heart to veto them.

We soaked in a bit more of Dubai and the heat and of our waning days of vacation.  And then cabbed it back to the resort.  We went to sleep dreading our early wake up call but knowing that we had made memories that would last us a lifetime.