December 26-
We are in Morocco - this is a Arabic keyboard - all backwards & squiggly. Short msg -
Agadir is a resort - not much traditional (in 1960 an earthquake wiped out the city and it rebuilt as a resort area), but warm & restful; will call after the first. Odd to spend Xmas in a Muslim country, but they have a few decorations up anyway.

We went to Christmas eve service in Berlin - very much like home, but at 8pm, so we had a little sleep before taxi took us to airport at 4 am. Its 68 degrees and sunny here - and the people are the friendliest ever! We keep chnanging from, French to German to English:. Wish I knew Arabic.

We will send pix when wey get back to Berlin after Jan 1. We will be spending New Years eve at a Moroccan/German/French/English party - should be even stranger.

The hill overlooking the resort has a huge glowing sign. A staff member here said it says "Allah is lord of this nation" - or close to that. Men greet by brushing cheeks 3 times. Everyone puts hands together in prayer when saying thank you or apologizing. Hugs and arm-patting is everywhere. People on the street just wave & smile spontaneously. (Then we saw a taxi driver peeing by the side of the road - if you gotta go, you gotta go we figure.) Way friendlier than Berliners. Much like Hawaiians. Warmer climate, warmer to strangers? Anybody done the sociological study?

We hope to get to Marrakesh (about 3 hours north), but we have to find an English-speaking group. We came on a German package, and all the tours with that group are of course "auf Deutsche".

Liz - you would love the food - lots of veggies and low on fats, but great flavors!

We have thought a lot about family & friends this Advent. Being away makes us realize how excited we will be to see you again. We got our flights for this summer - in Seattle from June 23 for about a week. Might get up to Bham. We will let you know.

Here is the top row of this keyboard - just to let you know how hard this is:
azertyuiop
I can.t figure out how to use the Arabic characters - so I won;t. And the key directions are in French ... I think.

All our love and prayers: David
 

October 14, 2006

Friday the 13th never gets me – it’s always Saturday the 14th. Today I rode with my first German Century ride (by accident), crashed (also by accident), and got yelled at profusely in German (I assume he did it on purpose.

From the beginning – another teacher (Andy) and I were headed out for about 60 km to the southwest of where we live. Nice start, when suddenly we came across a massive organized ride. There had to be well over 1,000 riders. We found ourselves at the start area where groups of over 30 were starting off together. Pretty leisurely paces, so we passed several groups until one group decided to sit on our wheels at tempo (around 22 mph – not hard to do on Berlin’s well-maintained, flat roads). I’d heard several riders behind us commenting that Andy and I were speaking English – but I didn’t know the route well enough to drop back and start a conversation like we did when we went with the Sunday group a few weeks ago.

After about 8 miles, the ride took them right, and we needed to go left. Several of the Germans started yelling, “Rechts! Rechts!” (right) to us, and all we could do was wave. Oh, how I wish I hadn’t had to get home sooner so that we could have joined the ride officially. I had the Euro. But not the time.

Several miles later, Andy took me onto a pretty busy highway, where a car pulling a trailer drove next to us for quite a while as the driver yelled at us in German. Nice thing about getting yelled at in a language you don’t fully understand is that it is not nearly as upsetting. We got off the highway a.s.a.p. nevertheless.

Then, when we were only a few miles from home, we had to ride the sidewalk (bike paths are everywhere on the sidewalks – they have their own lanes). Andy decided to cut back down a driveway toward the street, and I turned as well. But he turned a bit too sharply, so I hit my rear brake a bit, and my rear tire found just enough sand (from the cobble-stones we were on) that I slid out and whacked my head. Got a stiff neck today, but otherwise no serious damage.

I love bike adventures, but I’m hoping that they are a bit more civilized after this.

We did ride along the Havel River for a few miles. It was the loveliest country we’ve ridden through in this area – trees, parks, water views, quiet roads. Still not as amazing as Chuckanut Drive, though. The more I travel, the more I realize that the Northwest is one of the most beautiful areas in the world.

I’ll try to take a camera next time to send along photos of the ride terrain and scenery.

The photo I’ve sent is of Prague in the Czech Republic where we spent last week on a school holiday. Not much riding there – all cobblestone streets and very steep hills. But not bad sight seeing.

Keep well.
David Fayram

Sunday September 17

Dear cycling buds,
I just got back from my first ride with a group here in Berlin. Riders usually train alone, apparently, but every Sunday a group of 30-50 do anywhere from 80-120 km. Today was 80, fortunately, since I have only had a couple of rides in the last 2 months.
 

We averaged 21 mph. Granted, the roads around here are as flat as Skagit, but there is always a pretty good wind. Unfortunately, I really have no idea where we rode, so it will be hard to duplicate. Berlin doesn’t have an ocean or mountains for reference. It is very easy to get completely disoriented. I’m still trying to find the names of villages we rode through on a map – Sputendorf, Großbeeren, Großmachnow, Lichterfelde. But the small ones are really hard to find.

The roads south of here, where we rode, are either tree-lined, with great arching oaks or maples, or they are out in fields of wheat or sunflowers, or they are through picturesque villages with ponds. And all around are loads of Roundabouts. This is so European!

The man I rode with most of the time, Junge, said that occasionally he rides with Jens Voight – and then it really gets going fast.

I miss the donut crowd and our good stories, but this will certainly do for now.

Keep well.
David Fayram
 

Saturday, September 2, 2006

Dear family, friends and colleagues,

School is well and truly underway in Berlin. Most public schools started over 2 weeks ago, Berlin Brandenburg Intern. School [my school] started Thursday the 24th, and Nancy’s started Monday the 28th. Apparently, until only 10 years ago, some German schools started in April and others in the fall. The country only recently standardized start dates. Welcome to the way *many* things work around here.

I don’t want to make this sound like a lecture in international schooling or a sales pitch for BBIS, but I want to share with you what my school is like. (I want Nancy to write about hers herself, so I won’t say much here.) Also, I have been learning a lot of new vocabulary (call it I.B.-speak or International Baccalaureate), so my apologies if it comes in to the email – it’s accurate.

BBIS has grown from 420 students last year to 490 this year. K-12. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it’s stretching some resources. They began renovation on one building last year, but discovered that the roof was rotten, so we are making do with classroom space from last year. One woman I know has to travel to 10 different rooms throughout the week. I am fortunate to be in one room most of the time – though it is very small and only get ventilation if I open a window which looks onto the elementary school playground, with very noisy small kids.

For those who don’t know, the BBIS buildings were originally built by Heinrich Himmler in WW II for high tech weapons research (putting mini-cams on V2 rockets). After that, the Soviets controlled it (it is sits in what was East Germany, south of Berlin), and made it a propaganda center for party elite: Karl Marx High School. Needless to say, neither government was very good at designing stylish buildings. BBIS looks a lot like a brick Fort Casey! There are 6 buildings in a row, but only 3 have been renovated. BBIS just recently bought over 100 acres of land, mostly forest, surrounding the facility, and the long term plan is to make it a complex of school facilities. They already lease land nearby to a Waldorf School. A picture is attached.

The point is ... everything in this school echoes! It’s constantly noisy. And busy. But not in a way I have ever seen before. Students are relaxed, polite, friendly. They look like they are having a good time. Grade 12s (IB speak – grade 12, not seniors) mix with grades 1 and 2 at lunch.

The big advantage to a private international school is the class size – my biggest class is 14! Granted, I have 8 preps … but I don’t have a huge amount of paper grading … yet. The preps:
--grades 8, 9, and 10 history (each for only 2 80-minute periods a week)
--grade 11 International Baccalaureate – standard level and higher level (SL and HL meet together 4 hours a week, and then HL has 2 more hours of intensive study)
--grade 12 I.B. – SL and HL
--homeroom – one hour a week (very similar to FHS’s Transitions, but lots of discussion, and for all middle and high school students)

It’s a busy schedule, and I’m still trying to figure out who is studying what and when!

By the way – for Jenny Kubic, and other history teachers – teaching Single Party States (Stalin, Mussolini, Mao, Castro, etc) really is cool! And thank you, Jeff Reier (or whoever did) for cluing me about the movie “To Live.” The grade 12s love it, and it does such a great job of showing the Chinese civil war, Great Leap Forward, and Cultural Revolution. I love European history – and (for Seilo) I’m also throwing in history and ethics of journalism. After all, dictatorships can only work if they control the press.

Our grade 9s this year are a pretty squirrelly bunch, but the rest of my students are remarkably focused and understanding of new teachers. The grade 12s already treat me as if I had been there for some time – even though I have to keep asking, “What did you do last year?” They know that their whole post-secondary education hangs on doing well on the IB projects and exams, and the motivation and pressure level is pretty high. I think I’m going to love the grade 11 class, because they are just beginning the I.B. program, and I can mold them as I need – instead of inheriting them mid-program as I did the grade 12’s.

It’s is amazing to see what consistent parental involvement throughout the school does for the student motivation! (Of course, there are the problem parents, too – but I haven’t run into them … yet.)

One example of the kind of student I have is that the student council president, Aaron, is in IB history. His dad is the Bureau Chief for the Los Angeles Times in Berlin. Talk about a family that values education!

The internationalism here is spectacular – as it is at Nancy’s school. It is common at lunch to hear American, British, German, Swedish, Israeli, French, Australian, Russian, Chinese, Korean, and Japanese. In fact, my grade 8 class has more English Language Learners than native speakers. So we take the vocab slowly. In fact, two of my grade 12s are doing a major research project using Russian texts: we had to find out whether they should cite sources in Latin characters or Cyrillic. (Try to sort that one out, Susan Browne.)

The technology at my school is a bit mixed. (Seilo would go nuts!) We do attendance online, but only once a day, when homeroom meets for the first 10 minutes each morning. Grades don’t have to be posted at all until the end of the semester, but many teachers do it to let kids and parents know what’s up. Nothing like Grade Machine around (though it might be coming). We only have one computer lab which is also used for classes, so it’s not frequently available, but there are several good computers in the library. We do have large screen projectors (called “beamers”) and a few TV’s (that mostly play US as well as European formatted tapes and DVDs), but sometimes it’s a challenge finding them. Fortunately, I have “borrowed” the ESL TV cart, and they only use it occasionally.

Oh, and the library … it’s small to say the least. It’s about the size of the FHS office and student lounge. But the librarian encourages people to order books and other materials, and it will be moving in the next year or so. Friday there were at least 2 elementary school classes, a class of grade 12s, and various other students in the library at once. And the sound was just a nice hum of work. That stunned me. The librarian, a Brit named Annie (dunno her last name yet), apologized for the noise when I stopped by, and I told her it was pleasant – on-task children. A second-grader asked me to help her find a book about “Buddy” – didn’t know what that was, but it was fun looking until another second grader helped out and found it.

In a large nutshell, that’s school. I’ll be extremely busy with the class prep, but I’m delighted to be here.

And finally – just a couple of trivial tidbits:
Nancy is in Dresden this weekend with some of her staff. JFK School has Labor day off since they are an “American” school.
I went to the German History museum. It’s so comprehensive that I almost sprinted through for 2 hours, reading only the main narratives, not pausing for many details, and I still managed to see only from the 1500s to the beginning of WW I. It will take days to do it all. It’s reassuring to see how honestly and openly the museum displayed info about the Third Reich and the Holocaust (I did glance at it.)

Germans don’t smile much – very private. I’m learning to act that way. It’s nice to be able to go to school and smile at students and colleagues. But they always want to be sure you are happy. Interesting mix of behaviors. They are also extremely polite and rule-oriented. Even the drunks and panhandlers say “Excuse me (entschuldigung)” and “Thank you” – even if you don’t give them anything.

The public transport is amazing. I did a huge amount of Berlin today, all on buses and trains. And on many trains, buskers play music – flute, sax, guitar or accordion. And they are really good! (High unemployment here.) I actually got a little lost, but found a U Bahn (train) station within a couple of blocks, and I was oriented again. We now know we won’t need a car.

Our shipment from the states is scheduled to finally arrive on Wednesday the 6th. We sent it June 23rd! My 4 pairs of pants, 4 pair of sox, and 6 shirts were getting a little old.

Have a great start of the year … those who are teaching. And all our love to family and friends.
 Photos Here

Thursday, August 8, 2006

The flat is beginning to feel settled.  We have a couch, bed and table with chairs.  We have a place to get clean and storage for clothes.  We have fixed the light fixtures so that they do not hang funny with wires poking out at all weird directions, and we have a garbage set up with recycling containers.  Germany is very environmentally conscious (or is it that garbage collection is so expensive?) we sort clear and colored glass, plastic, paper and compost. 

Our washing machine is in the bathroom and is very convenient.  We dry on a rack and in this warm weather our clothes dry in hours.  In the winter we will have our drying rack in the living room!   

Our marketing is done with fabric bags and we tote items home daily.  We are drinking bottled water and it is more expensive than beer!  The beer is great.  Nancy prefers dark and heavy beers or beer with a bitterness.  David likes Pilsner, light and golden.  The wine is cheap and delicious.  Food choices are varied, many different ethnic restaurants and the markets have large assortments of meats, cheeses, juices and fruits and veggies. 

We will need to take German language classes, as we am not picking it up quickly.  Nancy is getting braver in public in greeting people, but as of yet she really can only ask for the bill at a restaurant and say please and thank you.  She says she has never been so quiet in her whole life!   

We are touring the city quite a bit, and we love the hustle of the city and the varied architecture.  Berlin is a city of contrast between old and modern, refined and hip, conservative and outlandish.  We like it.  David took a walking tour of Jewish history in Berlin. And Saturday he takes a walking tour of Third Reich sites. Hitler’s bunker was filled with concrete by the Soviets, so there isn’t much to see there except a patch of grass.

We will both be thrilled when our bikes arrive – around August 28. There is a steady stream of commuters past our flat, and our street runs right up to the city itself, only 7 miles away. In the mean time, we have gotten very good at using the public transit. The S Bahn, U Bahn and buses can get you anywhere in the city, almost faster than a car!               Photos Here