This year I got the best birthday present ever!  After almost four months of someone home on summer vacation, all three kids were back in school on Monday.  To celebrate I took a bath with a brandnew book… and no interruptions.

Tess & Dane were both so excited to go back, and both had a great first day.  Tess’ day went perfect, without a hitch, Dane’s had a little hiccup right at the start.  I thought I read the calendar properly, and I carefully checked the website to make sure there were no changes, and I left home a little early to make sure we had enough time to walk to school and talk to any friends we met along the way.

But we didn’t run into any friends. In fact, we didn’t run into anyone. So weird. In our little village that is filled with enthusiastic morning walkers.  Even weirder walking through the low fog that covered most of the village.  It was quiet, a little eerie and definitely confusing.

At school, there was no one.  Okay, I exaggerate a little, there was another dad, with another boy, but he was as confused as me.  And he spoke no English or German, so we pantomined confusion at each other as the boys ran off to play, not very concerned with no one at school as long as they had a playmate.

Soon another mommy and son arrived, also confused, also not German but thankfully a friend of mine, one of my fellow Auslander mommies (Tess’ First Day) from last year.  Not that she knew where everyone was either.

Finally one of the teachers showed up and explained that all the other schools were meeting at 7:55, but our grundschule was meeting at 9:00 at the church.  Oh we all nodded, then stood there waiting for her to say more.  It was silent for a minute.  Then she said the kids could stay & play, and walk with the teachers to church at nine.

We breathed a sigh of relief, wished each other a good year, waved at the kids and finally kicked off the first morning of the new school year.  A little awkward but definitely happy start.