First Day of School

The first thing Michael said to me this morning is, "I don't feel so good." He had been preparing me all weekend for this feeble attempt to dodge the first day of school by warning me that he wouldn't feel good on Monday. I asked how he knew this and he said he just knew. Being thusly prepared, I stood at the ready with a stack of chocolate chip pancakes in one hand and a pile of bacon in the other. He guessed he didn't feel so bad that he couldn't eat a few pancakes and there was no reason to let the bacon go bad soooo... Before long, he was dressed and ready to go. I drove him to school on this first day of first grade along with the thousands of other off-base parents who refused to relinquish their cherubs to the bus system just yet. Caleb, however, decided to take this opportunity to establish himself as the Lord of the Bus, so we dropped him off at the bus stop. He was happy to get Algebra and the homeroom he wanted so we're hoping for great things from him.

I stayed with Michael in his classroom for a few minutes because he said he was worried that Frau Trefftz, his new German Immersion teacher, would speak only German and that he wouldn't understand anything. Well, he was right. She spoke not a single word of English to the kids and rather than translate for them, she demonstrated the things they didn't understand. She has a reputation for being strict and since the German language sounds very strict to begin with, the kids were on their very best behavior for her. This might be their second year of German Immersion, but we've obviously come to the big dance. They must greet her every morning with a firm handshake and a "Guten Morgen, Frau Trefftz" One girl slapped her hand instead of shaking it - whoah, boy, you should have seen the Frau's reaction! "Nein! Nein! Nein!" While she corrected the errant child, I surreptitiously slid my phone up to my ear so as to not irritate her any further and as stealthily as possible called Jerry. I used my panic whisper and told him that he'd better hightail it over to the school for lunch today to make sure Michael doesn't go AWOL.

I hope your back to school time is going smoothly and that you're able to get your house in order after the crazy summer. Speaking of which, I have some laundry calling my name. Enjoy the silence!

KFC (and I don't mean Kaiserslautern!)

Boy do I wish I had a picture for you today. I guess you'll just have to believe me on this.... We found a Kentucky Fried Chicken! It's in Saarbruecken, about 30 minutes west of here near the French border. We spotted it from the Autobahn and decided to zero in for a closer look. Sure enough, it was a genuine KFC, so we stopped for lunch. It's no exaggeration when I say walking in there was like walking into the U.S. again. It was a carbon copy of an American KFC, except, of course, for the semi-German language menu. There was a mixture of English (for example, "Chicken Wrap" and "cole slaw") and German (once we figured out that "Kartoffelpuree" is mashed potatoes we had no problem ordering everything our greasy little chicken hearts desired.)

Having spent a little time in the local German McDonald's, we've come to expect that the seating will be limited and the menu will incorporate non-McDonald-like food items (Jalapeno Poppers? Really?) The KFC, however, takes the Beaver Award for staying true to the original. The food was good, the chicken crispy and the service was friendly. For what more could one ask?

I have to add one more thing about our KFC side-trip, though. You might want to sit down for this one. They used real silverware and glass dishes. Yep, it's true. They may get our award for staying true to the original, but they can't circumvent Germany's commitment to the environment. There was very little to throw away other than our drink cups and a couple of paper wrappers. Everything else went in the stack for the dishwasher. Amazing, huh? We wondered as we walked out of the restaurant if the United States could ever change its ways so drastically as to trust customers with real silverware and glass dishes at fast food restaurants. Just think, McDonald's alone has 30,000 restaurants worldwide; the amount of trash they could prevent from going to the landfills would be enormous if they did away with the paper packaging and offered everything on a plate. It would be a big change, but wouldn't it be worth it?

Enjoy your day and think of us the next time you see that big red and white bucket in the sky!