Friends and Friendship…

Friends
Friends (Photo credit: Wikipedia) was one of my favourite sitcoms!

This evening i met up with a dear friend. We have been friends since our teens and have studied together at 2 schools, seen each other through those difficult, funny, frustrating, silly, adventurous years.

We see each other once a year and try to keep up over a couple of emails, maybe Facebook messages. Every time we meet up we talk about what’s been happening for us and what has changed since the good ‘o days. ๐Ÿ˜‰

It is so wonderful to have a friend with whom i can do this with.

We lamented over how life had changed and people are so busy with work that it is hard to meet up and spend some meaningful time with each other.

We also vent our frustrations about our current situations (if any). We give each other advice (if it is needed). Knowing fully that it is safe to do so.

But most importantly, we listen to each other and simply enjoy each other’s company. And share good food.

People often ask me if i miss my home country. i may not miss the country as a land itself. i do miss family.

And i dearly miss friends such as this wonderful lady i had dinner with tonight. i miss having a friend who totally gets what you are talking about without every detail explained. A friend whom you know and can trust not to judge you and your every word or action. A friend who likes you for being you, accepting you, faults and all. A friend with whom you can pick up the relationship where you left off and not fault each other for not sending an email every week/month.

Over the last 4 days, that is what i have been doing, meeting up with old friends who are dear to me. And it has been great!

So to my dear old friends, thank you for being who you are and for being my friend. i hope that we will be able to continue spending more time with each other, building our friendship up, caring for each other.

i Thank God for giving us friends.

syc

PS: And i miss the food in my home country lots!

Last Day of School…

Today is the last day of school… they had a wonderful last week at school.

On Wednesday, they went to the fresh market in town with their teacher and bought fruits and vegetables for an Aperoย (a light snack-type thing) on Friday (today). Yesterday (Thursday), they (only the 2nd graders) were invited to lunch at their teacher’s home. i think it is so sweet that the teachers here do go to such efforts to express how much they do like the children and enjoy their job.

This also signals that Tobias will be moving onto 3rd grade next school year with a brand-new teacher. Fingers crossed and knees bended that his 3rd grade teacher would be as understanding and patient as this current one has been.

There is one teacher we are sure to see again for the next school year – his violin teacher, Herr Steiner. Yep, we will be carrying on with violin lessons for another year ๐Ÿ™‚ i remember how excited he was for his first violin lesson.

The week before we played at our last concert of this school year. We had played at the Christmas 2012 Concert and another small concert at the neighbouring village. This last one was in our own village and it went quite well. It has been exciting, nerve-wrecking (for me at least) and very humbling to be learning and getting such opportunities even when i’ve been out of school for so long.

Here are just a couple of photos:

It was a lovely venue at the local church.
It was a lovely venue at the local church.

After this rather long (12 weeks) term, we are very ready for a holiday ๐Ÿ˜€

syc

It’s BOB!…

Yep, Bob has caused much excitement over here for the last week or more. Bob the cat. No, not our cat. James’ cat. Who is James? We don’t know him personally, but his and Bob’s story has had Tobias waiting daily for the post to arrive for more than a week.

Yes, if you guess that i’m talking about a book, you are right. But it is not one book but two books; A Street Cat Named Bob and Bob: No Ordinary Cat.

This is also Tobias' first read of a true story...
This is Tobias’ first read of a true story…

All about James Bowen and his ginger cat, Bob and their journey together through life. Reviews have been very good so when i had to order some other books, i thought i would get these too. i wanted to be able to read the same story as my boy and this was perfect; A Street Cat Named Bob is the original story, written for adults and Bob: No Ordinary Cat is adapted for children.

Look at him, all serious about reading the book :)
Look at him, all serious about reading the book ๐Ÿ™‚

You see, Tobias has been on a reading project for a few months now. i wanted him to be able to read an entire book from beginning to end, instead of reading a few books a little bit here and there and never finishing them. He could read magazines or books, in English or German, as long as he finished them within a fixed time. And he has been doing wonderfully, with incentive, of course.

Well, my Bob book came first and he has waited (im)patiently for his copy to arrive. It finally did TODAY! And he jumped right into it! Already at the seventh chapter!

i had better go catch up on reading my Bob book.

syc

Playing with our Bob books like the good cats we are ;)
Playing with our Bob books like the good cats we are ๐Ÿ˜‰

PS: i’m so excited about this reading the same book together thingy. i’ll do the book review after we have both finished and if possible, i’ll get him to write (or at least tell me) a short review of his Bob book.