… otherwise known as Sports Day when i was little.
So a few days ago it was Running Day at Tobias’ school.
Apparently, the local Gym/Sports Club (Turnverein) used to host these runs yearly. Then it stopped and this year with support from the local government and the school, they have started it up again.
As suggested by the German name, the only sports was running. All the kids from the school as well as Kindergarten and playgroup in the village were invited to run.
The race lanes. The first race with the playground kids – so adorable!
After some technical delays, we were up and running (yes, pun intended and yes, very corny). Tobias ran against his schoolmates from the same school year. i was too busy trying to catch a good photo to take note which place he came in. But some of the girls from his class told me he was 4th or 5th, which is good, considering he has not run in a race before.
That serious concentrated look!
Interestingly, in between some of the races and before the final prize-giving ceremony, we were treated to some gymnastic dance. i was surprised to find out that there were even national competitions. The group at the end had won a national competition last year (i think – i couldn’t quite hear the announcer clearly.).
Gymnastic Dance Exhibition…Enjoying cheering his friends on…At the final prize-giving ceremony…
Drinks and sausage were also served (we had to buy them) and that kept hungry tummies happy. All in all, it was quite an enjoyable evening.
It is located in one of the most beautiful lakeside towns in Switzerland, in the region of Interlaken, the calm and ever quaint Brienz. i can’t think of a better place to have such a school. It’s neighbour is the Swiss School of Wood Sculpting/Carving, established in the late 1800s. So this place has a history of wood crafting.
Isn’t the view amazing? Lake Brienz in the foreground, the mountains at the back.
We got the grand tour from top down. They buy and store the wood used for violin-making in the attic. There were piles and piles of different wood; for violins’ bodies and necks, cellos’ bodies and necks, Maple, Spruce, Ebony (used to make the necks and are naturally black), Boxwood, Willow and Rosewood. He explained in detail about the grain and the age of the wood (they have wood from 1960s even!), but in German, so i missed a lot of the details, not to mention i had an 8-year-old constantly wanting to talk to me.
It is wonderful to think that simple wood slats can become such beautiful musical instruments.
Then we went down to the workshop. The school only takes in a maximum of 10 students, roughly 2 or 3 for each school year. It takes 4 years to study to become a violin-maker. You have to know sounds, acoustics, understand wood, learn to play the instrument (if you don’t already), treating the wood, lacquer and more. They make their own lacquer at this school!
Students hard at work. It takes them about 6 months to make a violin/viola and a year to make a cello.
We were there for a little over 2 hours and it was one of the more interesting tours i have taken in a while. We enjoyed it very much.
Left to Right: forming the shape (1 of 2 methods), parts made, lacquer drying…
Now i want to just talk a little bit about the second concert we were privileged to take part in. It is part of 3 concerts of the 3 schools in our school circle. So on 15 June 2013, Wednesday, we played as part of a strings group at the Oberdorf concert.
Getting ready for rehearsal.
We had fun but it was quite a nervous time, at least for me. i made 2 mistakes during the 5-minute performance. Thank God we were in a group and no one really heard my mistakes, at least i hope not. It was also great that we were the first group to perform because we could then enjoy the rest of the concert without anxiety (again, i think it was just me.).
We have no pictures of ourselves performing as Walter was away and there was no one to take pictures of us. i did, however get pictures of us, doing silly faces waiting for the concert to start.
Aren’t we silly? It was dark and i used the phone-camera, that’s why it’s so blurry.
And here you can see 3 of Tobias’ favourite groups.
Top to Bottom: Saxophones, Electric Guitar and Drums.
The Drums group was really interesting to watch. They played an original composition by their teacher. You can see four drum sets and a xylophone. The girl on the xylophone played the whole time, keeping the melody going. The 14 drum students rotated between the 4 drum sets and played some amazing beats! i wished i had thought to record a video of them, but i was enjoying the music too much 😛
What is the Tropenhaus? It is a tropical house; basically a big glasshouse where they can grow tropical plants in a temperate climate.
They had a special highlight on the chocolate/cocoa industry when we visited last week. It was an interesting look at the cocoa plant and smelling the beans (oooh so chocolatey!). The kids had fun running around, looking at the different plants which they would otherwise not be able to see growing here.
Right: Cocoa Bean Pod! Left: Bananas!
Both our families have always tried to help our children understand where their food comes from so they can better appreciate the food they get to eat. And both families also have some sort of green plants growing at home so the kids are already interested in plants. The kids did wonderfully on a little quiz board in the production house.
Right: a cute ‘furry’ plant which i could not identify, Left: Regular Chili Plant.
At the production house, you could also buy plants to grow at home. They had lots of different types of trees, bushes and baby plants. There were different herbs, lots of bananas, papayas and chillies. They have a special heat exchange program with the nearby hospital which was interesting but way too technical for me to understand. The production house also grows most of the fruits and veggies used by the in-house restaurant.
Right: Papayas!, Left: We found a lovely cat sleeping under a table in the production house, oblivious to all the visitors walking by.
We had wanted to eat our lunch there but i read on their website that it is best to make reservations. So i called. It was a good thing too, because they were full! Both for lunch and dinner! Apparently, it is very popular with the locals as well as visitors. We ended up eating at a nearby pizzeria which had a fabulous kids corner. We did get to eat our snack (chili-hot-chocolate and ice cream) at their restaurant. So be warned if you do make a visit there and want to eat there, make reservations!
So it was an enjoyable day with friends at a lovely location which can be visited, even on a gloomy, rainy day (which was what that day was like). We came home with a mini-chili plant which Tobias is very taken with.
We stayed there for only a couple of hours because our parking was up. We would have stayed longer if the cars were closer for us to top-up the parking meter. We had to park at the hospital and walk up to the Tropenhaus (not too far but still a walk). When you do go, remember to ask for the family ticket if you are going as a family. Also they have another Tropenhaus in Frutigen which we have been given a discount coupon for. That one it seems has a large aquaculture area. We might venture there at another time.
So that chili plant is our Green Project 2013.
Right: Our Mini-Chili Plant with its lovely white flowers, Left: “Wild” Spring Onions and Weeds.
Confession – this year i have been very lazy about starting a green project with Tobias. i was even too lazy to clear out the “dead” spring onions from last year. Instead, nature took over and last year’s spring onions have sprung again, all on their own! So we have spring onions in one pot and weeds in the other. 😉
trippingdifferently 