Leland Graduated!!

In the category ‘weird’ :

• I finally have ten nails on ten fingers again. Long story, I got an infection under one of my nails several months ago and it fell off. Well, it finally grew back.

• Most absurd find in the fridge: A live caterpillar crawling on the inside of the door.

THE BIG NEWS
As many of you may know by now, Leland passed all his exams and is now the proud owner of a master’s degree in European politics. (He will not get the actual paper diploma till march or so - but that is an entirely different story)

As to the question if he would recommend anyone else to take classes here he would say that when studying a topic like he did, it’s definitely worth it. You wouldn’t be able to study the European Union in the depth that he has studied it here, back in the US.

By the same token though, the classes here have turned out much harder and more intense than any of the master’s classes he had previously taken at George Mason. Add to that the professors here are not very predictable. They say they want you to use your own brain, but then grade you down when you disagree with their personal opinion.

But one way or the other, thoughts about hiring a hitman for certain professors aside, he passed!!! Yeah! Now the job hunt is getting started. (well, it already started, but now it is getting up to speed in earnest.)


Meanwhile....
The boys have their summer break which covers the months July and August. Since we are moving and stuff, we are not planning on going anywhere. Because I have to work most of the summer (which I hate, by the way) and Leland will go crazy if he is home with the boys for two months straight, we enrolled them in a summer day camp. The kids have been three days last week and really liked it. We love this summer camp thing. They are really focused on different age groups and have very fun activities. Plus, it is an absolute steal. They get snacks included in the price and have a bus pick them up at the end of our street and drop them off at the end of the day. All for 3.50 a day(euros of course).

I was kind of nervous about sending the kids there, but it turns out that several of their school friends go there as well and we are happy they have a good time.

In a couple of weeks they will go stay with Oma and Opa for a couple of days, which will give them a nice little get-away too

This weekend they stayed with some friends from church who have three boys about the same age and it went really well. Monty didn’t pee or poop in his pants and didn’t wake up screaming for mommy in the middle of the night. Very good. If he had done any of those things, the people probably would have said: "we’re not having this kid over again." But now they may actually be invited for a sleepover again some time.

Here are some pictures from the boys' "end of the year" school party. The kindergartners did a dance, (even if the pictures look somewhat stationary.)