Glassy version of Jingle Bells

Mallory and Jennifer made their glass music debut at Hergiswil with a rousing rendition of Jingle Bells. CDs will be available later.

Visit to the Hergiswil Glass Factory in CH

Last Saturday, Kelly, Mallory, Jennifer and Cam travelled about an hour and a half by train to the beautifully-set village of Hergiswil. This is the home of the Hergiswil glass works, and it provides a wonderful look at the history of glass production in Switzerland, and a close-up look at modern glass production techniques. There is also a great hands-on area where visitors can produce all kinds of "glass" music and see how glass is used in science and industry.

A great place to visit. We also recommend Mr. Ooi's Chinese restaurant, just across from the Hergiswil train station!

Thankful for a Wonderful Christmas Holiday!

After a great Christmas break in southern Alberta, we are back in Deutschland.  We spent a cozy week in a YMCA lodge in the Cypress Hills of southern Alberta, where Winter's wrath wreaked temperatures approaching -40C (that's without the wind chill factor!).  All of the Barbour young'uns and the grandson were able to make it, and of course, we had far too much food and far too little exercise.  We were able to do a bit of walking in the crispy cold....something you just don't get to do here in Germany.

We trust that all of you enjoyed a great holiday break with your families and friends!

School starts on Wednesday, January 7th, so we begin the second half of our final year here at Rhein International Academy.  We look forward to seeing the staff and students again!

Back from Sweden!

Jennifer and Cam are just back from a wonderful week-long trip to visit the land of Jennifer's forefathers...Sweden.  There is probably no country on earth more gloriously displaying Nature's Fall colours than Sweden.  Everywhere we went, people were friendly and the scenery was spectacular.  We enjoyed staying with one of Cam's Kodaikanal India Class of '68 classmates, Kristina Ajaxon,  her son Nils, and her husband Ragnar.  Thanks to all of you for being such great hosts!  The conversations were always lively! Thanks too, Kristina, for letting us try all kind of Swedish delicacies, including caviar and reindeer.

Our quick tour took us by Ryanair (Latin for "no legroom sucker") to Nykoping, just south of Stockholm for a day or two of visiting with the Ajaxons.  Then...on to Stockholm for a visit to the harbour and a day of walking down the Strand and through the Vasa warship museum....fantastic!  The last few days, we spent driving north to Varmland, the area of Sweden where Axel Nathanael Bergstrom (and 139,999 other Varmlanders) emmigrated to North America from many years ago.  In Dalarna we also visited the home of the great Swedish artists, Carl and Karin Larsson.  Both of us have a much greater appreciation for all of Carl's beautiful paintings now.

Let the photos do the talking!

Way to go, Jennifer!

Congratulations to Jennifer on completing the full Swiss Walking Event marathon (yes all 26 miles 285 yards, or 42+ kilometres) in Solothurn, Switzerland this Sunday, August 31st.  The first words out of her mouth as she crossed the finish line were "Remind me to never do this again"....or something to that effect.  We'll give it a while.....she'll be ready to try it again in a few months or so.

First Theme Day of the Year at RIA

Friday, August 29 was our first theme day of the year. Each of us in the fifth and sixth grade class dressed in our national colors. We had colors from the USA, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Poland and Canada. Other classes themes included a safari theme and a princess theme (how did you guess that the 1st-2nd grade class is all girls!)

Rhein International is back in Session!

The Fifth and Sixth Grade classroom is off to a great start this year at Rhein International Academy. We started classes on August 18th, so things are well under way. I have included some photos of our most recent Science experiment, based on our study of mass, volume, and density. We each built a small boat out of a 12 cm by 12 cm piece of tin foil, then floated our boats and added weights until our boats sunk. It's amazing how much cargo you can carry in such a small boat if the design is right. Jakob was our class winner with a mass of 76 grams in his boat. Fantastich!