School days

Christopher was supposed to post the results of his exams to the blog himself while I was in Berlin, but he obviously didn't. In case anyone hasn't heard the bad news yet, he failed both exams, so he has to repeat the sixth year. He unexpectedly ended up having to do Spanish the first day, and he came home crushed that he failed, but he sat down and wrote a well argued letter to the minister of education to explain why he thinks this is a bad system. Then he managed to motivate himself to go ahead with French the next day, thinking he might do quite well, since he had nothing to lose and was therefore under no pressure. That didn't work either.

Now Christopher is in the same year with Paddy, but in the parallel class, so they only have PE together. No competition there – they are both equally unathletic, just in different ways.

On the whole, however, it is probably not such a bad thing for Christopher to repeat a year of school. When I think about it, it was really only in the last few months of school that he started becoming noticeably stronger, so catching up with his class as far as he did was already a significant achievement. In fact, he really missed most of the first semester, because in between being sick, he had no end of trouble concentrating and remembering things. Now he has a chance to fill in all those gaps under less pressure. He says he wants to work on getting good grades now, instead of just getting by, so that he can apply to a famous acting school when he graduates. I think that sounds like a reasonable goal.

So many of his friends go to different schools or are already working, so that won't change for him, and he still spends a lot of time with his closest friend from his old class. Even though he won't get any credit for it, he wants to go on working with his friend on the project they have been developing together for higher level drama, which I think also sounds like a good idea.

Although Paddy was dreading going back to school, he has been thoroughly enjoying it now. His math teacher, one of his favorite teachers, is now his physics teacher, and his new math teacher is apparently no less entertaining. He has even already read the book he was supposed to read for German (I just hope he wasn't supposed to have finished it last week) and was willing and able to discuss it with me at least briefly.

At about 6:15 am on the very first morning of the first day of school, Christopher cheerfully announced that the best thing about ordinary school days is how we all have breakfast together in the morning. Of course, that put an immediate and emphatic end to any fleeting fantasies I might have had about the boys being old enough to just get their own breakfast now. I have to agree with him, though. It not only facilitates the organization of daily life when we all have breakfast together, it really is nice too – just very, very early.

Last day of the summer holidays

It is a warm, bright Sunday afternoon, but no one in my household is out enjoying it. Today is the last day of summer holidays. Tomorrow Christopher has a French exam, the written section at 7.30 am, the oral section in the afternoon. Then the same with Spanish the next day. He has to pass both of these exams to be able to continue with his class at school, otherwise he has to repeat a year. We are all a bit edgy, to say the least. I must say, however, that Christopher does an excellent job cleaning up the kitchen when he has a lot of studying to do.
Patrick has retreated into a dark corner to mourn the imminent loss of his freedom, which he has thoroughly enjoyed this summer, spending most of it permanently rooted to his chair in front of the computer.
On Tuesday I am going to Berlin for a conference, where I have been invited to take part in a special workshop before the conference starts. I am a bit nervous about how much I can actually contribute to this workshop, but I think I need to stop reading in preparation for it now and hope that I have read/listened to enough background information already.
I started working at least a little as soon as I had glasses that didn't make me dizzy. I am hoping that I will get my new computer glasses tomorrow, so I can work more efficiently without getting a stiff neck from looking at the screen through the lower section of my bifocals.
Even though I spent most of the summer in my hammock on the balcony listening to audio recordings of lectures and discussion on the laptop, somehow it doesn't feel as though this summer has really been very restful or relaxing. Maybe it has something to do with not getting paid for lying in a hammock on the balcony. Or maybe it is just these exams looming, not knowing what to expect.

In any case, the summer is over now. Tomorrow it is back to the alarm clock at 6.00 am every morning. We will just have to see what the new school year brings.