On Monday we met with Travis' counselor Mr. Lopez to get him into school. Mr. Lopez was great! He really took time with all of us and helped to get T.J. into the right classes. He was so friendly and seems to really have the kids' backs especially if they run into teacher problems. He is a latino from L.A. who was in the gangs back in the early 70's and then ended up in Vietnam. He had some great stories to tell.
Well come to find out Travis couldn't start school until Tuesday because they had to build his schedule and he had to have THREE shots first! He was a a bit nervous about that, but cowboyed up and found it to be no big deal. He even watched each shot go in!
So, on Tuesday we woke up very early and got him over to the high school in time for early morning seminary. The kids were so happy to see him and he found he has about 20 friends right from day one! There are two seminary classes: one for Jr. and Sr.'s and one for Fresh. and Soph.'s. But he says they are really just a big friendly group who hang out together before school and at lunch in a certain hallway outside the seminary room. There's even a couch out in the hall to sit on....figure that out!?
After school his first words were "I am glad I went to seminary first because I have a lot of friends already!"
He is on block schedule here, just like at Eagle. However he gets early morning seminary every day and the schedule includes a period that is a study hall called seminar. He is taking English, World Geo, Geometry, Lifetime Sports, Science, Seminar and German. German is his favorite.
Just a word about the variety of students here at Ramstein: Travis says there is a bit of everything from Emo, to jock, to the "brothers" to what seems normal to him. But the extreme of each of these groups is WAY extreme! He says some kids seem big and mean, but some are nice, even the emo's and brothers. He says the LDS kids seem the most normal to him as far as how they talk and how the dress, but he seems to be fitting in with everyone (like we knew he would)
The sports teams here are tough to get on. They have try outs and cut a lot of kids. He is considering wrestling. The teams here travel to several countries and always have to take their passports to away games. The football team and the wrestling team have a winning reputation and their big rival is Kaiserslautern American High School over on Vogelweh.
Well that wraps up this edition of the blog...until next time...love you and miss you all!
-corri
