Two months after becoming a permanent resident – flooded

The last couple of days here have been rainy to say the least. Many parts of many cities are flooded, with authorities being very active and involved and saying ‘we need to be responsible and make sure people are safe’. Strike one for me. Not blaming the weather, the people, the moms and dads and kids or whoever or whatever else. No one blames anyone, everybody is working towards solutions and the number one word is people’s safety. 

Strike two for me was this:

Lia’s school organized an international food night, which meant, of course, parents and kids were invited to bring food representative for their countries and cultures. We brought pancakes and mentioned they were ‘crepes style’, which is more similar to the French crepes than the American pancakes. 😀 

First thing in the hallway was this poster above with the values tought daily. They melted my heart and made me so tearful I could start crying right there. I guess I’d longed to see them written down somewhere all along. Not sure what happened, but I could suddenly have a millisecond glimpse of my subconscious being happy.

I had no idea there was more to come. After we tasted the foods displayed, we could go to the book fair organized in the school (where I felt so good going through all sorts of titles and having trouble choosing only three). 

We then visited the classroom, where the kids had created boardgames. For the math class. Well, yes. Maths can be something called ‘math games’. They worked in teams to invent boardgames, make the rules, paint the boards and create question cards. And that’s how you learn multiplications. You roll the dice, pick a card, answer the question and move forward (or backward, if you didn’t get the right answer). I will not comment on that because it’s my dream come true.

The French lab. French cafe music in the background, posters and quotes on the walls. Bingo games on the tables, so kids learn the numbers in French, while playing, well, Bingo. The quotes? I found them inspirational for me, too. Happy tears again.

‘Criticism may disappoint you, but never let it stop you.’

Talking about inclusion, on our way out we found other posters, welcoming kids to school. One of them was in Romanian. 

Emotional flood right before getting out and heading back home, in the rain. ❤

PS: There are dim chances that the rain stops on Sunday when I run the half marathon, it will be a personal record of my coldest one so far, with a max of 5 degrees on the day, the morning will probably be around zero?!😉

👍✌🖖😘❤