The year began back in Sweden, with the 8th consecutive New Year Party with our Linköping friends. This year the party was hosted by family Johannesson. It snowed during the night and in the morning we made our own snowman.
We abandoned home during the spring break. While Lörrach and Basel were “crazy” with Fasnacht celebrations, we headed for the slopes of the Swiss Alps. We had a wonderful week in Haute-Nendaz with good skiing conditions, great snowshoe tracks, a constant sunshine and a nice atmosphere.
Simon finished the “Primary Year Program” (PYP) of the International School Basel. As a part of the PYP, Simon studied and acted as Marco Polo, he then presented an Exhibition about Robots. After the summer holidays Simon started the “Middle Year Program” (MYP) and is now taking both German and Spanish in school. Filip is continuing the MYP and is stuck with French as the second modern foreign language besides German. Filip received an award for the best project in design technology in grade 8.
The summer school holiday started with visitors from Sweden. The Johannesson family joined us for a trip to Haut-Koenigsbourg Castle followed by a wine tasting in Alsace. The Holmberg family joined us for a “Europa Park” visit and a trip to Wasserfallen, including a walk and a “Trottinett ride” down the mountain. When Mats finally started his vacation in the end of July his brother Christer visited us with two of his children. We went for a walk up the Hasenhorn and then riding the toboggan slide down. This visit, as many others, ended with a mandatory trip to Basel including eating an ice-cream at Mövenpick, drinking a coffee or a milkshake at Starbucks and making a boat ride across the Rhine.
After so many summer days spent in Lörrach it was time for our summer vacation to Italy.
We hiked along the “Cinque Terre Trail” close to Genoa; looked at the leaning tower of Pisa; spent a week on Elba eating gelati (ice-cream) and swimming in the ocean; had nice dinners with the Gatto family; visited the excavated town of Pompeii and climbed the Mount Vesuvius; explored the towns of Naples and Florence and strolled through the da Vinci Museum in Vinci. It was a lovely holiday with lots of sunshine.
Just in time for the harvesting of the grapes on the slopes around Lörrach we had our parents visiting us and later in the fall the Hammerin family came down during the Swedish fall break.
In October we went to Lauterbrunnen for a weekend. We visited Jungfraujoch, the “Top of Europe”, and hiked in the beautiful mountains close to Lauterbrunnen. The weather was amazing and it was easy to imagine that we actually could see “all over Europe”.
Both Simon and Filip have found new friends from different parts of the world and they become exposed to many different cultures. Simon’s birthday party was celebrated with friends coming from Japan, Mexico, India and France. Filip spends a lot of his time with Alexander from the US and Anthony from China.
The year ended with a trip to Tanzania with Åsa’s sister Anna with family. A seven days safari through the national parks of Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Lake Manyara and Tarangire was the highlight of the trip. We saw giraffes high and low; elephants far and near; herds of zebras and wildebeests filling the horizon; hippos bathing in pools; a leopard resting in a tree and we had lions just outside our car. The white beaches and the beautiful sunsets of Zanzibar and all friendly people of Tanzania are also memories that will keep our hearts warm.
With this short resume of year 2008, we all would like to wish you a happy new 2009!
Mats & Åsa Filip & Simon
