Dear family and friends,
This time of the year we think about all great experiences we have had and count our blessings! We are so proud of all four of our children. Proud of their achievements, flexibility, determination, development and their love.
Robin did so well in her IB program and succeeded to get to the end with her hard work. She chose to go to Maastricht, a lovely (very international) city in the south of the Netherlands. She is studying IB, International Business a study in English, she prefers that. We think all four prefer English above Dutch.
Jack is in Belgium finishing St John’s in Waterloo. He was very determined not to join us in Helsinki. He wants to do well in his IB and the best solution is then to stay where you are! The Ahmad family is taking care of him. He is very happy and feels very home in this big family with 5 children. The eldest is studying in the UK, so there are 4 kids at home plus Jack. A normal environment like in our house! We feel comfortable with the idea that he is good taking care of and that he is happy. He is focusing on his course and works hard (I believe….). Jack is still very active with his bass guitar in the jazz band and chose music as an extra (7th) subject for his IB, which is a lot of work on top of it all! But he loves it.
Noa had a wonderful sports year at St John’s with a huge award you can get at the end of the school year, the Tom O’Donnell Award, in other words, sports-girl of the high school, as a freshman (youngest) that is a big achievement! Her name is printed on a golden plaque hanging at school. When she comes there in 20 years again, she’ll be still there! Very special. Her start at the new school; the International School of Helsinki went very well. She likes the school although she had her worries about the size of the school. With 350 students from 4-18 it’s the smallest school of the 4 international schools she went to. She started with football but that wasn’t like Germany or St John’s, so she stopped after a few weeks, which we didn’t like! She found a Finnish basketball club, and now she plays there three times a week! Plus the basketball season at school started too, so her days are filled with basketball. She also is assistant coach for the middle school girl’s basketball.
Hugo is in 8th grade, the last class of middle school. He had a slow start at school with finding friends, but after giving him a BMX bike, he found connection with his peers from his class and he cheered up! They have a lovely group and hang out together. He was captain of the football team and in Belgrade the boys became 3rd but they came back home with the sportsmanship award. Very proud of course! He loves this school; it’s the best of the 4 international schools!
Rob is working hard, lots of things to deal with, but he loves his job. He is a little bit taking more care of his body and health after having troubles with high blood pressure and tinnitus (sound in your ears/head). So he tries to go twice a week to the gym and he plays also once a week tennis. He has a personal trainer in the gym, which is good for him. And now there is so much snow, we will go together for cross country skiing! He also found back his oldest friend Herman, with whom he lost contact about 20 years ago.
I am learning Swedish, an intensive course, 5 hours per week and it’s the best language I’ve ever learned. Nice people in the group, from all over the globe. Africa, USA, India, Russia and a few European countries. In case you don’t know and think why Swedish in Finland. Well it is their second official language, although not many speak it and therefore it’s hard for me to practice. Besides the Swedish class I play tennis 4 hours per week. Two hours with ladies from school. I organized this with my tennis teacher and it’s great fun. He asked me to join a mixed group too, and now I play with a Finnish mixed group for two hours. As you can see I keep my self busy and I love the fact we live in the centre with all his lovely design shops around us. Helsinki is, almost was, the World Design Capital of 2012, we were lucky with many special event due to this.
I come to the end of my summary of the year of 2012.
Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a very happy and healthy 2013.