ISH 50-year anniversary

My old school is celebrating its 50-year anniversary this week.

Yesterday evening, there was a "cocktail function" which I went to—and I'm glad I did.

Stella said I shouldn't expect to meet any students I know; after all, it's in the nature of an International School that its students disperse to the four corners of the circular globe after graduation. Also, I sometimes feel a bit out of place at social functions and end up just standing around.

However, I spent nearly all of the three hours I was there in conversation with teachers and students and had a great time, so I'm well chuffed.

I only met a few students I remembered even vaguely—Mascha Litterscheid (who poked me on Facebook a while ago and gave me the idea to look for other alumni there), Inès Huber v. Katzler, Liam Domitzlaff, David Humbird, Tycho de Graaf, and Gaby Bremer. I'm particularly glad I met Tycho; he was one of the few friends I had at school (I wasn't a particularly social person).

I did meet quite a few teachers, though, nearly all of whom remembered me, too, and most of whom were still teaching at ISH; it seems it's a pleasant place to be. These included at least: Allan Wilcox (headmaster for most of my stay) and his wife Mavis; Marion de la Houssaye; Jean Brusch; Johanna Rosenwald (German and French, IIRC); Christiane Bernd (German; she was embarrassed not to remember me, but then, it's been 20 years); Sally Draper-Tough (Biology); Pat Frickey (my third-grade teacher); Jenny Krüger (my first-grade teacher); Raj Roy (maths) and his wife Renu (kindergarten); Brian Gray (history) and his wife (who's now teaching ICT, though I think she wasn't a teacher when I was at school); Mr. Dove (history); Bob Sutcliffe (Chemistry); Martin Hague (English, then head of Secondary School); Mr. Hunt (English).

So, yes, it was right la fun.

A number of people invited me to the dinner/dance on Saturday evening, but I won't be going; I find €75 a bit much, and I'm not good at the whole evening thing since I'll be tired, in a bad mood, and possibly depressed for the next several days. I contemplated going to the groundbreaking ceremony at the new site (where the school expects to move to in 2009) this morning, but haven't decided for sure yet. (Partly because of inertia, partly because I don't want to "spoil" the nice time I had last night.)

Many of the teachers know Felipe, though only a few realised he was my brother-in-law. (Mrs. Gray had only good words for him and said she didn't know what she'd do without him.)

Building an igloo at school

Last night, I also talked with Mrs. Barrett, who taught fourth grade when I was in fourth grade.

My teacher that year was Mr. Armitage. He was from California, and regularly made us practice earthquake drills (because there are so many earthquakes in northern Germany...).

She remembered that he did many of the zany things others only thought about, and recalled the time we build the igloo.

Apparently, he had been planning that for a while, waiting for the right day with the right snow; he also arranged with the teachers to have them essentially give us the day off and he'd take care of us.

I didn't notice any of that at the time, except that I remember wondering at one point whether the bell for the end of recess shouldn't have rung by then.

A number of teachers and older students started building an igloo out of snow blocks they had rolled together out of the snow. Anyone who wanted to watch them had to "pay" with a snow block they made themself; that kept the number of gawkers down and made the igloo progress more quickly.

When it was done, we took turns going inside. I remember a teacher got a thermometer and measured the temperature outside and inside; when it was my turn to go in, I remember it was rather hot in there. They ended up making a hole or two in the wall for some ventilation and air cooling.

We stayed out there for hours, first watching the igloo being built and then taking turns inside.

Ah, good times, good times.

---

When I left yesterday, I bought an ISH-branded USB stick and a blue polo shirt with a yellow ISH logo. Stella said, "But you never wear polo shirts!" We shall see.