My family and I have been living in Berlin since 2003. I am the PYP coordinator in the Primary School, and I am currently teaching music in the Early Education program. We were living in Bali, Indonesia when we decided to move to Germany. I am a US-American from Minnesota but my husband Erasmus is German. We moved here with our two children Edmund and Clara in hopes that they would enjoy living in Germany, becoming bilingual and being close to their German family. Erasmus and I met in Basankusu, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) where I was working as a health education volunteer with the Peace Corps and he was building houses with Habitat for Humanity. He had his violin. I had my flute. We met, made music in the rainforest of Central Africa, and the rest is history! Our family life centers around music, reading, playing games and traveling. Luckily all four of us share those passions.
My children are graduates of BBIS and examples of what our fantastic school has to offer students. They benefited from what I love about BBIS: the music and performing arts programs that allow even teachers
like me to participate, the global mind set and chance to have friends with people from every corner of the world and to learn about other perspectives and ways of knowing, and the warm, caring community that have taken and continue to take such good care of us both professionally and personally.
One of the ways that we like to travel is by bike and so one of the things that I highly recommend is going biking in and around Berlin. My family and some of our friends here regularly go biking on such excellent bike routes such as: The Elbe Radweg along the Elbe River, the Berlin-Usedom Radweg up to the Baltic Sea, or the Berlin Mauerweg which traces the route of the Berlin Wall all around the city. Another way that we spend time is hanging out at book stores. There is nothing like sitting in a cosy chair at Dussmann English Bookstore (which is open until midnight) and reading to your heart’s content. Finally, for our game playing urges, combining a great German beer garden such as the Loretta at Wannsee, or the Schleusenkrug near the Berlin Zoologischer Garden with a deck of cards, or Dobble, makes for a long, lazy afternoon with something for everyone.