Many of you may not really understand why I keep talking about going to Germany. A friend asked me,"What exactly is Russell going to do next year?"
It all started about two years ago when we decided to go to Germany to visit Stephanie, one of our exchange students. Russell mentioned to a colleague who happens to live in Germany that we were coming to Germany. Kai, the colleague, said we should come to Münster so Russell could give a presentation to the students and faculty. Münster is beautiful and old and full of food. We all had a wonderful time and I mentioned to Russell that I could see myself living there. I don't know exactly how it happened, but we ended up with an invitation to spend a year there.
We are not taking a really long vacation. Russell will team teach a class at an international university called the University of Münster. Mostly he will be working with various members of the faculty working on research projects. He will teach his class in English, but the experiments he runs will be in German. Russell spent the better part of the Spring translating a group decision experiment he will run at both ODU (in English) and the University of Münster (in German).
You may ask, "What will the rest of you be doing?"
Mostly we will be learning German. The boys will have no choice. They will both attend schools that are German speaking. Paton and I will take German as a second language classes at the Volksschuhle in the evenings. Preston will be able to take those classes at school. We will have to work like mad to make sure the boys do well enough in school that they will be ready when they return to their schools in Norfolk. Preston's school has a parents organization that is very active. They even have a parents choir.
We really don't know what to expect during this year except that it will be wonderful and difficult in ways we don't understand at this moment.
Taking a year long sabbatical means we will be living on half a salary for the year.
Russell is fluent in German, but the rest of us have a way to go before we are even close to comfortable with the language.
We will be living in a two bedroom, European apartment. At least it is furnished!
Hardest of all is that we are leaving our friends who are our family away from family.
Back to my friend who asked about what we were doing.
"What is a sabbatical? What exactly is Russell doing next year?"
"He is going to teach a class or two and run experiments and collaborate with Professors in Germany."
"I thought you said he was on sabbatical. That sounds like work!"
