Björn's news

This young man is blossoming nowadays. He is 14 now, almost as tall as I am and his face is changing as the bones grow and become more masculine. His nose has become very much like my Mom's, which is a surprise, since it showed no sign of doing so until very recently. He officially has the biggest feet in the family, having now outstripped his Dad on that score. We bought him a pair of football boots recently, and they were size 9 (UK).

He is now in his second year of high school, which he thoroughly enjoys. He has been afforded the opportunity to play a great many sports he hadn't previously tried and has been game for all of them. Whenever a competitor is needed for his hall team to compete against the other halls, his hand goes up - even when he hasn't really played the sport before. As a result, he has swum, played tennis, badminton, cricket, rugby, basketball, football (soccer), rounders, thrown a javelin, run, jumped (high, long and triple) and so the list goes on. He is the top javelin thrower in his age group at school (and considering that there are over 2500 kids in the school, that's some achievement) and came third in the regional competition. He laps it up.

Academically, he is cruising at the moment. He is the top science student in his class by a long shot. He is among the top few for a few other subjects as well, including French, where he does a fine approximation of a French accent. I have concerns about the lack of homework he seems to receive, but he says he completes it at school and all his teachers are happy with the promptness of his completed work, so one assumes he's telling the truth on that score, but after the warning we got from the head teacher about the workload this year, I was expecting more.

Discipline in the school is lax and teachers are powerless in this country to compel the children to comply. If a child is disruptive in class and the teacher sends them out of the room, they might refuse to leave, and then the teacher is sunk. This disrupts the lesson for the rest of the class. This is particularly the case in the performing arts subjects. Both those teachers tell me he is one of the few kids who does as he is asked, but those few are regularly disappointed as the rest of the class brings the lesson to a grinding halt.

Björn recently started guitar lessons and we bought him an electric guitar. Predictably he needs to be nagged to practise, but he seems to be making fair progress.

He currently has a girlfriend called Chrissy who attends our church. She is a little older than he is - a year ahead at school. A sweet girl and it doesn't hurt that she is drop dead gorgeous to boot!