The pen is mightier than . . .

So, when we first moved to Germany, while the kids were still in an International school (the first semester we lived here), we all thought it was funny and a bit odd that "füller" always seemed to be included in early vocabulary lists for all of our German classes.  Füller translates to fountain pen and was always accompanied by a photo of an old fashioned one with a fancy nib, etc.

Imagine our surprise when the kids started German school and füller topped the list of needed supplies!  Yes, German kids write with these at school.  They are required to.  Most German adults continue to use them.

So, Rio needs a new, better quality, füller for school.  His old one has finally given out.  We stopped at a stationary store and bought him a new one on Friday and I thought you all might enjoy seeing this quaint, old timey, German tradition (and, by the way, the füllers really do write nicely; it is not such a bad idea---though I shudder to think of the cost in lost pens to the typical US student, the cheap füllers start at about 3-4 Euro each, and a good quality one runs around 20+).

So, here it is.  Rio's new pen:

(that is a box of the ink cartridges next to it)

--Hadley