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Published: August 20th 2008
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This morning, MT woke the kids up earlier, 6:45 AM. They really should have gotten up even earlier, but staying up until just past 9 PM the night before made that very challenging. I was up even later, trying to get everything organized, semi-packed and my journal updated before I leave tomorrow afternoon. MT was up until past 2 AM getting the kids’ school supplies (snacks, lunch boxes, backpacks, pillows, blankets, etc) organized, labeled and packed for school the next morning. She says she felt like she was preparing an old fashioned wedding trousseau. X2. J was also up late with business calls out of the country.
But we all did it, if not super cheerily, and put on a happy face for the kids. Today was their first day of school in separate classrooms in a new country! The first day of school inspires many hopes and fears in both a parent and a child. Or in this case two children. T was very nervous about missing E, not making friends, not eating, not playing…just about everything. E was a tiny bit nervous, mostly about making friends. She kindly offered to make T a picture if he was too
“E-sick.” I found this incredibly sweet!
MT fed the kids breakfast. J was on another business call. I got the kids dressed in their school uniforms. T wore his blue and white striped short sleeved button-up shirt and nice black shorts. His only complaint was that the tag on the shirt was too itchy! So M trimmed it out and sewed the name tag down near the bottom. E wore her blue and white stripped dress with little blue Dora pantalets since she has not discovered how to play without showing the world her underpants... she is only four and a half after all! I put E’s short, stubborn brown hair into double pony tails using blue and red hair ties that she picked out. I have to say, she looked pretty cute!
J took T’s hand and MT took E’s hand and we all (even WALL-E the koala bear who was cradled in T’s arms) set off to grab a cab. It was the shortest ride to their school yet…this driver knew what he was doing even if we didn’t recognize the direction. We arrived at their International School at about 8:10 AM, only 10 minutes late.
J took T up to his classroom as T had requested the night before. MT went with E. I settled into the lobby, holding their bags and playing Bookworm on my phone, for a long wait. To my profound shock MT and J were back down at 8:25! Wow. Apparently T had settled into playing with cars in his room and was only a little forlorn looking when J left. E was happily painting away.
J, MT and I all went to Starbucks (along with many of the other school’s parents) just down the road. Starbucks is truly everywhere in China! After a quick trip to the bank next door, J headed off to work and MT and I headed off to shop.
This time for pillowcases that the kids would actually like for naptime at school, and to pay the carpet shop for MT and J’s new carpet. The carpet shop owner’s nephew did NOT want MT to count out the money in front of his employees which says something about how little they are paid, I suppose. I ended up making one more purchase at the Hongqaio Pearl Market as well. We didn’t find any pillowcases
or any good fabric to have them made, so we decided to go to the nearest mall for lunch and to visit Watson’s pharmacy. We ate at an udon noodle place, sampling a variety of food in order to determine whether it would be okay to bring the kids there…and because we were both very hungry. MT tried to order plain tofu with soy sauce, asking that the octopus with wasabi sauce be left off the dish. When it arrived we were reminded once again that though almost anything else you want can be customized, food orders cannot. I ate a bite of octopus with wasabi, but only because MT dared me to. She spit hers out. She hates horseradish, which wasabi is a type of. It actually wasn’t horrible, though I wouldn’t eat it again.
Then we heard the thunder and worried. T was very, very nervous about having thunder and lightning storms, which he is scared off, while at school. We crossed our fingers for him! Poor T, thunder storms on his first day of school in a separate class from his security blanket, his sister. MT had even put together a storm kit for him: ear
plugs, sun glasses and blanket.
We got back to the house about an hour before the kids’ school bus was due to arrive. I packed some more. Ying Chen worked on dinner. MT got caught up with her email -- she is definitely in demand here in Shanghai. New people are calling her left and right wanting her to evaluate their children for occupational therapy.
At about 3:20 we headed over to the clubhouse and the designated schoolbus dropoff point. We waited. Finally the white school bus with discrete school name on it appeared. Kids came tumbling off with the help of the bus ayi. We waited, and waited. Finally E, holding WALL-E, and then T appeared and were helped down. According to T, he had some trouble removing his seatbelt and E was helping him. Thank goodness they even have seatbelts!
They didn’t say too much about school and I heard no complaints from either kid! I asked some questions and got the typical answers back: either nothing or something so completely false it was funny. I’m going to assume they had a good day.
Tonight is my last night here before I leave for
Hong Kong and my tour of China. As per T’s request, both kids are sleeping with me. E had a hard time settling down, but she finally fell asleep after T did. I had a hard time leaving the room because every time I would shift to get up, T would wind his arm closer around mine in his sleep more like E usually does than his habits. It was bittersweet.
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