Thursday, August 20, 2009

SY 09-10: Off and running

Well, school has started up again for all 4 of us and so far, so good. Emmett is now a Grasshopper, and 13/14 of his classmates are girls. Expecting several arranged marriage proposals before year's end. He seems quite excited to be back at school after all our travels. Still unclear on what "Portland" or "China" means, though. Yesterday he was asking where the Ferdigs are. I said they are in Portland, and he asked "Are WE in Portland?" Then last night he was asking about Vicki, a girl who lived across the street last year, who has since moved back to Germany with her mom. But the rest of the family is still here. ?!?! Emmy struggled to get that whole concept.

D was excited and a little anxious to start first grade. His teacher is a lovely woman from New Zealand, so we're hoping he picks up some Kiwi-isms (e.g. they pronounce "pasta" to rhyme with "canasta"). He knows a couple classmates from last year, and one of them has a little brother in Emmy's class. It's a VERY small world out here in the Western expat outpost that is far-west Shanghai.

There's something about our kid starting "FIRST GRADE" that hit us harder than kindergarten. It could be the adverbs. On those rare occasions when Desi isn't saying "butt" or "fart" or both, it's an "apparently" or "actually." Last night at dinner, Sarah looked at Des and said it might make her cry, looking at what a big kid he's become. He dismissed such concern by reminding her, "Ya still got yer lil' baby Emmers." (note: Emmers then denied being a baby. He said he is a big kid)

As for me, I am teaching 4 World History classes and an ESOL study hall. All the kids seem nice and bright. And my biggest class has only 18! Gotta love that. My schedule is quite lopsided--my "A" days are 4 classes straight through, my "B" days I only teach 1 of 4 periods. Must...use....plan time...wisely! Baseball tryouts began yesterday, saw 38 boys come out in the POURING rain. I'm assisting JV this year, and looking fwd. to a lot of hard work and teaching the rules of the game to some fairly green players.

Sarah is off and running at work, liking Year 2, knowing the ropes much better. I'll ask her to guest-post this weekend.

Next post should be photo-riffic. I'm sending some to my dad to post for me, beyond the clutches of the Great Firewall of China. Maybe after the big 60th anniversary celebrations in October are over, our internet access will improve. Til then, don't expect much of us on facebook.

And happy 50th to Hawaii! If we're not gonna give it back to the Hawaiians, then we should celebrate stealing it fair and square!

party on party people....

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