first day of school 2014

z had his first day of school first, but s wanted to carry her "backpack," so there they are, both holding something. 

a silly picture.

this was s's actual first day of school, and z's second day of school.

z's first day of school could've gone smoother. i had very little information about the school. i didn't know if he would be eating lunch, since he was going to be there only for the chinese portion of the day (the private part). i didn't know if i was supposed to send a snack to school. i didn't know if there was a prohibition on peanuts (turns out there was). i didn't know, in the case that he did eat lunch there, how he bought lunch, or how much it cost. when i dropped him off, the teachers knew NOTHING about his existence. there was no name on a hook. there was no name on a desk. the principal walked us up to the teacher, and she said in front of us, "does this mean i'm going to have 25 students???" that all could've been run a lot differently! things have smoothed out, and z is very happy there, and so are we. i volunteer there in the cafeteria on mondays (10:20-1:15), and grandma does cafeteria duty on thursdays, and helps out the 2nd grade english teacher on mondays. everybody at the school works very hard, and it's great to have small class sizes. i'm going to try having z talk with our neighbor tomorrow (a sort of tutoring) who speaks mandarin.