Boys first day of school

On Monday, the 28th the boys started school at Concordia.  School starts at 8am - a HUGE change for the boys as their old school started at 9am.  Waking up Monday morning was rough for all - the alarm went off at 6:30am.  After a slow start & a lot of nudges from Mom to hurry up & get ready, the boys were ready to head to the bus - a novelty for them as I used to drive them to school & pick them up (not so easy to do here with only 1 car & Ron needing to get to work - guess I could make him go to work REAL early.....). 

It was also a rough day as the weather was horrible - snow/sleet combination.  Mr. He was going to be here at 7:15am, bring Ron & the boys to the bus stop, which is at the front of the complex, & then bring Ron into work.  Well.......Ron gets a text message from Mr. He stating that he is stuck in traffic due to the bad weather & will be late (he is never late & felt horrible when he finally arrived - kept apologizing the whole day).  Talk about bad timing.   We proceeded to rush the kids out the door so they wouldn't miss the bus.  I had to pass on going up to the bus stop due to the weather (too slippery).  Ron had to change out of his work shoes & put tennis shoes on just to make the jaunt up to the bus stop.  Not only was the walk slippery but it was still sleeting when they left so they were getting wet (the umbrella is in the sea crate & we keep forgetting to buy one beings you don't need it very often when you get picked up/dropped off at doors).  Needless to say, I was very upset that I did not get to see the kids off to school & go over the last minute 'details' (where their lunch card was in their backpack, how to find their classroom in a school that is 5 times at big as their old one, with Justin's class in a different building, etc.).  I managed to keep myself busy during the day, anticipating their arrival home!  Mr. He picked me up at 3:35pm to go to the bus stop.  As I 'patiently' waited for the bus, which was late, Mr. He looked at me & said, "Madame, relax, the bus will be here soon".  Guess I looked nervous!!!  Mr. He was right & the boys came running off the bus a few minutes later!!!!  They both got in the car eager to talk however, Tanner had more negative things to say about school than positive.  In a nut shell, Tanner's teacher is expecting him to catch up to the rest of the class (test the next day, wax museum project which requires us to go to the Fabric Market Saturday to get a costume made - due in less than 2 weeks & with the Chinese New Year & everything shutting down, this should be interesting, Mandarin class - totally lost in - everyone able to read Mandarin - needs a tutor he was told, the list could go on but I will spare everyone the details).  We told him to relax & do his best - if that means he does not get straight A's (all he is used to getting), than that is fine.  Justin didn't complain much & seemed to get along fine with finding his class, his lunch card (better than Tanner who didn't look hard enough to find his - they gave him a free pass beings it was his first day of school), & meeting friends.  He is our quiet one so we will be monitoring him a little closer to make sure all is well.  They were not too excited to go to school on Tuesday & their prayers were answered - they had a snow day!! 

Shanghai has not seen snow in 4 years - guess we brought it!!!  Wednesday was a half day, with an assembly which took up 2 hours.  Thursday & Friday are full days. They have off next week due to the Chinese New Year (Ron will also be off).  I'm sure the kids will adjust well & begin to get into the rhythm of school after the break.  We didn't expect things to go 'smoothly' but it is hard to see your children having a hard time getting acclimated in school when they also have to acclimate to a new country.  We are looking forward to having some nice quality family time during their break with next week starting off with the boys bonding Monday morning while watching the Super Bowl!