We've moved. — The crazy adventures of The Oes

It's finally hit me. We are living in Taiwan. I don't think it's hit me until now, until school started this week. Prior to then, it almost felt like we were just here on vacation, like last summer. Take kids to summer camp, hang out with family, take a short trip to the beach, and then back to summer camp. But now that school has started, it really feels like we've moved. There are forms to fill out, lunches to pack, and homework to be completed...The good news is that the girls really like their school so far. They aren't intimidated by the homework they have, which is a bit surprising, coming from a school that didn't have homework. They've been working hard all week, with at least 2 hours of homework every night, it really doesn't leave them a lot of time to do much else. School goes from 7:50am - 4:00pm, which is longer than in the US. But they do have nap time, which the girls get a kick out of - they said "the teacher even takes a nap!" I think it's a great idea (and I'm thinking of instituting nap time for myself). The kids really take advantage of it - supposedly some kids don't want to wake up. But Chloe can't bring herself to nap.

Here's a list of surprises:

1) "The boys are SO nice!" - Zoe. She said they are more calm, less crazy than the boys in her class in the States. In general, they both said that the kids are super nice. Chloe spilled the contents of her pencil box on the ground, and she said a bunch of kids got up right away and helped her pick it all up.

2) "The lunch looks delicious!" - both Chloe and Zoe. We'd packed them lunches on the first day, but they came home saying they wanted to try the school lunch. Their cousin used to attend the same school, and had complained about the food being gross, but the girls said it looked really yummy. So we signed them up. So far, they like it! They bring it into the classroom, and the kids go and get the food, buffet style. They bring their own stainless steel container and utensils for the food (more eco-friendly) - there's one main, three sides, soup, and fruit.

3) There's cleaning chores. The girls seem to like sweeping. Chloe gets to pull weeds and Zoe mops. They said that when the teacher asked who wanted to clean the bathrooms, a bunch of kids raised their hands. They had to rock-paper-scissors to see who got to clean the bathroom! Probably good that they haven't had to clean the toilets yet. As a side note, there are no western toilets at their school. Just squat toilets (yes, holes in the ground. Building some grit here...)

4) They brush their teeth after lunch. I think that's a good habit. The teacher tells them they have to do it.

5) They have a class president and vice president. They need to lead the class to other classrooms, and make sure that they are orderly. And, one of their biggest jobs is to enforce nap time. The two of them take turns to sleep, as their job is to monitor the kids to make sure they are quiet and put their heads down.

6) At recess, they don't really run around. Most of the time they just hang out inside the classroom. There's no playground for the "middle and upper-school" (3rd grade and above) kids.

7) Zoe has two minimum days a week. Her teacher called me at Noon today and said it was time to pick her up. Oops (I thought it was only on Wednesdays).

8) If the teachers address a student, the student should stand up. Not sure if this is always, or just sometimes...If you're late, you need to announce it to the teacher and class.

9) P.E. class seems to be easier (even in this heat)! They have swim class too - they start next week, let's see how it goes. Zoe said that lots of the kids complain about lunge jumps, and ask to stop. She's a little surprised by how much the kids complain about exercising...If you get to school too early, the teacher asks you to go run some laps around the field. I told Zoe she can start going to school later, but she said "I want to run laps!"

10) They try to make sure that their backpacks aren't too heavy. They have 25 text books, but are only to bring back the ones they have homework for. There is a random test on certain days where the school brings out a scale and weigh the backpacks. Zoe's teacher said she was embarrassed last year because some of the packs of her students were too heavy. The text books aren't like the ones in the States, though, they are thin paper backs.

11) There are tests...More to come on that later. Ohlone didn't have tests other than the state mandated ones...

The most significant difference of course, is that everything is in Chinese!

First day of school. Chloe = 5th grade. Zoe = 4th grade.