Poison water

Today at dinner we were listening to the acoustic version of ‘Sweet Child ‘O Mine’ from Captain Fantastic. It’s such a touching song that I tear up slightly whenever I hear it. Anyway, Zoe was reminded of the trailer, and says that the part where the dad says that Coke is “poison water” is funny. I agree, and I tell her that it is poison water. Chloe says, “Yea! At school they say that if you drink too much of it, you have to wear a diaper!” I nearly choked on my rice. She said the teacher tells them that if they have too much candy, or sugar, they will lose control of bodily functions and have to wear a diaper. And then they have to dump out their pee everyday from a little baggie.

This is education, people.

Tokyo Finds

The longest marshmallow ever is an eel marshmallow...

A cafe just for hedgehogs...the "snack set" was a snack for the hedgehog, not for the human! We thought we could order hot chocolate while playing with the hedgehogs, but instead we could only order mealworms for them.

Fried whale...in which, Chloe promptly felt ill after eating.

I think we had the middle top part of the whale.

Tasted like gamey chicken.

Lots of gashapon, and also a mini gashapon with gashapons, that came from a gashapon..

Rows of gashapon.

This gashapon came from one of the machines above...and it has more gashapon inside.

Feeling New

Now that I have moved to Taiwan…

I have to say, I like this school better than the US! Since I am new, everybody doesn’t really know me, this way I can start a new me! For example: in the US, since I have been at my school since kindergarten I might have did something bad or embarrassing. And then sometimes you move and get separated from your friends, like me. But now I can start a whole new me! I also feel like this school is very welcoming and really fun! Everybody is class is really close. Technically, none of the kids here really get embarrassed, or care what other people think about them. For example: this guy in my class is sorta fat and everyone just calls him fatty! But he doesn’t even care! Why is it like this? Well, my theory is that it has to do with the teachers. Because the teachers always yell at the kids and there is a lot of public shaming in front of the whole class. Also, the teachers here really like to compare one kid’s work to another kid’s work. Because of this, it brings all the kids in the class together as a team. Since the whole class is used to getting in trouble and embarrassed by the teacher. And if you get in trouble they don’t laugh at you, because they know how you feel. Instead they comfort you. Moral: Feeling united with my classmates is my favorite part of school. And to see other people’s culture and how they live. And that’s what we came to Taipei for.

Urban Vegetable Garden

Most of the time, Joe bikes Phoebe on the family bike to school. But sometimes, I walk with her. It's about a 15 minute walk. One day last week, Phoebe and I decided to take a different route. We stumbled on a small plot of land with a vegetable garden, nestled between high rises. An old grandma was selling fresh vegetables on the sidewalk. I chatted with her, and she had just picked these veggies in the morning. I asked her if she's there everyday, and she said it depends on how the harvest is, and said that sometimes she sells out early in the morning. She also said she doesn't use any pesticides.

"20NT for a bushel" - that's $0.66 USD

Phoebe wanted to buy the cucumbers, but I hadn't thought to bring any money on me! But Joe did go and buy some veggies the next day. We ate it that night too quickly - I didn't get any photos. This reminded me of the children's book The Curious Garden by Peter Brown - it's about these beautiful gardens that popped up through an old industrial city.

Can we buy the cucumbers PLEASE?

Taipei Retail Fun

The Taiwanese are good at making retail fun. They love games and contests. And organization. Here at MUJI, they gave Phoebe a challenge - to put away laundry in their drawers (note: he's telling her to put the same type of socks together, I love his need for order). In return, she got some laundry stickers. And then he told her "you need to help your mom put away laundry when you get home!" 😊

Crazy Story from A Friend (but maybe it's only crazy because we're from the US)

I have a friend who told me a crazy story. Just like me, she’s in the 4th grade. In the morning and at night, she doesn’t have parents. Her parents leave at 5 o’clock in the morning. She has to wake up by herself with her alarm. She also has one little sister in 1st grade. In the morning, she cooks eggs for her sister and her, and she toasts bread. One day I saw her little sister with a really nice French braid-bun. My friend says that she helps her sister fix her hair in the morning. Then she walks her sister and her to school by herself. After school is over, she then picks up her sister and they walk home together alone. They then do their homework by themselves when they get home. For dinner, my friend cooks noodles and makes a salad. When the mom comes home at 8 o’clock, she will cook the more complicated part of dinner (such as meat).  Or if the mom tells her that she will be home late (say at 10:00), then her sister and her will just eat Cup O’Noodles. Every night, they have to go to bed exactly at 8:30. If they are one minute late, they get hit on the butt one time. If they are five minutes late, they get hit on the butt five times, etc. One day she came to school and said that her butt hurt because her mom hit her on the butt 10 times because she was 10 minutes late to going to bed, because she was studying for her test. That day she came to school angry, because she had to cook dinner, help her sister get changed and get ready for bed, and she had to study for finals. I feel like she is a really good sister, and really mature.

My sister and I walking in the rain.

Top 11 Differences between School in Taiwan and the US

1.     Lunch. The lunch in Taipei is much more yummy than the lunch in the US. In Taiwan, they serve the lunch in the classroom. And in the US, they serve the lunch in the MP (Multi-Purpose) room. Here in Taipei, we have several courses: a main meal, soup, side vegetables, fruit, and sometimes milk. We eat inside on our desks, and in the US we eat outside on the picnic tables. Nobody talks at all while eating. We don’t have recess after lunch. We have to brush our teeth and then nap on the table.

School field trip to the Taipei World Trade Center

2.     Teacher. They yell really, really loud when they are mad at a kid. I haven’t been yelled at yet. And they do a lot of public shaming. For example, the teacher doesn’t say your name, but she says all the bad stuff that you do, and then she says, “if you did that then please stand up.” And then the child will stand up, and then she will yell at him more. The teacher also likes to compare one kid’s work to another kid’s work. But the yelling and comparing doesn’t bother me too much.

The first day of school. All the kids clapped to welcome me since I am a new student.

3.     Swimming. In my Taipei school we have a swimming pool but in my US we don’t. I think that the swimming classes are very fun! (It is one of my favorite periods) There are two levels, the first level is pretty easy for me, so I am in the second level. After we are done swimming we go in to the locker room, after we are done rinsing and changing we blow dry our hair and it is madness! There are about 24 hair blow dryers, every girl wants their hair really dry AND they also have to fix it perfect, which takes FOREVER! There are also a couple of moms to help blow dry hair, but it still does take a long time. Once it took so long that the teacher had to come in and help because the gates were almost going to close.

4.     Earthquake drill. The earthquake drill in Taipei is much more serious than earthquake drills in the US. We have about 6 earthquake drills. Once you hear the announcer say “the earthquake is hitting!” you have to go under the table and all of my classmates take it really serious. Then the speaker makes earthquake noises, and then when the speaker says you can go out, every body hurries up and then gets a random book, puts it on their head and runs down all of the stairs. Every teacher is wearing a helmet and snapping for the kids to go faster. Once I reached the field I saw that the teachers were doing a skit and that they were saying “two people got hurt” but they were just doing a skit so there was no real injured kids. But to my surprise they actually had 2 kids act like they were hurt, one was sitting on a wheel chair and another was wearing a fake cast.

5.     Changing periods. In our Taiwan school we change periods a lot. Here are our different periods: English, science, social studies, computer, art, swimming, PE and music.  My favorite subjects are computer, art, swimming, PE and music. My least favorite subjects are science and social studies (although I got a high score on my midterm and final). When we change periods, the class president has us all line up in a really straight line. There shouldn’t be any gaps, if there is one little gap then he will yell at you. When we get to the classroom the class president says “look forward” and the class says “ready.” Then we have to all walk orderly inside. If you do not, then the class president hits you and says, “hurry up!” If you disobey, then the class president will write your class number on the blackboard when you get back to the classroom. And then the teacher yells at you in front of the whole class. If you do not behave, then the subject teacher will tell the homeroom teacher (my main teacher), and she will then say that you brought shame upon the whole class.

6.     Kids. When we are hanging out during class, and like, if someone is sitting next to you and is misbehaving, you can just yell at them to be quiet. And they don’t get mad at you or take it personally. They don’t hold a grudge and yell back, because they know that they should behave in class and show respect to the teacher. In the US, the kids would be upset if you tried to mind their business in class, they would say “none of your beeswax!” But here in Taiwan, even if you tell someone to be quiet, you will still be friends. It is really easy to make friends here. Another example is that there’s a boy in our class that is a little fat. Everyone just calls him “fatty,” and he doesn’t care. He knows it’s just his nickname. I think that it is more offensive here to call someone skinny than fat. Because if you are fat, that means you are wealthy – you have more food to eat. The boys are also nicer here than in the US. They are very friendly and don’t make fun of you. They don’t care if you’re hanging out with other girls.

7.     Discipline. I feel like over here in Taiwan, the kids have more discipline. For example, we have to clean the bathrooms, mop the floors, wipe the windows, and help make the school a pleasant place. There is only one janitor, but her job is to clean the principal’s office (not the bathroom). The kids don’t complain about cleaning, they just do it.

8.     Student government. In each class, there are a lot of roles. There is the class president, vice class president, the respect director, the hygiene director, and there is a director for every period (subject) to keep track of the misbehaving kids. First the class president has to keep an eye on all the kids. If he wants, he can yell at them. Everyone has to listen to him. He also has to lead the line, which has to be completely straight. It’s a lot of pressure for him, because if he doesn’t do the job well and doesn’t tell the kids to do something, then the teacher will yell at him. Second, the respect director has to put an “X” on the chalkboard and write all the student numbers that aren’t good underneath it. He does this everyday. At the end of the day, based on this list, the teacher will deduct points from the bad students. The respect director also has to keep track of people during naptime. If you’re not sleeping, she will tell you to go to sleep, and will also put your name under the “X.” Third, the hygiene director has to make sure everyone does their job during cleaning time. After lunch, everyone has to brush their teeth, and the hygiene director has to make sure everyone brushes their teeth. If he didn’t see someone brush his/her teeth, he will try to find someone next to them and ask them if they saw that person brush their teeth. If there is no witness, then he will tell the person to brush their teeth again. The director for each period has to make sure the kids are good; if they are bad, then when they get back to the homeroom, they have to add the bad kids under the “X.” Once class starts again, the teacher will call up all the bad kids one by one by number and discipline them. The punishment is that they have to write an essay – 200, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, or 1800 words depending on the severity of the bad behavior. One example is this one time, a kid farted in class, and the teacher asked, “Who FARTED?” Out of the whole class, only one kid said “not me!” Then the teacher walked down the aisle and sniffed her nose, and pointed at him and said, “you farted! I know you did. You lied.” He had to write a 400 word essay.

9.   “Teaching you how to be a good person” education. At this school, we have a whole class about how to be a good person. In that class, it teaches you how to communicate with your mom and dad better, how to find ways not to get mad, not to have gender stereotypes, and street safety. In the US, I think the parents teach the kids about this stuff. But in Taiwan, the school has to teach this. I think this is because a lot of the kids’ parents are too busy. Or maybe it’s because the parents don’t have the patience to. I learned a concept called “double winning,” which basically means that if you are in an argument, you have to make sure that both of you “win.” Meaning, you try to find a win-win situation where both people in the argument win. For example, if you guys are arguing about what place to go, and one person says, “we are going to the playground and that’s that,” but the other person is unhappy about the decision, then it’s not a “win-win” situation. They also give us lessons on how not to judge people based on whether they are a boy or a girl. For example, girls can also be athletic just like boys. Girls can be scientists. And boys can be hair stylists and ballet dancers.

We learned about Jeremy Lin in our Chinese text book

10.  Tests and homework! There is so much homework compared to the US. The US didn’t have any. When we first arrived, it took me about four hours to do my homework. And then after a while it was about three hours. We get home at 4:10PM and then we would start homework at 4:30PM. Then my mom put in a rule that said we had to stop by 7:30PM (when we ate dinner) which actually worked, and then we wouldn’t be able to do any after dinner. So we had to finish before dinner. Here there are so many tests. There are tests for singing, PE, and all the subjects. I think there are a lot of tests because people like to compete. The teacher talks about test scores openly. She will say who received the highest score and who got the worst score. And if you did really bad she will shame you. She will say, “I cannot say you are dumb. But I can say that you are not using your brain.” There are also midterms and finals. And it’s a big deal. Everyone in our class is very nervous. A lot of it is because, if they don’t get a good score, then the parents will hit them and get mad at them. On the day of the test, the day is really jammed, because it’s just test after test. Everyone in my class studies very hard. Technically the only break we have that day is a short one to go to the bathroom between each test. A couple of days after the test, when we get our scores back, a lot of people are praying that they did well.

11.  Athletics Meet. This is an event where every grade prepares something, for example, obstacle course, relay or dances. What the whole fourth grade did, is a relay race and a dance. In the relay race, we got second place. And our dance was an aboriginal dance. I think it’s really fun because of the comraderie it builds in the class, and also because we get to be energetic. And also, your parents get to come and watch and see what you learned. It happens on a Saturday.

Second place at our athletics meet

Whipped!

Before school started, we asked our grandpa if the teachers still whipped children. And he said, “Of course not Chloe!” As if I had asked a silly question. Just a few weeks ago, however, I actually witnessed it. I didn’t just hear about it. We had this super easy homework assignment, that I even thought was easy. It was simply just to draw the cover of your end of semester report. However, surprisingly, there were many kids who either forgot to bring it, or didn’t put effort into it at all. So, these children had to go up on the platform in the classroom (where the teacher teaches). I have seen many people go up on the platform before to get yelled at, so I was assuming that was what was going to happen. Then, the teacher took out his bare hand, and demanded all the kids to put out their bare hand.  First, the kids who didn’t do the assignment, got hit three times. Then, the kids who forgot to bring the assignment, got hit twice. And lastly, the kids who barely put effort into the assignment, got hit once. I couldn’t believe my eyes. But my friend said, “this is very normal. Our teacher is actually very nice! Some teachers take a bamboo stick and whip the kids on the hands. And they have to get a new stick each week since the old one gets destroyed. So we are lucky that our teacher hits with his bare hand, since his hand will hurt too.” I agree that my teacher is actually very nice, but all teachers here are very strict. My teacher later on told me that I don’t need to be so worried because he also knows that I just came here from the US, so have a harder time than the other children.He also told me that he knows that I always put in effort.

My classroom through the balcony window

Radish (蘿蔔) picking

Phoebe came back from school yesterday, with a radish! She picked it on her school outing. They visited a farm in Neihu. One of the best things about her preschool is that they do field trips twice a month. Phoebe has been to an insect museum, the zoo, a church (to learn about Christmas), and some nice big parks. 

Look at my huge radish!

She was super excited to go on this excursion as she said she's never picked a radish before (neither have I). This one is super big so I think she did get help from a teacher. She also picked three oranges. I've revised this post as I got some photos from the teacher of the actual farming:

Pulling the radish out!

I love how there is a farmer helping her. And the mountains in the back are beautiful!

So big!

So many veggies!

This is what we made with the radish the next night. Super yummy pork soup with carrots and seaweed. It really did taste super fresh!

Soup with the radish.

Five Fun Finds

Today marks six months. There have been times where I’ve really missed the States and have wanted to go back. And I’ve had to tell myself to hang in there, and to discover the great things about this city. Here are some things that are keeping me excited about living here:

1. Passion fruit. It’s delicious and easy to eat, you just slice the top off. Also makes for an easy drink (with some vodka). I can buy a whole bag of ten here for three bucks.

2. Elephant mountain. It’s like the Stanford Dish, but even better, in some ways. For one, I don’t have to drive there and deal with the madness of parking. I can walk there in five minutes from our place. Secondly, I think it’s a better workout, as it is all stairs. It’s like doing the Stair Master outdoors. Third, there is more nature to see – bamboo, green leaves, huge spiders, beetles, butterflies. It’s all quite magical when you get to the top.

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3. Bread. We have fresh bread almost every morning, there are bakeries everywhere. Many times I will buy bread that is still hot – they have to leave the plastic bag open so it can breathe.

4. Restaurants. We can get to all kinds of restaurants within a short walk of 10 minutes. And lots of variety. If we don’t want to walk that far, we can walk to a Japanese, a New Orleans, and an American restaurant within 5 minutes. And the food here is really delicious. It’s pretty hard to have a bad meal. I also do love all the cafes. I don't think I've ever drank so much good coffee!

The rose latte at the Agnes B cafe is one of my favorites. Joe is having the ginger latte.

5. Efficiency in service. People here love to get stuff done. The US boasts apps like Instacart and DoorDash, but folks in Taipei have been delivering stuff by phone for years. I called a neighborhood grocery store asking for some chicken. I asked them when I could get them. The woman said, “I’m a bit busy now, but I will be there in 7 minutes, does that work?” She showed up at my doorstep, I handed her a bill, and she already had the exact change in her hand. The meat was still ice cold. At first, I didn’t really get why people never leave voicemails, but now I get it – by the time they leave a message, and get a response, too much time would have passed. Instead, they try another number, or they just call back later when they have time to deal with it. This is also why people almost always pick up the phone when you call.

Another example is IKEA. They will deliver and assemble your furniture for cheap. We went there a few times when we first moved, and in all instances, they’d deliver your goods the NEXT day. And they would be super apologetic if they couldn’t deliver the same day, or if the next day was booked up at the time you want. One guy would carry all the heavy boxes into your place. Then another guy arrives and assembles it all. We had a bookshelf with eight drawers, two nightstands, a sofa bed, two coat racks, and a shoe bench, and one guy assembled it all within three hours, for about $40 USD. If you’ve ever assembled one of those bookshelfs, you know that it would take a pretty handy person about five hours…this guy was a machine. And he just wanted to get it DONE.

One time we went to IKEA, we had a shopping cart of small items that wouldn’t fit easily on a cab, so we asked if they could deliver it too. The thing that was impressive was that the IKEA woman looked at the cart for about 5 seconds, and immediately was able to mark all the items on the receipt that was in the cart. Her efficiency was impressive (she was accurate, too). Things here happen very quickly, people don’t have the patience to wait around, so people are fast. And then she was super apologetic and said that with the number of items, she’d need to charge me $3 USD, would that be okay?

Even at a place like 7-Eleven, things happen at lightning speed. In Taiwan, you can pay all your bills at 7-Eleven. Yes, it’s probably still faster to do automatic payments online, but given that there are so many 7s everywhere, and that you will likely walk past one at least once a day to get a drink or snack, it makes it easy to pay your bills there too. You can also pick up train tickets. Or, if you don’t want your package to sit at your home waiting for you to get off work, you can have it delivered to a 7, and then pick it up.

Cute stuff in Kyoto

If you know us as a family, you know that we are suckers for cute stuff. Like anything that is cute. Especially itty bitty tiny things. Like small food toys. We can't get enough of them. When we decided to visit Kyoto, I searched for cute stores, using search terms like "totoro" and "studio ghibli," and I stumbled upon an image like this:

and I knew we had to go. These Gashapons, or toy vending machines are the best. They don't just give out crap plastic toys, and even when they do dispense a plastic ball, it's really cute (see below). There are so many it's hard to keep track. Most dispense super cute toys, that you really wouldn't be able to buy anywhere else. The cutest are the miniature food toys.

Miniature Calico Critters

Here is a line up of some of the miniature food toys we accumulated from the Gashapons.

Zoe's finger so you can tell the size of these

Note that the rice balls are pre- and post-toasted, as are the waffles...

Tiny microwave. The inner plate rotates.

Here, the cookie cutter actually "cuts" out the shape:

The white thing is a tube of frosting.

School in Taiwan: Three months in...

Zoe's Communication book. I have to sign it every night. Teacher also stamps her chop, to indicate she's made sure Zoe wrote down all the correct assignments. The top has a list of her homework that she copies from the black board everyday. On the bottom is a short diary Zoe wrote. The blue note is a notice from the school about a performance on Monday, with a QR code to use to get more info.

When I first started posting, I said that the girls had at least two hours of homework a night. A week after that, the girls were averaging four hours a night of homework.  They would get home at 4:15, open their backpacks, and then start. They’d be half-way to 70% done by dinner time at 6:45. Then after dinner at around 7:45, they would work for another 1-1.5 hours before I’d yell and scream for them to stop and go to bed. It was madness. I am a strong believer in sleep, and know how much they need, so would insist on a set bedtime. I’d tell them that it doesn’t matter if they don’t finish their homework, and that it doesn’t matter what grades they get. I just wanted them to try their best, but that sleep is sleep and they need it in so they can function properly and grow. Night after night, I’d beg for them to close their books. But they wanted to get stuff done. When we first decided to move to Taiwan, I warned the girls of all the homework they would have. But I told them it didn’t matter what grades they get, as long as they worked hard. But I never thought that they would work this hard, so hard that they’d sacrifice sleep! So now I’ve had to revise what I said, and prioritize sleep over finishing homework.

They take great pride in being able to check off all the items in their “Communication” book (this is a book they use to track all their to-dos with their teacher; and also have to write a daily diary). And, they never complained. They still don’t. They literally just grind through it. I am still confounded by this. Even though I’m not the one with the homework, I’d say that I’ve complained the most out of the five of us.

This is Chloe's Communication book. List of homework assignments up top, and on the bottom, she has to write a her daily diary. Note on the left side, she wrote so much she had to stick on another piece of paper (too much to say!). On the right there's usually a story. And on the very top, they teach an English saying everyday.

Despite my yelling, Chloe would sometimes go to bed at 10:00 or 10:30, and then not be able to fall asleep since her brain was so wired from homework. Starting around 8:00, I'd start to get stressed that they weren't ready to go to bed yet. Over time, I started to realize that it wasn’t feasible to just have the one tutor come and teach them every night, as one child would end up waiting around for the tutor to finish with the other. So I asked another tutor to come, hoping that she’d be able to help one while the other tutor helps the other…Most tutors are also not willing to come 5 days a week, and that’s what you really need when you move to a new country and your kids did not grow up with the language that they are now immersed in. Some people have asked me why I need a tutor, and well, the answer is simple: picture moving here from the US, with just basic Kindergarten skills of speaking and reading Chinese. And then having to read the equivalent of Shakespeare (classic Chinese), chapters on social studies, science theories on how plants grow, math word problems, all in Chinese. I don’t know how to say 'parliament,' 'Bunsen burner,' or 'reservoir' (they had a whole section on water in social studies) in Chinese. It would take me forever to teach them, not to mention the fact that I am a terrible teacher. We’d get into fights, and there would be lots of tears.

A page from Chloe's social studies book My head explodes just reading it.

One of Zoe's math worksheets. I feel like there's never enough room for scratch work.

It’s not easy. Within one sentence, there could be two adjectives and three verbs that needs to be read and explained. Multiply that by 40 sentences…do the math and it becomes clear on why the girls have 4+ hours of homework a night. This is just for Chinese, social studies, and science. And then there’s math. They love word problems here. So even if Chloe and Zoe could do the problem in English, they can’t do it in Chinese unless someone reads it to them. An example: “Bobby walks 5 km to the school. He then goes home after school, but first he goes to the hospital, which is 2km away. Then he stops at the 7-Eleven 3km from there…” You get the point. Long word problems, which take time to read, and then solve.

Words that are so hard! Chloe writes the meaning in English sometimes on the bottom.

As I write this post, and look over at Chloe’s words, I see the words to the right. I honestly do not know what half of these words mean. It’s not like you can easily look it up online either, since you need to know the sound of it in order to type it, and then it takes a while to pick the character (yes, we have tried other computer vision apps, but those don’t always work well either). Also, these words aren’t commonly used. Some of them sound like lawyer speak to me. Some of them are really old phrases that you’d hear an old grandpa say. So that’s where the tutor comes in.

Tutors for some reason were incredibly difficult for me to find. One of them started for a few days, and then quit and said she had to start Japanese lessons. Another quit dramatically one day after not being able to handle the “pressure” (we are still confounded by what pressure she had, especially since I told her I could care less what grades the girls get). We now have two tutors, and it seems to be working out fine. One of them is merely twenty years old, and is a sophomore in college. But we lucked out because her English is really good: on the first day, Chloe asked her what a word meant, and she immediately said, “Community.” I was pleasantly surprised as I was still trying to come up with the meaning in my head. Turns out she had studied at an American school in Shanghai when she was growing up not long ago, so had perfect pronunciation and very good English (and clearly she was very smart to have retained all of that when she was young). The other tutor was recommended by Chloe’s teacher (I’m still not quite sure why I didn’t think of asking him earlier in the school year), and teaches children with special needs at their school. So, she can walk here right after school, and she has infinite patience.

The girls have since had midterms. One morning, Chloe said she tested for four hours, with a short break in between where she could use the bathroom. I never thought the girls would have taken midterms by now, in 4th and 5th grade. Since the school knows they are from the US, they did provide some extra help in terms of reading the questions – like I said, they can do the math problems if they know what the question is asking. Chloe’s teacher actually texted me a day after the exams, and said, “your daughter did very well on her tests.” 

While reading this, you may wonder what Chloe and Zoe think about their school...well, they really like it. Zoe said on a Friday afternoon a couple of weeks ago, "I wish we had school tomorrow! I love our school. It is SO FUN." I have some theories on how the school is able to foster this, despite how much homework there is, but I'll have to save that for another post. They have both made a couple of good friends, and are really enjoying learning. And as for Phoebe, she loves her school too. More on her experience later.