First Day of International School

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Here is a little glimpse of the kids school week. I spared Marshall the embarrassment of taking his picture in front of his class, he is Jr High now! :) But this shows you their walk to school and a little bit of the facilities. The school has a great security staff and it is fenced and gated. Every person, vehicle, and bag is checked before you enter the grounds. They even have these mirrors that look like a giant version of what a dentist uses, you know the angled ones, and they check underneath every car as well as inside. These procedures are pretty common to most large malls, hotels and major facilities in this country. The guards, like the rest of the staff have been very friendly.

Marshall is one of three Americans in his class. There are also three Koreans, three Indians (India) and one from Holland. Campbell has classmates from Switzerland, Korea and Australia. It has been a neat experience for them. Barry and I also added two classmates to our class. Last unit an American who was raised in South Africa joined (this is his third language!) and this unit we have a man from Switzerland (this is his fourth language!) There is a joke that says, "What do you call someone who only speaks one language.........American!" :) I get that now, everyone else knows at least two and are working on their third or fourth!! I guess I should have paid more attention in my Spanish class!!! Oops!

So far all of your talks to the CEO have been answered and the first week has been a success, thank you!! We are all exhausted as we adjust to this new schedule. In addition to our four hours of class, Barry and I are doing an additional 1 to 2 hours of tutoring a day for at least this month then we may go to twice a week.

The good news is that this weekend is their Independence Day and so we have a three day weekend (Yippee!!) That should be enough time to catch up on rest and have time to hang out with the kids. Oh, and here's a little side note.....Our school is doing a Ping Pong tournament, Pelatihs and students, and Barry and I signed up to play in it!! Crazy, right? We have not played in years so this ought to be interesting, but they have a table at our school and so everyone has been practicing during our break....so far the Pelatihs are winning (they have home table advantage:)) Barry plays tomorrow but the women's bracket is not until next week. I play on Tuesday against a secretary at the school, it should be comical!

Enjoy the pics and know that there is a family on an Island somewhere in the Pacific who talks to the CEO about you and loves to hear about your life as well!!