Let's Rock...Let's Roll

Today was the first day of school for both kids. After leaving, forgetting Asa's diaper bag, then biking back to our place...we made it.

Miriam did great! She seemed to love her teachers, the games they played outside and even ate lunch there (something I could never get her to do in Beijing at preschool). Asa, well he was a pretty sad dude when I picked him up. They were trying to get him to drink milk from a bottle, something he has never done before. But they teachers said he was happy to play then when they went to a "teaching" time he lost it. So, I have hope it will get better.

I got Mei on the bike (she sits on the back) this morning and she said "Let's rock and Let's roll" it was pretty cute.

A very frustrating part of preschool today was the language the workers at the schools speak to each other. It is Shanghai Hua- not Mandarin (the standard Chinese dialect). I needed to pay Mei's preschool bill and the office ladies all are talking in Shanghai Hua to each other about the bill so I have NO idea what they are saying. Then they have to translate it into Mandarin for me to "understand" when I have questions, I asked them in Chinese and then they answered them in English! So, that got a bit old. I guess I will have to learn a bit of Shanghai Hua too.

I knew that most people down here speak both dialects (or more). What I did not know is how much Shanghai Hua sounds to me like Japanese. I guess I thought it would be more like a really heavy southern drawl like in America- still English but with an accent. But I was very wrong indeed!

We are waiting for Joab to get home from work! He called at lunch and said work was good but overwhelming.

Both kids are currently dusting the floor with our floor duster. They think this is loads of fun! I hope they still do in a few weeks.