Leila's turn...

Today was Leila's first day of school. Sort of funny that it took till Wednesday, September 5 for her to start when classes actually began at her school while we were still in Canada. 
The day we got back I went to go inquire since we hadn't paid and she didn't have her uniform or anything, and the head person said that there was no point in paying for August since we'd already missed so much, so why not come back at the beginning of September. Also, there is a subsidy program from the HK government which we strangely qualified for even though we are not permanent residents, but it was only valid until our visas from last year expired, so I needed to re-apply for the subsidy with copies of our updated visas and only return once we had the new documentation. 
This was a huge relief to me, as it meant we could get over our jet lag, have some play dates and get together with people and get Annika into her routine of going to school before getting Leila off to school. Can you tell I am not really that anxious to send my baby to school?? 

 The papers finally arrived on Friday afternoon, but I didn't want to let the school know immediately because I had to make a trip to the Chinese embassy on Monday to get our China visas for our upcoming Shanghai trip, and then Tuesday was the first day of my mom's group and I didn't feel right about being all the way over in the New Territories on Leila's first day of school. Again, can you tell I'm not feeling ready to send my baby to school??

So... Tuesday afternoon we picked up her uniform, which was very exciting for her, and finally today I brought her for her first day. 

She is so rebellious with the green shoes. Apparently she is supposed to wear white leather shoes with the dress, and then white runners with the PE uniform. Well... I don't know where to find white leather shoes and wanted to see what the other kids were wearing, and it's too bad they have that rule since she already has green, pink, brown and black shoes in the closet, just not white. And we already have runners that are white and blue. But I think that they are supposed to be completely white. I'm going to wait and see if they say anything before I go out and buy her shoes that she probably wouldn't wear anywhere but school. 

 Overall, Leila has been more anxious than actually excited about school, and we've been going into this thinking that it's a bit of a trial run anyway. It's not like it's mandatory when you're four... we'll just see how she does. This morning though, she was very excited. It's actually more English instruction than I initially thought. There is only one class of Cantonese each day. Most of the kids attending are from Muslim and Hindu background, outnumbering Chinese kids I would say. Leila's definitely the only Canadian in the bunch! She right away started playing with a little girl who was also four and also starting today. So cute!

 You can see the school windows above the businesses on the street level. The windows have colorful pictures. The whole place seems a bit ghetto to me. But it is inexpensive. HA!

So here she is in her run-down classroom. I don't actually really know how her day went. She said that she had fun, but she also said she cried for me four times. She was pretty excited about her backpack and little cup and face cloth that she got, though. Annika had a million questions for her, and she couldn't answer very many of them (ie. couldn't remember what her teacher's name was or who the kids in her class are). We'll see how tomorrow goes... 

And lastly, we have been using the pool a few times a week and Annika has really been loving it. She is actually starting to swim, and likes to go in parts of the pool where she can't touch the bottom and swim short distances from the edge of the pool to us. She usually ends up drinking half the pool and getting water up her nose, but it's not slowing her down! And grade one seems to be going well. She comes home every day saying that her day was good. It's still weird that Mike can't check in on her, and her teacher doesn't send out as much correspondence as her kindergarten teacher did, so we just have to go by her word that she seems happy and that things are going well. Taking the shuttle bus doesn't seem to be a big deal, so we are relieved that everything seems to have worked out!