School Days

Only three days have gone by, and yet I have so much to write. Strap on your seatbelts, this is going to be a long one.....

Sunday we finally made it to the correct ward...very exciting. Everyone was friendly and I think we will have a great time getting to know everyone. The first two women I met were from Australia and New Zealand. So cool. I am desperately hoping to pick up an accent, but know that is doubtful. We spent the rest of the day talking to friends and family via Skype. I love modern technology!

Monday = Andrew's first day of school. Unfortunately, our temporary housing is located next to the city center. Great for Scott, bad for the boys. At 7:55am, Andrew, Jacob, and I all load into a cab. Twenty five minutes later we arrive at Andrew's school. Needless to say, Andrew completely stood out in his class. Not only is he one of the two caucasians, but the curly red hair and wound on his head, sealed the deal. Andrew was thrilled to get going to class and told me I "could go". I had the cab driver wait for us since he was adamant that there was no other place to find a cab in the vicinity. Another 45 minutes in the car (through rush hour traffic) and we were back at the hotel. The total drive cost $31. When I informed Scott about the cost, he informed me that I should soon become acquainted with the MRT (Singapore's version of BART, but much less expensive). 

Jacob and I got to hang out for the next hour and a half, and then  we left to retrieve Andrew. (Side note: Andrew is supposed to be in school all day. However, we decided that was a bit much coming from his three day, half day schedule in California. Therefore, we pull him out in the afternoon). Andrew comes out of class totally sweaty and informs me that he's hungry. Andrew then goes on to tell me, "Mom, you need to pack me some food. I asked the teacher for a snack, and she said she didn't have any food." Here's my question, when we are paying $6500 for tuition (and are responsible for bringing our own school supplies) shouldn't that include at least one snack for my preschooler? Or at least a fan for the classroom? Alright, let's call a spade a spade, the school is a dump. 

I took the boys to get some lunch near the Clementi MRT, where I was supposed to meet Scott at 12:15pm. After Scott arrives, we all hop into a cab and head up to the American School for Jacob's orientation  (Andrew is still on the waiting list). We pull up to Zanado. The school is amazing (and that's an understatement). It looks like a college campus. We purchased Jacob's uniform shirts and then went on our orientation. There were about 12 other new students going into the 1st grade, so that made us feel a bit more comforted. Of corse, there was that over-bearing, paranoid parent who became completely flustered and stressed with every topic covered in the orientation. Example: "Can we order special foods from the cafeteria?"When she was then informed that there are three options provided, but no requests could be filled, the woman became obviously annoyed. (This is a school cafeteria, not a restaurant.) The best part of the orientation was when I found out her child was not in Jacob's class. "When you say pencils, do you want us to buy American or a local brand?"

When we were finished with orientation, Scott was so sick of all the cab bills, we took the MRT back to our house. Since then, I have become extremely familiar with the MRT system.......

This morning, Jacob was up bright and early at 6:30am to catch his 6:55am bus departure. When I woke him up he said, "What, I have to get on the bus in the dark?" It was a mixed bag watching him get on the bus this morning....exciting and sad at the same time. The bus is literally a tour bus; it's huge and yellow. All I could see was the top of Jacob's cute little head from down where I was standing. When the bus finally pulled away, Jacob waved to me until he was out of sight.  

When Jacob left, that was when the day took on a new realm. As fore mentioned, Scott "suggested" that I start taking the MRT home after dropping off Andrew, and then back to the school when I had to get him in the afternoon. I will now cover the three trips I had on the MRT.

Trip #1 - I hop in a cab and ask him to take me to the MRT station. $6.50 later and I am there. I check the MRT map and realize I have to change trains 2 times to get to my final destination. I go downstairs to discover that both trains are there with their doors open. I had no time to make sure which train was heading in the right direction, so I jumped into the one closest. Lucky for me, it was the right one. The train is jam-packed and I spend the entire ride standing, staring at the map on the wall. If I turned my head too much to the right, I wound up facing a smelly armpit. To my left was a women intently text messaging for an entire 10 minutes with her phone on loud. It took me a while to figure out where all those annoying beeping sounds were coming from. 

I make it to my first transition station, and am pushed off the train and through a tunnel by a sea of people. I had no time to think for myself, I just went with the flow. Actually, I had to run with the flow in order to avoid major injury. Within 60 seconds I find myself out of breath and at another train with open doors. I luck out again and choose the correct train. Again, there is standing room only. 

My last and final switch is to the North-South line. Again, I abandon myself to the masses as they carry me to the next train section. I hop on, and one exit later I am at Somerset. I make my way towards the daylight and find myself on a street I have never seen before in my life. Since I have some innate fear of looking like I don't know what I am doing, I just start to walk. I somehow stumble upon a taxi stand and hop in the first taxi. (It is now 9:20am - and Andrew has been in school for almost an hour). I give my address to the driver and he takes off. After about three blocks he turns around and asks, "Do you  know how to get there?" My response, "I was hoping you did." He asks if he can pull over and try to find out where my hotel is located. Mind you, every single cab I have been in thus far has been equipped with some kind of GPS system....this guy pulls out a map. He has no luck finding my street, and so I ask if I can have a look. Together, we are able to find the location of my dwelling. Five minutes later we pull up in front of the mall to which our hotel is attached.  As I am walking to the hotel I start to do the math in my head: the return trip has taken an hour and fifteen minutes, and I have saved $2.50. When I get home, I realize I have 40 minutes until I need to turn around and pick up Andrew. I send one email, and then head back down stairs.

Trip #2 - This time I come equipped with my ipod and a determination to save more money. The plan: take the free shuttle to the MRT, and then walk to Andrew's school once I disembark from said MRT. After arriving at the MRT station I realize I have just missed the first train heading back. I wait 7 minutes for the next one. I board and am standing next to a very pleasant couple. He is obviously the jokester of the couple and she is a very stern looking, heavyset girl.  As I am enjoying my music, I cannot help but notice their interaction. Every time the guy says something, the girlfriend punches him.  It took on a rhythm of its own: talk, talk, talk, punch. Talk, talk, talk, punch. However, sometimes she would disrupt the rhythm and punch him when he was silent. This display went on until I got off the train 10 minutes later. This time, I am not going to be pushed by the crowds (since I am now the MRT expert)...I will lead the crowds. (Plus, I am counting this trip as my exercise for the day). I jam out of the train, and sprint up the stairs). I make it to the train just as it arrives. About half way through the next portion of the journey, I am joined by a twenty-something year old local...also with an ipod. Now, there are a few songs to which I would love to bounce my head, or tap my foot, but I restrain. This guy takes his place on the train and we start moving (mind you, we are all still standing). It begins with the head bopping. However, about 2 minutes later the kid is full on dancing; arms are going, legs are moving. I honestly think he was doing the robot at one point. Very entertaining to watch.  When I finally arrive at the Clementi MRT, I have only 5 minutes to get to Andrew's school. Back into a cab.....

Trip #3 - Andrew tells me that he wants to take the MRT home. We take a cab to the station and wait to get on the train. Happily I discover there are actually available seats this time. I take Andrew's hand to sit in the two seats together, when I am abruptly pushed aside by some Asain woman who sits spread eagle in the middle of both seats, anxiously tapping the seats next to her. I realize she is saving the seat for a friend. There is only one seat left, so I ask Andrew if he wants to sit. He says he wants to stand, so I take the seat in case he changes his mind (plus I have been standing and/or walking for the past 2 hours). As he is holding onto the pole, the spread eagle lady gets all excited and starts to toss Andrew's curls and rubbing his arm. Andrew was done with that after about 10 seconds and came to sit on my lap. Andrew listened to my ipod and the trip went rather smoothly. When we left the MRT, I decided to take the free shuttle back home. Andrew was completely exhausted, so he plopped down on a step and put his face in his hands while we waited. Suddenly, a group of teenagers was telling me how cute Andrew was. They kept saying, "Hi, cute boy", "Can you smile cute boy?" Then....it happened again...the picture thing. They asked if they could take a picture with him. I asked Andrew if he wanted to, and he said he did. Finally, the shuttle arrived and I happily collected Andrew to head home. We got back to our apartment almost 2 hours after we left Andrew's school.

I spent the next hour trying to get Andrew a seat on the school bus, only to be told there was no space available at the moment. 

We had received and email two days ago telling us that there was a space available for Andrew at the Canadian school. It did not take Scott and I long to decide to change him to the Canadian school. The trip to and from his current school is such a disaster, it is not worth the effort unless we were really excited about the school....and trust me, we're not. My current job is to try to get all the paper work ready so Andrew can start up at the Canadian school this Monday. We want to get as much of our money back from the current school as possible, so Andrew is hanging out with me for the rest of the week.

I fear to know how long this post has become. It has taken me so long to write, I have lapsed into the next day. So technically, any references to "today" are now actually "yesterday". Minor technicality.