An Anniversary Spent Abroad

Most nights, I wake up around 2 or 3 and glance over my email. Simply, I don't have a clock by my bed so I look at my phone to see the time. One thing leads to another and I end up checking to see if there's anything urgent I need to know. It's a stupid habit because my 2AM is my peeps back home 2PM. The email que is pretty long. The emails get my mind going and I'm up for a while sometimes. Sigh. Thank goodness I don't need much sleep.

This morning, my friend and photographer from the helicopter, Chet emailed me to say he knew it was already 9/11 where I am and that he was thinking about. Truth is, I always think about him and Rey, our pilot, and Daniella, our producer on the anniversary of the attacks. I think about every single detail of that day actually. 9/11 was such a big part of my life, both personally and professionally. It's really odd to be here for the anniversary.

Not one soul has mentioned it here today. Granted, I didn't see the news until this evening, but I did read a good portion of the International Herald Tribune. I turned on a couple of US news channels and the mention of the anniversary was very brief. It's so odd. How can that be? How can it be 11 years already? 

The big news here is a visit from the British royals. Kate is wearing lots of long sleeves from what I can see. She amazes me.

Meanwhile, today was the second day of school. Both kids flew out of bed full of vim and vigor. Eating breakfast took an HOUR. Come on, kids! An hour? I made homemade French toast, their favorite. I'm a stickler about breakfast so they ate before we left and somehow we made it on time, but grrr.

Hudson WAILED with every ounce of his being when I left him at school this morning. He put his shoes back on and tried to run after me even. I called a half hour later and he was a happy camper and apparently had a much better day today than yesterday. I think his cold is a little better today, too, though the teacher said his nose was runnier today. I didn't see that. 

Maisie had a big smile on her face all day. She is just so happy to be back in school. Schedules are good for kids. More so? I think she was really lonely. Now she has friends her age, albeit most of them are Asian. I think that's cool. She doesn't tell me much about her day, but I know she's happier. She said, "Yea, I like the school, but I can't wait to go back to my old school." 

Even though I like WeeCare, it's not the place for them forever. It's in a mall, right? Yes, there's an outdoor, private, rooftop playground and the teachers seem fantastic, but it's still in a mall. So today I saw Eton House, a very reputable, massive preschool in Asia. It's a child-driven, inquiry-based INTENSE program that follows the International Baccalaureate curriculum. 

 

It was impressive, pure and simple. The outside area is massive. Each class does some pretty cool art projects. The stuff they're tackling felt like 3rd grade, not pre-K. Wow. There are 34 nationalities at one school. I love that!

 

The school thing is a racket here. You have to put down massive deposits to be wait-listed - deposits you often lose. If they call you with a spot and you don't take it, you lose the money. If you leave one school to go to another, better one, you lose it. If you move home and don't give them 8 weeks notice and they call you for the wait list, you lose it. The list goes on.

Figuring out what school can take both Maisie and Hudson, when the wait list might open for each, which one has therapy for her and all those other details is very complicated. The deposit becomes the registration fee, a fee you never get back, but you only pay once. For Hudson, it's worth it to go there because he can be there for several years thus amortizing the registration fee. Maisie would pay a massive fee to go one year - on top of her already steep tuition. 

Man, again I wish we were Exxon employees. Big companies pay the schools lots of dough to give favor to their kids when it comes to wait lists. These companies also pay school tuition at the age of 3. That is a BIG deal. 

All to say, I'm looking at lots of schools over the next couple of weeks. What a pain!

Anyway - when we got home from school, Hudson had two bites of his lunch then literally flung himself into bed and took a two hour nap. Afterwards, we walked over to his golf lesson. The teachers tried and tried to convince him otherwise, but Hudson refuses to bend: he is a lefty, pure and simple. Sorry - no pictures allowed! He also has a hockey stance. Maybe I've got him in the wrong sport. Of course, hockey isn't exactly big here, now is it?