First days of school

The kids have had two days of school so far. Nick is in 7th grade and seems to be fitting in just fine. They are going to move him to a more advanced English class since he is a native speaker. He says math is similar to stuff he has already done so OK so far.  The only thing he will really struggle with is reading traditional Chinese characters instead of the simplified ones used on the mainland. He says he understands most of what the teachers and students say. He has already made one friend that he plays video games with and seems quite comfortable. Sydney and Piper will find the Chinese much more challenging as they are in harder 10th grade classes and its been a few years since they were in immersion. They have been assigned some kids who have better English skills who help translate and they are trying to do as much as they can. Physics is likely to be a lost cause. I'm fine with high school level physics but neither the kids, nor I, nor google translate can make much progress with books and assignments that are all in Chinese written with traditional characters. Syd says the math is stuff she has seen before and the rest doesn't seem to be bothering them much. They are enjoying many of their other classes. PE, English, IT and maybe a few other little things are in English.  The rest are in Chinese. They even have to take a mandatory military preparedness course which is required of all students in Taiwan and taught by a Colonel in the Taiwanese Army. This course apparently includes learning to shoot a military rifle. I expect Piper will excel at that one! Yesterday we rode the city bus out with them to school which meant leaving at 6:20 so we could catching the bus at 6:40 so we could be there by 7:40 with school starting at 7:50.  They didn't get out until 4:45 which meant catching the 5:30 bus back which put us back home about 6:45.  A really long day. Today they got a ride from our landlord who is also a teacher there. That meant meeting her about 2 blocks from the house at 7 and getting back around 5:45. So, a bit better.

I should say a bit about the school. Its located about 15miles outside of Kaohsiung and it really is like going to school at Disney World. After we dropped the kids off we walked across the street to the driving range and hit a bucket of balls. We toured one of the local luxury hotels and talked to them about day passes for the pool. Then we went over to the mall and rode the giant ferris wheel that gave us a view of the whole area. We had some dumplings at a restaurant in the mall. Then we went to the batting cages and swung at about 40 pitches each. Finally we went to a showing of the new movie "Black Panther" in English with Chinese subtitles.  Then it was time to pick up the kids! Should be a good 4 months for the parents.

Front entrance. First Day

First arrow shows school. Second arrow shows dorms. Athletic fields in between. We are on giant ferris wheel. Below us is huge 7 story mall. To the lower right is E-Da Royal Hotel. To the upper left is the amusement park

That's just how Nick looks even when happy

After we dropped kids off