1st week of School 2018/2019 school year - 3rd Grade & SK

August 13-19
The first week back to school  and the start of the first full year in school in Singapore!!!  We have only been in Singapore around 7 months but the time has seemed to go by so much quicker.  Things are just a lot more busy here and it is hard to say if it is just the culture or the age of the boys.  Either way we are excited to have the boys back in school.  While they were not to eager to give up their ipads it had to be done.  Before breakfast Mike & I decided that we would take the boys to school in the taxi so that we can see them in their classes for the first day. 

They were not happy about this decision and we had to do a lot of talking to finally get them to agree to it.  I told them that they will ride on the bus every morning to school after today so what is the problem with giving mommy and daddy one day to see them off into their classes.  Shaun gave in easy but Lino held out until the taxi arrived...that is a stubborn one that kid.  It was so sweet to see them go into their classes.  Its different from Ireland because the kids are all mixed up from last year where as in Ireland they keep the class together pretty much throughout their time in school.  Shaun was super excited to get to his class that he almost forgot about us when he went in.  I think I saw maybe one or 2 old faces in his class but for the most part it was like a whole new class.  Mr Blake looked to put up a few more things on his wall but still his class looked pretty bare.  I wonder how his teaching is going to be. 

He told us that his wife is also teaching at the school so that is good I guess...both of them are in education.  Anyway, we said a prayer of him and wished Lino all the best! 

I did a little going down memory lane after I dropped Shaun off.  They still had pictures up from last year and I thought I better copy a few of them before they are gone.  The first day seemed to go good for them both.  I picked them up like normal and Lino was complaining that he didn't get to ride the school bus home but I like to pick them up and see how their day has gone and get a chance to chat quickly with the teachers.  If/when I return to work I will miss that and by the time I get home they would have forgotten most of what they have done for the day so its a special treat that I try to keep for as long as I can.  Also today we had to do Lino's swim assessment so I wanted to be there for that.  It wasn't long, 10min session but it is so difficult to get into the swim program at school that I wanted to make sure that he was focused.  I think he did good but the girl who was swimming with him was really good and she was younger than him for sure.  The people here are serious about being the best at everything they do.  Lets see if he can get in, its only pre-competitive but I think if he focuses he will be able to get onto the team this year...maybe.   After that we headed home and stopped to get ice cream at the Cheers at the train station which use to be our tradition when we first moved here...that made them happy.  Well Shaun didn't get ice cream because he wanted one of his Milo ice cream cups that we had at home.  Lino on the other hand has to have the ice cream at the shop because he thinks its better...or something.  The next day was pretty much the same except the boys were suppose to take the bus in the morning but my soon to be ex-helper was not very helpful with the new helper so there was a lot to do in the morning and we ended up missing the busy by less than 15sec...we saw it drive off.  So we had to get a taxi into school.  I was going to make them take the MRT but I didn't want them to be super late and I really didn't want to be bothered.  I guess this is the real back to school.  The rest of the week was quite uneventful.  Lots of stories from both of them about their new class.  Lino basically watched movies and played games all week which was a little concerning but also a little to be expected since it was the first week back.  Shaun was happy with his teacher and even when I asked him about Chinese he said he didn't have Chinese but I know he did.  I wonder sometimes if he doesn't distinguish the 2 languages or if he truly doesn't think about it???  The week just flew by...I mean literally flew!  I have to say it was good...no major dramas from either one of them and they were happy to go to school every morning and exhausted and ready for bed every night.  In true Shaun fashion the first week of school he passed out every day on the train ride home.  I knew he would especially since there are no more naps in his class.  I didn't know they cut out the naps until his first day but I think it makes sense.  For Saturday it was back up to the school again for sports.  Lino will only have a few more swim classes with the Marsden Swim school because they are moving their classes to the German schools indoor pool.  So hopefully he gets on the pre-competitive on a decent day (preferably Monday) and then the plan is to let him swim with Marsden on Wednesday at Queenstown and maybe he can do soccer with Shaun on Saturday mornings.  But we will have to wait until they send out the assignments before we can make a full schedule for him. 

On our walk back from school to the MRT we saw a monkey on the sidewalk.  He/She was walking with us basically for most of the walk which was cool.  There are monkeys all over in the little forest areas all around Singapore and I have heard it isn't uncommon to see them like this...but this was our first time.  The boys were so intrigued but I had to keep warning them that it was a wild animal and they couldn't get to close because you never know what they will do to you. 
He/she walked all the way up to the MRT station and then we kept going but apparently he/she went into the little shop next to the station and grabbed a package with cake inside and opened it up and started eating it.  One of the moms who was walking with us told us this.  She said it looked like he/she has done this before because he/she just walked in and went straight for the package then came out and opened up the plastic with no problems at all and just casually started eating.  That is so crazy.  And bad because those monkeys shouldn't be eating cakes!!!!  What can you do?  After lunch we took a long train ride out to Tampanise to this science fair.  Murchelle was telling me about it and it sounded cool so that was our activity for Saturday.  When we finally made it out there we tried to find this Koren sandwich place to eat but we couldn't find it...it was at the MRT station mall not the one we had walked to for the fair.  So we ate at the hawker instead...well we kind of ate there.  Lino got steam buns from a different shop and Shaun ate a piece of bread and he said he was full.  So while Mike & I ate the boys went to watch the movie that was playing in the middle of the courtyard area.  The building we were in was really cool actually.  The basement had small little restaurants and a fairprice then the next level up was a big indoor courtyard with a stage, screen and 4 or 5 bouncy castles. 

There was also a small shopping center, hawker center and more restaurants. Above that was at least 3 more levels with different rooms for various classes or offices and then a main exhibit hall where the fair was being held.  Lino loves science and we knew that he would enjoy this but I think we all enjoyed it just as much as him.  The fair was apparently part of STEAM program and most of the booths where projects that various school kids had put together in their classes.  One of the first things that we saw was a booth that let the kids make a little car. 

They were using a 3D printer to print the plastic wheels (which was cool), they got to use a bansaw to cut their little race car out and then some other guy helped the kids to put the cars together.  It was neat. 

There was all kind of stuff like that throughout the exhibit hall.  We ended up staying for a good 2.5hrs which we didn't expect to do but the boys were really enjoying exploring all the stuff.  And most of the booths were meant for the kids to fiddle with so I didn't have to worry too much about them breaking something touching something that they were not suppose to.  I was really please with the event and I'm glad we made the long hike out to see it.

After the boys got their fill of the science fair and after a good 15min and pulling them out they ended up laying for another hour downstairs on the bouncy castles.  I guess it was a good thing because they were able to get all of their energy out but we were tired and ready to be home so it just seemed to delay our day.  While we waited we decided to make crunch wrap supremes in honor of Ha Eun.  The problem was that we need to find ripe avocados and that isn't so easy so I went to 3 stores before we found some and the ones we found were huge...in the Japanese shop...and expensive!  But the guacamole came out really good.  We had our crunch wraps and watched a family movie before sending the boys to bed.  A very successful Saturday.  Sunday we went back to the church from last week  and again it was a good feeling.  Last Sunday Lino sat with us for the service but this week he went to the kids church to "check it out".  When it was over he said it was just OK but that he preferred the other church better so I made him a deal that we would go back to that church once a month if he would not grumble about going to this church the other days.  He thought it was a good deal so he was happy...me too.  The funny thing is that last week apparently the pastor was actually at the church for the second service (the one that we went to the first time).  Murchelle and John had told us that he sometimes does a second take of the service if he doesn't think the first one was good...I guess we missed it.  Oh well.  After church we planned to walk up to Dempsy hill so that Shaun could try out the new gymnastics studio there.  I had been trying to get him into the gymnastics class near to the school but they get full so quick that its almost impossible to get in.  When we did get a slot last year it was on a day that Lino had an activity and we were not prepared to send them in 2 different directions on the same day yet.  This location is closer to home and we are more experienced so I think it could work.  I had told Mike that it was a free family fun day but that was a lie...everything that they had there cost.  They had a little bouncy castle that cost, a little stand to see how strong you were that cost, face painting that cost and beer and food that cost as well.  I didn't plan to have to spend a bunch of money but that is what happened.  We had to get some food there because there was no other option and we didn't have time to go to a cafe and come back before Shaun's tester class so we had to suck it up.  The boys were happy enough so I guess that was a good thing. 

While Shaun was in his class Lino was going on and on about how he wanted to do gymnastics too but there was no way we could fit that into his schedule so I told him it wasn't possible.  After that we ended up staying around in the area to have lunch and do some exploring.  I had been over here before to get meat from the butcher but I didn't actually walk around the whole area.  The Korean restaurant that we went to for my birthday was just adjacent to the gym so we have been here before but never explored until today. I know that it is a popular area for expats and you can really tell that from the different shops.  We had lunch at this place called Jones Grocery.  There really wasn't a lot to choose from but they had a nice meat and cheese try that sounded good so that is what we got.  It turned out to be really good and there was a lot of meat, cheese and bread on the tray which we were not expecting. 

For the price we thought it would barely be enough and Mike was upset with me at first when I didn't want to order more than that but it turned out to be enough.  The funny thing was that I had planned to get us so me cheese and bread before we left the area because I wanted some for our evening snack.  We didn't even finish what we had but we got more cheese before we left because they had the stinky yellow blue cheese that Gernot use to get in Ireland and Mike loves it.  It was a great little spot.  Next to the Ben & Jerry's shop!!!  The boys like to make it seem like they are ice cream snobs but when it comes down to it they will eat whatever ice cream they can get their hands on and this was no exception.  We all enjoyed it and the shop was actually pretty big.  It looked like there are little parties held there which could be pretty cool for kids.  After that we wanted to hit up the butcher that I told Mike about and we thought to get some meat but Mike had ordered meat from his co-workers boyfriend (he gets cheap meat from Australia and brings it back over with him) so we didn't but at least he got to see what they offered.  We saw the spicy Italian sausages that the guy at the gymnastics open house was serving so now we know where to get them if we want them.  The boys were outside at the playground while we were inside and since they were having such a good time we just stayed there and had a beer before ending our weekend.