School Orientation

Regan and Landon had school orientation for new students on Tuesday.  They will be attending Concordia International School of Shanghai (CISS) The school is Christian based but accepts all faiths and nationalities with the exception of Chinese nationals since it is illegal for them to attend a foreign based school regardless of the religious or secular bent.  The school mascot (team name) is the Phoenix - not sure of the symbolic significance but it sounds good anyway.  CISS has grades K - 12 and about 1000 students.  The classes are capped at 18 students.  Beginning in 7th grade (Regan's grade) they have a laptop program where each student is issued a Mac Book Pro (actually Dad buys it and Regan uses it.) Regan is on top of the world and thinks this is the greatest school ever - just wait till homework starts ;-)  The expatriate community is very diverse. The families we have met are from all over the world - so far we've met people from Canada, France, Korea, Australia, India, Africa and several families from the US including Akron, Ohio; and Minneapolis.  Overall, I think this will be a greaat experience for the whole family. 

Last night we tried a local Chinese restaurant - no English speaking and only part of the menu was translated (and not very well it turned out)  We ordered "fried spare ribs" and got what I think we got was chicken fried steak.  Fortunately, it was quite tasty and a hit with everyone.  We blindly ordered drinks from the non-translated drink menu and waited in anticipation to see what we ordered.  The boys each got a glass of watermelon juice and I got a beer (okay so I can order a beer in Chinese - a guy has to survive you know!) and Cynthia was the winner with a Coca Cola.  We also ahd two bowls of Chicken Noodle Soup -which is eaten with chopsticks by the way.  About half way through the meal the waiter brought us forks after watching us struggle.  Although I am not sure how much easier eating soup with a fork would be.  We politely declined the gesture and continued on with our chopsticks and Chinese spoon.  It was fun and we brought the leftovers home to Mason who was too tired to join us. 

Thanks to those of you who have signed up to follow our blog and we hope you enjoy reading about life of an ex-pat in China.  If you'd like more info on the school you can log onto http://www.ciss.com.cn/