Back To School Night

Just got back from Back to School Night for grades 2-5.  Since all the 4th grade teachers team teach, we rotated through all the teachers but as usual Sammy and I had to divide and conquer to handle the twins' separate homeroom teachers and schedule.  Emily's homeroom teacher is by far my favorite!  She is Chinese but born in the US like me, never lived outside of the US, and obviously spoke English wonderfully (which was such music to my ears after a month here).  She's from NJ and is just so cool - especially when I saw her leave for the night with her Lululemon bag on her shoulder!  A girl after my own heart!!  Stephen's teacher is from Southern California and American.  Their math teacher is from India and the social studies teacher is from Wisconsin (and has only been here a month as well).  It's a good set of teachers!  We had a few bumps with the Chinese teacher - just not understanding her teaching methodology or instructions but I shamelessly pulled the "I have 4 kids" card and got the usual empathetic reaction I wanted.  So hopefully she realizes I'm crazy for a good reason.  :*)

When I picked up the kids today after school, I noticed there was one mom that looked worried - like she hadn't seen her kid but he/she should've been out by then.  It got me thinking that even for me, when all these kids come out in droves, they look the same to me.  I used to hear that in the US from people and it didn't bug me that much but I know some people thought that was sort of rude - to say that all Asians look the same.  However today, I really thought, 'We DO all look the same!" but why?  Americans have either blonde, brunette, or red hair but we have typically only black and there lies the problem.  Literally 8 classes of first graders come out and they are all black-haired with pigtails in their hair.  I have to look at the clothes and the faces when searching out my kiddos.  We were even looking for Stephen today and a few times, I said, "There he is!  Oh, wait, that's not him."  

A little funny here . . . at our dear sweet old Hill Elementary, they'd ring a bell at the end or start of school.  Really it's not a "ring" but more of a long horn sound (hey, "longhorn" get it? :*))  Anyway, here they use a little tune and it's from Super Mario Brothers Wii.  I must try to find it online and post it but it just cracks me up when I hear that.  It sometimes makes me think I'm in a video game...

Attached are some pictures of what pick-up is like at the school.  First photo is what I call the "red carpet" treatment w/o the red carpet.  They rope us parents off and the kids come down the middle.  

Another photo but with more people and . . . for some reason it's common to wear shorts or a skirt with high heels.  I fit in "great" with my foot flops.

Last pic is just a glimpse of what it's like when several classrooms come out.  The teachers hold a sign of what grade level they are and whether they're English or Chinese Track.  Ella can be seen in the center of the pic - probably with a worried look of wondering where I am.