First school day

The kids had their first days at school today. It was a bit of a long morning in the car for Dara - it was about 30-40 minutes each way to drop Toby off at his school till we got her to her place, but she did really well. With all the bumping and weaving of traffic we had been expecting them both to be a bit carsick but they've had no probs so far. Toby couldn't wait to get to school, and within a minute of getting to his classroom he sent us away because he was all set. He rode the bus home, and told us that his whole day was totally great, making new friends, doing new classes like drama, eating Indian food for lunch and generally having an awesome time. He looked great in his new uniform:

He's in the sports uniform for the next couple of days till he gets his "formals", and I'll post a picture once he has them sorted. He's never worn a tie in his life, so it'll be interesting to see how he does. He already had to get his hair cut yesterday to comply with school standards! 

Dara did well too - when she arrived at school there was already an activity going on, and she didn't really want to join in halfway through, but once they started doing painting she got right into things and Emma and I felt fine leaving her to it. She rode the bus home too, and apart from one of the boys trying to take a toy from her it sounds like she did great too and she's looking forward to going back tomorrow. Here she is before we left for school:

Although it's been great to have so much family time over the last week and a half, Emma and I enjoyed having a bit of space from the kids. We celebrated by taking loads of time in the local supermarket, investigating what kinds of food are available and taking our time doing things without anyone whining at us! Most things in the store seemed pretty familiar - it has a Waitrose department so there are tons of British foods. The meat and fish counter was interesting - lots of good-looking fresh fish we've never heard of before; the meat looked pretty good but we are likely to give the goat brains a miss. After coffee and samosas for lunch we had a couple of hours just lounging in the sun, reading books and drinking tea, which was just what we needed, nice and relaxing before I go back to work in the morning.

Know your audience

Somewhere between a Minneapolis school assignment letter and a 6 hour death by powerpoint, you'll find the ideal school welcome / parent orientation. We'll let you know if we ever attend one. Actually, that is a little unfair, Dara's school did a good job.

Toby's new school, Indus, has many great qualities, they really love their IB focus and do a good job of explaining the philosophy of this program to families experiencing it for the first time. In fact it was reassuringly similar to the way we heard it in Mpls. I was also pleasantly surprised to know that even though classes are limited to max 25 students there are two full teachers in each room. Not teaching assistants, but two teachers. The food is good, buildings are light and airy, the extra-curriculars are varied, specialist staff are numerous and and the uniform is rather smart.

A few highlights from the group session in the Sports Hall:

- 20 slides on school safety policies. I had not been concerned about Toby's safety, and the longer it went on the less confident I felt. I think I peaked about slide 12.

- Show & Tell of nearly every member of the Parent Advisory Council, several repetitions of how to get involved, raise issues and clarification that they are not the school governors.

- About 8 esoteric references to the OLPC policy before it was revealed that this stands for One Laptop Per Child [grades 5 + up]. I'll let you figure out OLPT yourselves.

- 10 minute apology for the brand of laptop they had picked with reassurances that it really is powerful enough for what the kids need and no need to worry, and sorry they don't support mac platforms and... do you think they get feedback from all the IT parents???

I felt a bit sorry for the IT Director. Actually his presentation had some fine moments. His first slide was a 10 digit number, no text, and it flashed for 3 seconds. After it had gone, he informed us that we should all make a note of that number... it flashed back at various intervals and I managed to get it all down - we are assuming it is his phone number, but this was not confirmed, could be a nuclear code, so I'm not sharing. Then, there was a powercut; not unusual in these parts, so we all sat patiently. Then the power came back and we watched IT guy reactivate the projector and reload his presentation, just so he could say. "and this is my final slide, thank you" before handing over to a group that did not have tech needs.

The repetition and reading of ppt slides was a good display of differentiation. I found it excessive, but as the majority of the audience was not listening in their first language, it was actually a useful tactic.

Final result, I am super excited for Toby to start school, and it has taken me less than a week to identify a useful volunteer task for July next year :) I'm a proud Indus parent.

Getting to know you

As I said in my last post, the kids have been doing really well in wanting to make friends, and just getting on with it. They start school tomorrow, so that should really help too.

As for us grown-ups, we're doing reasonably well too. We knew a couple of people from my company, but have started being introduced to other people through those friends, and are also starting to meet other people too. One of the nice things about being in the hotel is that the club is a social hub for the Palm Meadows community. With the pools, play areas and restaurants a lot of people hang out here. This morning while the kids were playing a lady we've seen in the hotel and at some school events came over to talk to us and we swapped phone numbers. Also with the Sunday Brunch at the hotel, loads of families hang out here for ages - two or more hours - while they eat and the kids play in the pool. It's really relaxed and a great way to get talking to other people. At the moment a lot of the conversation is along the same lines: how long have you been here, who do you work for, how old are the kids, where do they go to school; but as we're getting to know each other a bit more we're talking about more meaningful stuff too.

Also the brunch food is really decent - a great buffet of Indian, "continental" (= western) and Chinese foods, including the chefs hard at work at the outdoor tandoor. This is the guys making chicken tikka and garlic naan for me:

The brunch comes with beer or champagne. I wasn't going to have anything to drink seeing as a few of us went out (without the kids!) last night to a phenomenal local place called Chez Mariannick. It's a little French bakery/creperie owned by a really nice couple, and has tons of charm. It's probably about a 20 minute walk from here along the main road, then down a side street to the edge of a field:

It's pretty much a hut which the guy built, and contains the crepe making stove, plus giant brick ovens where they bake French breads and phenomenal pizzas. Inside are wooden tables; outside are granite tables (less likely to be stolen). The co-owner, Shashi, is a great host, really chatty and he looked after us very well. All meals come with giant bowls of salad (made nice and crunchy with the addition of baby corn slices), delicious simple vinaigrette, and yummy French bread. Loads of different savory and sweet pancakes to choose from, as well as pizzas. They only serve wine, and only one type of red, white or rose. I was a tad suspicious of the Indian red, but it was very drinkable - slightly too much so, as our friend Jay and I polished off two bottles between us. So this morning I wasn't feeling on top form, but the magic of coffee, dosa, fresh garlic naan and a beer set me right pretty quickly.

Outfits

I posted on Facebook yesterday that I'm totally in awe of how the kids are doing so far. They're really getting on well - eating lots of new food (Toby especially is enjoying the spicy food and garlic naan bread, and last night ate loads of veggie dim sums at the buffet) and not being freaked out by the views through the car windows as we drive through semi-rural parts of town to and from Toby's school. They seem to be just accepting things pretty well. They've also been working on making friends at the hotel's playground and swimming pool - even Dara was very definite yesterday that she needed to make friends by herself and didn't need help from us.

There's a mall about 20 minutes' walk from where we're staying, and we went for the first time on Saturday. Dara was fascinated by the colors of the clothes the women were wearing, and when I asked if she wanted to go into a store she said "No, I want to stay out here and look at the ladies' beautiful saris." It reminded me that the very first thing she said when we told her we were moving here was "Can I wear jewels on my forth-head?" and she's been really interested in the clothing. Today after spending the morning at Toby's school we went to the mall for lunch (KFC) and to look for an Indian dress for Dara.

As an aside, the KFC was surprisingly great - we got a very friendly welcome from the staff, and the food was really good. I wondered if the Indian people dropping in thought that it must be authentic because there were Western people there, the same way as we would do if we see "real Chinese" people in an Asian restaurant.

Anyway, we looked at a few stores, then found one called Favorite Shop which had a big selection of girls' and women's Indian and western clothes. The assistant was great in finding an outfit for Dara, but really the second pink dress she saw was apparently the one, so that had to be tried on. It fit really well, apart from the leggings which the store people shortened in about 10 minutes. Dara knew exactly how the different pieces went together, including how to wear the scarf piece (the Dupatta) in different ways. She's clearly been watching. She wore it for dinner tonight, and while in general she seems to get a lot of attention from the waiters, they were even smilier than usual to her:

I should point out that even though she thought she was an Indian princess, it didn't stop her jumping in all the muddy rain puddles after a quick downpour this afternoon.

As for Toby, fashion isn't really his thing, but he did get a lot of his school uniform today. Several sets of sports/non-formal clothes (green t-shirts, shorts and tracksuits), a school cap, two school ties, two v-neck sweaters, one sleeved and one sleeveless, a brown leather belt and brown leather shoes, which Dara said made him look like he had old man's feet. He was also measured by the tailor, so that he'll be getting his "formal" school clothes on Monday.

It makes the world go around

I have always liked the idea of the Euro, but it did take away one of the most magical things about going on Holiday to Europe - different money, lots of different kinds of money. Whenever we were heading abroad Dad would prep us on how to convert. Obviously we only ever needed sterling to host nation, but I come from a family where we were also taught less practical things like how many Austrian Shillings to a German Mark (about 7).

When I moved to the US it took about 8 months before I stopped converting every transaction back into pounds, and even now I do it for large purchases. When we travel back to the UK the prices are so high that I generally try not to think about it until after the Visa bill.

And so we arrive at Rupees. Hmm. I get that we're about 45 to the dollar - I'm getting old, my capacity for mental arithmetic is diminishing and I am still without a phone/calcuator. At this point I am taking a tip from Roman Numerals, if I learn the equivalents for $1, $5, $10, $50, $100, $500 & $1,000 then I should be close enough on most things. The issue is that I'm not yet comfy with the Indian numbering system with Lakh and Crore, so with larger numbers I'm navigating differently placed commas. I am confident that given some focus this will all click into place, but at this point I'm just going to go with the learning by osmosis plan.

Disclaimer: I am not currently making any purchases that require me to handle Lakhs.

One thing I do like is that the 1 & 2 Rupee coins show a hand indicating the amount with number of fingers (thumb and then add forefinger for the two if you had other images...). Not sure how far this continues...

Running Errands

What a day. My first experience with our relocation consultant and being out and about to get things done. She is wonderful - and very patient with bored children; so understanding in fact that we are leaving the serious shopping orientation until after Andrew is regularly in the office and the kids are both at school... bring it, Malini, I can take it!

So, what we did do was a first trip to Hypercity, the local supermarket. Who knew that a shop in Bangalore could make me feel more at home than some in the US? We had Waitrose packaged goods and Digestives and Tetley (albeit a bit on the weak side) and Toby purchased his first roll of Polos for 10 rupees - anyone else recall them being 10p? Obviously we also found US brands and some fabulous looking Indian fare as well. Feeding the family will be no problem at all as long as we don't plan to use too much cheese. Ended up chatting with a woman from Chester, her husband is here with Tesco. She seemed a little apologetic it was her first 'posting', but I pointed out that my 11 yrs in the US were not on assignment, but a deliberate emigration. My accent clearly continues all over the place as she mentioned I didn't sound like I was from Kent. Maybe next time I see her I'll do my best radio-call-in Mandy from West Malling voice?

After that it was my turn to tour the furniture store. Andrew had been and selected some items for our house when he was here in June. Now I have seen the house I wanted to put it all in context. We ended up making a few changes based on budget, what we have shipped, and scale for the living room, but essentially all his choices stand. I seem to be the only one not surprised that my husband can choose suitable, no, desirable furniture and pick good fabric.

We dropped in at Dara's new school, but they were out of session today. She got to look round the grounds and see the play areas, so that should help on day 1. There seems to be a huge market in English speaking pre-schools. No idea how many of them are quality operations, but I was really surprised. Dara's is the only IB early centre in town, but I'm sure others will follow. It is especially funny given that most of the ex-pat families will have one parent at home and the option of a Nanny; just goes to show how important it is for kids to have some classroom experience before that first day of school, whether or not it is full day/week... and how important it is to placate trailing spouses with the promise of a quiet life at home.

The kids are wiped out again and so I'm just relaxing while Andrew is out at a leaving party for one of his team members. Don't think Andrew's arrival is related to the departure, but it is great that he was invited along, and it is a good chance to put names and faces together before he gets into the office next week.

Organizing

Lots of organizing going on today. We had a few key things planned, and I think I'd assumed by this point in the day (just after 6pm) we would have a lot completed. We're partially there.

One thing I was really happy about was that my Amazon Kindle, which I had left on the plane when we landed at Bangalore, had been found and handed into Air France's baggage services. I was really impressed that they would email me to let me know. It made up a bit for the fact that one of our cases didn't arrive with us (although they brought it to our hotel the next day) and another case - brand new and fairly expensive - gained a large tear in the side during transit. My plan was to send our driver out to the airport to pick it up for us this afternoon. I'll be returning to this plan.

We didn't particularly do much yesterday, so we didn't use a driver, but I called the car firm yesterday to ask for our car at 9am, as we were planning to take Toby to his school  to get him all signed up, get his uniform, and most importantly for him find out which house he would be in. By 9:30 no driver, so I called the car company. Lots of back and forth and finally a car at 11:20. This was the rest of the family's first daytime drive around Bangalore - it's a semi-rural road from where we are staying and just under a half hour, so not too bad and plenty to see. Toby doesn't like all the speed bumps, but we all did fine. Unfortunately some admin hadn't been completed between my company and the school, so we didn't get everything completed so we don't yet know his house, but it was good to get there and let him see around the amazing campus a bit.

Once we got back to the hotel for lunch I asked the driver to go out to the airport, and gave him a letter confirming that he was authorized to collect the Kindle. His English isn't that great, but he seemed to get the gist of it, so off he went. We were set to meet our relocation folks at our house, and we had a good look around. It's looking great now it's all being painted, and I think Emma and the kids liked it a lot. The living room was smaller than I remembered, so we will probably cut back on furniture a bit, but overall it seems pretty decent. Can't wait to be having gins and tonic on the balcony, with fresh limes from our lime tree!

After that we came back to the hotel and met some friends - the kids swam like crazy with the other kids, while the grown-ups had a beer. When Emma and I got back to the room we got a call from reception telling us that there was a delivery from Air France. I answered the door in excitement, expecting the Kindle, but it was our giant suitcase! It had been fixed really well - I can't even see where the tear was - but no sign of the Kindle. Hmmm. I need to find out if it was our driver who delivered it and was given the wrong thing at the airport, or if Air France themselves delivered it. I don't yet have a phone so it's a bit hard to navigate things, but we'll see how this all works out.

UPDATE: The driver just got back to the hotel with my Kindle! Hooray. It must have been quite a trek - he left the hotel at about 1:30pm, and it's now seven hours later. I hope the whole time wasn't doing this, but I was very grateful.