First Day of School and other stuff

Today is the first day of school!! I am both excited and very nervous. It is hard to send the kids to an unfamilar school in an unfamilar country. From our visits to the school, we do feel comfortable there and the kids seemed to like the school.

Sarah's teacher is a man from Australia and she will have only 11 kids in her class. MK's teacher is Canadian, and MK will have I think 14 kids in her class. The headmaster told me that in MK's class each kid is from a different country.  Jono has an older Indian lady who seems very wise as his teacher. Jono will have 13 kids in his class. Jono is going to sit right next to the teacher. Perfect for him.  

So, we had an eventful last few days. On Friday, the entire family had to register with the FRO (Foreign Registration Office). Every foreigner wanting to live in India in this region registers at the same office. It took all day. The process was crazy. We came with large packets of required documents. We each have our own packet. We wait in a line have the docs reviewed, answer questions,  and then docs get stamped. Then, hopefully find the next line, wait and have the docs reviewed and stamped again. This went on for about 4 lines. We also had to call Timken in a panic to get additional documents brought to us at this office. Anyway, crazy.

We took a lunch break on Friday at a little pizza shop in Bangalore. Pizza is different here, like everything else! Anyway, we are sitting in the pizza shop and a camel walks by. The camel's owner was quite nice and stopped so the kids could take a look. MK was the only who wanted to sit on the camel. Jono and Sarah wanted to check the camel out but were a bit more cautious. I will try to post a pic.

On Saturday, a small parade walked by the hotel for the Ganesh festival. Ganesh is an elephant Hindu god. It was his birthday on Thursday. There were lots of celebrations/parades in Bangalore where Indian men are walking with a large statue of Ganesh and they stop and play music, dance around, throw flowers, break coconuts, etc.  The women don't participate in the dancing, but they walk off to the side of the Ganesh. Ganesh is usually getting pulled on a trailer by a tractor. Anyway, we thought we would walk along and watch the parade. Jono wanted to get closer and join in, which is very out of character for him. Next thing we know, Jono is on a small Indian man's shoulders in the center of the dancing. Everyone is dancing around Jono and the man. I think Jono kind of enjoyed. A very interesting experience for him.