We’re finally back in Zhuhai. We were forced to spend a costly week in Hong Kong due to an unexpected twist in our visa situation. The six month multiple entry business visas we hoped for turned into one month single entry visas. Since I have to be in TEFL classes for the whole month of March, we couldn’t arrive in Zhuhai too early. This was a problem because we needed to find an apartment, a daycare, and a sense of home. We set foot in Zhuhai 30 hours ago and as miracles would have it, Maeli is enrolled in a daycare and tomorrow we move into our first overseas apartment. And just in the nick of time since my orientation is tomorrow afternoon.
In between all this searching madness we ended up at the local children’s health clinic. Don’t worry grandmas, Maeli is fine… she just needed to get a check-up so we can conjoin her with 15 other toddlers in her new daycare. Actually, they don’t call it daycare here. If your kid is too young for elementary school you send them to “kindergarten.” It’s formatted like elementary school but with more play time, a two hour nap, and they even potty train your kid.
Enrollment into a school requires a health check-up. That means going to the clinic. How to describe it? First of all, have you ever seen a bumper car ride in the middle of a health clinic, or a balloon man posted at the front gates? Have you ever seen a mini slide and rocking toys in the waiting room of a health clinic? Once I got over the amusement park atmosphere I had to deal with the swarms of people fighting for places in lines and seats. Of course everyone had to stop and admire Maeli. One nurse would spot Maeli and bring other nurses over to giggle and point. It made me miss being in Hong Kong where we were just another foreign family.
Being in mainland means that rules are tight and everyone is in a hurry. Now that I’ll be starting school in two days, Maeli will dive into her new environment and Aaron will become one with his code. We’ll be like other busy Chinese families or at least we’ve started off that way.
§Commentary
I have my new background for work…..what a picture!! Although, isn’t this the little girl we were’nt allowed to feed junk to…and she’s eating ink?!?!?!? Miss you a lot!
I know it looks like she’s eating ink but she really just likes to smear it on like lipstick. You know how much she takes after her Tia Meghan! And I’m glad you found a new desktop background.