Friday night

The first full week of school is over-my class is wonderful. It's like coyote hills was airlifted to singapore! I have 22 students in my 5th grade class; 11 are girls and 11 are boys. I also have the most remarkable IA(instructional assistant). She has been at the school for 15 years, and is the head IA for 5th and maybe the whole intermediate school. I walked in the room and it was SO organized-she does all the copying and bulletin boards, as well as all the organizational nitty gritty beginning of the year stuff. It is like I arrived in teaching heaven!
Ethan and laney are settling in-all new students are assigned a buddy so both Ethan and laney have been primarily hanging out with their buddy. Since the students come and go so frequently as their parent is transferred,most have been the new kid relatively recently.
Our shipment finally arrives tomorrow-it was pAcked on June 6! People here say it is like Christmas! We are taking a taxi every morning and afternoon, ordering dinners to take home from the caterers at school each night, and have a cleaning lady here right now for her weekly visit. No live-in helper for us-just not large enough of a place.
I am learning to adjust to the heat and accompanying environmental changes that go along with the humid climate. Mold is a major issue, so there are lots of anti-mold products that are horrific smelling-imagine mothball scent with a tinge of fish paste. Add the Asian food smells mingled with Indian and malay food, and you quickly realize you are a far way from Southlands. Josh and I agreed before we came that we would not discuss the heat-so I am not mentioning the hottest place I have ever been. However, the breeze at night is lovely, and the rain is fantastic. So is air-con.

Off to watch the twinkling of the skyline as I read, gazing at the view from the 13th floor. Pretty brilliant!

Thanks for all of the comments-please pass on this site to everyone. I know I missed so many people-something happened to the massive email blast I sent out to let everyone know about the blog!

Lastly, I found the advertisement posted below in little india the first week we were here. Made me a bit nervous about coping with the stress of teaching in Singapore!