Wednesday, July 26, 2006

New digs

Well... The kids are having a hard time with the time zone adjustment. Billy was up from 2:00am-5:00 yesterday and Jimmy was wide awake at 5:30 today. . Needless to say Tom and I aren't getting much sleep. (Although the health club is dead at 5:30am and Nick Jr is on cable here! So, I got caught up on Blues Clues with Steve.)

But... We saw our house yesterday. It wasn't cleaned and it'll be painted when we move into it but.... The grounds are beautiful, even though the inside is a bit small. That's probably ok since the common area is amazing... There is a full size kid pool, adult pool (including swim up bar), tennis courts, full workout facility, restaurant, etc. I guess when you live in a tropical area, the inside of your house doesn't need to be as big as it needs to be in Minnesota.... :) We even have a banana tree and papaya tree! You will love it when you come visit!!

A small world experience happened yesterday too. There is a family from New Jersey that has 2 kids (Katherine - 5 and Quint - 4). They are moving into Palm Meadows as well and have been "complaining" that they didnt get the house they wanted, they got house # 85 instead. They wanted # 83. Well, guess who got #83?! We did. So, they are literally going to live right next door to us.... Weird.

We also went to see schools yesterday. Neev is a very spendy prep school (aka ages 2-7) and Jimmy could go to kindergarten while Kay was in a preschool. (This is where Katherine and Quint are going). However, I suspect its expensive. They wont give rates over the phone. They want you to come in to "see it". I guess its so nice that they figure that price will be no object once you are there.

The other school (Gopalan) is a traditional Indian school. Kay could attend Nursery and Jimmy would be in prep (aka kindergarten). However, they have a written exam that he needs to take, including Hindi. We were a bit taken aback. What 4 year old could take a written test ?! But, I guess that is common here they learn to read and write at 4.... We'll see, everyone keeps telling me that the written test isnt what I am thinking, more naming colors, shapes, counting, etc.... It'll be interesting... I didnt know SAT's were required for kindergarten!

I'll try to keep the posts coming...

Take care, we miss you all!