School Starts

Yesterday was Sarah's first day of school. We still don't have a car, so on the tram we went.

Sarah's school is quite close, as the crow flies (or even as the car drives), but there's no direct way to get there from our house via public transportation. We have to ride Tram 10 in towards the city--to Dreispitz (which makes me wonder, isn't all spitz wet?) and then get on Tram 11 to go to her school. It's about 30 minutes of tram time.

We left the house at 7:25 and went to the tram. We, of course, just missed the 7:29 tram and had to wait until the 7:39 tram, which started making me nervous. I mean, who wants to be late on your first day of school, especially in Switzerland.

We got on with a bunch of kids on scooters. Sarah was relieved to see that they had backpacks, as she was afraid that backpacks weren't the in thing in Switzerland.

Our transfer worked perfectly--our next tram was one minute after we got off the first tram. The only problem was that we need to get into the second car, because of Daniel's stroller. Fighting your way through a crowd, with a stroller is a bit nerve-wracking.

We had a brief orientation, and then headed to meet Sarah's teacher. Her name is Miss Sara, so that was a bonus. There is a full time aide in the class room as well, so that's great. They teach cursive lower case letters here. The teacher explained that it was beneficial to students with dyslexia because all the letters start in the same spot. I decided to smile and nod, since I know nothing about dyslexia and you can be sure I know nothing about handwritting.

They have coffee for the parents (read: mothers) on Monday mornings. Daniel and I were going to go home, but the mother of another new student asked me to come with her, so I did.

I met a woman from Bluebell, PA, which is about 20 minutes from Doylestown. Her husband also works for Novartis and she used to work for Merck. Small world. We talked about how neither of us wants to move to NJ when we leave Switzerland.

Sarah got three recesses, which is fabulous, and she thoroughly enjoyed lunch. "I had Thai food mom!" she said enthusiastically. She declared it delicious except for the raisins in the food. "Don't they know raisins are a snack food?" I thought it was an excellent question. Raisins should be thrown away, as they are nothing more than shriveled up grapes, but I digress.

This morning things were a little shakier. We didn't get up on time, so we had to rush. But, wonder of wonders, we got the NEW tram. There are a couple new high tech trams with television monitors that tell you what stop you are at, and where you can bring a stroller into any car. Sarah lives for these, so she was thrilled to get it.

She had a little bit of a clingy time getting into school, but I deposited her with her teacher and we headed home.

The trip home was much better, as the trams weren't crowded. Daniel made up for the lack of crowds by pooping. Yeah, pooping. Let's just say that the few people in our car definitely knew Daniel was there.