First Day of School!

Alex had his first day of school last Thursday. He's going to the International School of Amsterdam which is taught in English. 52% of the students are Northern European (including ~30% Dutch) and 13% are North American. The school has 1200 students in K-12 (compared to ~200 at his previous school). Of the 100 students in 7th grade, 15 were new, so that was a little bit helpful - lots of other new kids.

The first day was a bit overwhelming for Alex. He said the hallways and the cafeteria at break and lunch were pretty chaotic and noisy. That threw him a bit. Yesterday was his fourth day and he seems to be settling in quite well. He said he's been able to find some spots in the cafeteria that are a little quieter where he can eat with friends, so I think that helps.

He is in both intermediate Mandarin and intermediate Spanish. He was worried about intermediate Mandarin because he has never learned how to write the characters. But the students told him Mandarin is one of those "not very hard" classes (not sure why??) and there is another student in his class that is a true beginner. He now says Mandarin shouldn't be too bad. He seems to be doing well in Spanish, too.

His favorite class is Individuals and Society (essentially Social Studies). They are studying religions right now. He is also enjoying Design. Right now they are designing Olympic logos. He's looking forward to when they do the "food" part of the design class.

He's running cross country. Monday and tomorrow are "try outs". It turns out try outs here are a little different - it means the student "tries out" the sport to see if they like it. He said there are about 30 students on the team right now which seems pretty small since it is 5th through 12th grade, but maybe some of the students don't need to "try" it and already know they will participate? We'll see. His meets will be in places like Paris, Luxemburg, Belgium, etc., so that will be pretty cool. A little more interesting than running in Fresno. :-)

He rides his bike to school. It's about a 10 minute bike ride.

As of yesterday he started talking about "my friends" which made Mike and I very happy.

Although Alex misses his friends in "home1.0", he's settling in with a new group who are mostly new to the school as well. As expected, his new friends come from all over... Italy, France, Netherlands, and... US. Luckily, they all speak the same language... FUTBOL!