The whole family and I went to the kids’ school because of the new students and parents orientation. It was a great opportunity for our kids to meet other fellow students who were also new to the school. It was also good for Christina and me to meet other parents.
It was great to see a multi-national group. Some of the students were national Indonesians and others were from Korea, Australia, States, and other nations. It is a complete contrast to the schools that the kids went to in Ann Arbor. I think this is another advantage of moving the family to another country. The international experience for the kids will be invaluable. This is going to be a great way to teach them about the importance of transculturalism (an important value at HMCC).
In a weird way, as I was sitting through the orientation, it made me think a lot about wanting to go back to my junior high and even high school years. I think my desire to redeem those years started to kick in. But I know that we cannot go back in time.
I had some great conversations with a few parents who studied aboard. One father studied at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. It was great hearing from his perspective on various things as he is now back in his home country working and raising children. I met another family that studied Eastern Michigan University (EMU – 10 minutes away from UM)!
It was exciting to hear that many of these parents were former international students who studied in the States. It once again reaffirmed our vision and mission because now they are the “movers and shakers” in this country. What would it have been like if we had the opportunity to influence them while they were in college?
After all the informational things, we had a nice barbeque together near the swimming pool.
Oh, did I tell you… today was the first day that Christina drove in Indonesia or outside of the United States for that matter! She had to keep on remembering that everything is the opposite compared to driving in America. It was a fun ride back home 🙂