Preschool Petting Zoo

Well, I guess it was more a zoo than they normally have at these things since a camel was in attendance. Aside from the "feeding zoo" (there wasn't a whole lot of petting going on, but the kids didn't care), I was happy to be in my children's preschool again. It feels really good knowing that our community is multi-ethnic enough that Lyvi won't be the only Asian in her classes. Dylan's preschool class and Lindsay's dance class are both a quarter Asian. The cutie-patotie (just sound it out) on the left is Riho and she is from Japan. I had a really nice chat with her mom for the first time at the petting zoo, but I'm looking forward to talking her again to find out more about how they ended up here and how long they are staying. Next I need to figure out a comfortable way to get to know some of these families better. Being an almost-expat, I know how much I would have appreciated a local family reaching out to me.

This summer I really wanted to reach out to a mom I met at VBS. No one knew how she ended up signing her child up, but they were here from Korea on a two year expat assignment. After talking to her a couple of nights, she mentioned some things she needed help with (really, would I be able to find a beekeeper in Korea??) I did give her my name and number because I knew I wouldn't see her the rest of the week and I wasn't staying that night. I wish she would have called. I know our language barrier might have confused things a bit.

I actually met her a previous time shortly after I was home with Lyvi and she recently arrived from Korea. I'm not sure she remembered (you know, we white redheads all look alike.) Our Chinese playgroup and her group of Korean moms were at a gymnastics place together. It was obvious she couldn't resist asking me, in spite of her limited English, what in the world all these white families were doing with Asian kids.

Maybe next time we go to preschool Riho can help me with my Japanese counting -- ichi, ni, san, shi, go, roku...I get lost from there.