First day of school
After a week's delay due to lockdown, Baxter and Miles had their first day of school at Plympton International College! Their school is a K-12 public school of roughly 900 students, and it is our assigned public school based on our address. We had been in touch with them once we finalized our rental house, and they had indicated that we wouldn't have an issue getting a spot for both kids once we got to Adelaide. Before lockdown we went into the school for our enrollment meeting, where we had to fill out a bunch of forms, but fortunately we didn't have to provide anything from their academic background (grades/test scores)! We met with the principal of the primary (elementary) and secondary (middle/high) schools, Caitlyn and Andrew. They asked the boys lots of great questions during our one hour meeting. Middle school is structured similarly, with a homeroom teacher plus subject specific teachers; elementary is similar with a primary teacher that instructs a classroom of roughly 20 kids.
All schools in Australia have a required uniform, and we had ordered our gear for the kids before we arrived, and picked up a few other items and adjusted the sizes before lockdown. Our boys opted to wear the polo shirt and jacket with the school logo (no dress shirt and tie!), and they can wear navy pants or shorts. We were told they needed leather dress shoes, but we noted on the first day that some kids got away with wearing all black athletic shoes! Since our kids are allergic to dressing up, the athletic shoes will be acquired soon.
There were definitely first day nerves and excitement when we walked over to school (0.3 miles from home). The school itself looks like a small college campus (see cover photo) and the facilities indoor and out look quite nice. Plympton's facilities pale in comparison to some of the fancier suburban schools we've seen, but it's quite good by our public school standards!
Since this is a new routine, we walked them to and from school. At pick-up, parents waited around for their kids in a park area just off campus where we saw the tiny kids to big teens flow out of the backdoors. There was a LOT of energy as this was the first day back after lockdown! As we walked home, we got to hear all about the first day, which seems to have gone well. Both boys have Mandarin in their classrooms part of the time, but both have teaching assistants to translate. Miles liked his teacher, made a friend, but said it's hard to differentiate kids because of the uniforms, so it might take him a bit to learn their names. Miles loved that there were multiple gym/outdoor breaks, and that there were 3 different playground areas on campus. Baxter said he needs to get a dress code shirt for gym, that his teachers were nice. He had to stand up and introduce himself to the class, and he said by the end of the day the kids were bursting with questions about his knowledge of Aussie slang, how much he had a chance to see snow, and whether he knew any famous people from America! (The answers were I know a little, I know all about snow, and most famous people live very far from Ohio). To help him prepare a bit for tomorrow, we told him that Ohio has 45% of the population of Australia but less than 2% the size! Both boys had a good first experience, and we are so grateful to have a positive start.
Now that the kids are in school, Jeremy and I have some freedom to get work done! My Fulbright is sponsored by Flinders University and the Carnegie Mellon University - Australia so I have a home with both institutions. My main research collaborator is at Flinders, but they are NOT as well equipped to set me up with my own space at this time, so I anticipate rotating my location between home and these sites. Jeremy will be working from home as he doesn't have a formal affiliation here, but we have things configured well for him to use the house as a base of operations. His laptop screen recently got cracked, so he's stuck working from the make-shift monitor + laptop for the time being; I am sure he'll be explore the various coffeeshops of Adelaide as a work backdrop once his screen gets repaired/replaced.
CMU-Aus has their office located downtown (which they call the CBD, or central business district) and there's a light rail train I can take directly to Victoria Square, roughly 15 minutes travel time from home! Adelaide Metro transit is easy-peasy and I've already ridden the bus between Finders and CMU-Aus, and the light rail train to home; it's affordable, and I've already reloaded my Metrocard online. (To me, learning public transit has always seemed like a badge in the game of acculturation to a place!) I'm headed up to CMU-Aus today where the team is taking me to lunch. After the roller coaster academic year with the pandemic and a lot of push/pull in my role at OSU, I have to admit that it's lovely to feel welcomed.
