Every day an adventure

Anna and Alex debriefing each other on their walk home

Anna update
The morning started out rough, and I wondered if we'd be able to get Anna to school at all today. But she forged ahead. On the 0-10 scale, yesterday was a .1 she reported (she only gave me the .1 because I told her she had to have a black eye to have a 0 day). Today she reported a rating of 3. I think it was actually better than that.

Alex's first day at school
Alex reported that the one hour assembly for new students, which comprised the entire first day of school, went pretty much like this:

Blah, blah, blah, blah es prohibido, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah,blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah es prohibido,blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, es prohibito. Blah es prohibido, blah es prohibido. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah es prohibido.

Now, it's could be because he doesn't understand much Spanish that it sounded that way, but he is probably pretty accurate in his report. Same as any first day in middle school anywhere.

He has a strategy for dealing with committing any of those prohibidos that he didn't quite catch: smile and say, "No entiendo. Lo siento." (I don't understand, sorry."

All in all, he had an acceptable first day.

Meanwhile...
In the mean time, I thought I'd go have a coffee while waiting for Alex. I strategically picked a cafe that looked like I could manage it by myself without embarrassment. I ordered a delightful cafe con leche (for some reason we can't pull off a decent cup of coffee at home and I've been despirate for a good cup of joe) and Anna's favorite breakfast food tostada con tomate. Delightful. Delicious. And then it was time to flag the waiter down, get the check and dash out to meet Alex. That's when I realized that my wallet was in my other purse. I had visions of omnipresent security guys chasing me down the street as I insisted that I must go get my son who is being released in minutes from his first day in Spanish school. I am sweating profusely, mortified that I have to tell the waiter I have no money. I try to remember enough Spanish to explain that mi dinero es en mi otro bolso. I rummage through the bag I have and try to select an item to leave as collateral that is valuable enough that they will believe me but not too risky to lose. I decide on my reading glasses. Yeah, right. The guy thought I was insane trying to force my glasses on him. I was in luck. No es problema. I told him I'd be back in an hour, and I was. No es problema. But I didn't get out of the situation meeting my primary mission - which was a simple cup of coffee by myself without any moments of embarrassment. Oh well.