Kindergarten!

Peggy is starting Kindergarten at the QSI International School in Chisinau. Today!

There was an Open House scheduled for 4-5 pm on Wednesday. As soon as Peggy was dropped back off at the American Studies Center (where I was for the afternoon portion of my Orientation with the Embassy), we hailed a taxi to head to the new school location. (They moved to a new, larger facility this summer.)

We were given an address on Strada Miron Costin -- but it turns out the school is on Strada Nicolae Costin -- which is in another part of town. For a moment, we were sitting in the taxi, with a driver who speaks only Russian, in the wrong part of town, not having any idea how to find the correct address (or how to communicate that address to the driver). Luckily, our contact at the Embassy had just given us her business card with her cell phone. We called her, she found the correct address, explained to the driver, and sorted out our fare. Whew! I think we finally arrived at the school around 4:45 pm

The first thing we did was to go check out Peggy's classroom -- she found her cubby and her desk and her name in the Garden of Success (which was in pink, her favorite color). We met her 2 teachers, who were both so friendly and cheerful. Peggy's teacher just moved here from Florida! And her husband (a former scuba instructor) is from Tampa (he is now the PE Coach at Peggy's school. Yes, we moved halfway around the world - and Peggy's teacher is from Florida. (Well, originally from Wisconsin, Milwauke. I told her Peggy's Dad got his MA at Marquette. Still a small world.) Peggy loved the classroom so much, she wanted to stay and play there all night. A good thing! But I coaxed her downstairs so we could go to the office to get her paperwork and bus schedule for the next morning. There we met the Director of the school, Dr Sandy Smith.

We have heard so many wonderful things about this school. And Peggy is so excited to start Kindergarten!

The internet guy is here - I will finish in another post