A word (or two) on the kids

Rob and I are astounded by how well the kids are doing.  We both agree that if our parents had moved us for a year to a foreign country we would have probably stayed in the apartment all day and moped (Gilly/Alberto - is this how it was?).  Here's how the kids have been doing after only seven days of school;

Renee has gone over to two friends' houses after school, been invited to two Bat Mitvahs and one Bar Mitzvah, borrowed a dress (with spaghetti straps) from the tallest girl in the class and actually worn it in public (see below - removed at the request of the subject), gone to a Bat Mitzvah (she is there right now), been approached to join a few different youth groups and is actually excited to try them out, received and responded to an e-mail in Spanish, and joined the gymnastics team at the Estadio.

Jonathan has been elected Vice President of his class, has made at least one soccer goal during recess (the long recess is after lunch and he keeps skipping lunch so that he can get on the soccer field faster), joined a tennis class even though it had been going on for half a year, tried out taekwondo, went to a youth group event without knowing anybody, and checked out every type of public transportation available in Santiago (I'll have him write a review at some point).

Elisa, who has probably had the most difficult adjustment, has been dropped off at her class without crying, made friends with the one girl who can speak English but apparently knows some others, taken gymnastics and swimming classes, spent 45 minutes playing with the girls from her swim lesson afterwards in the pool in absolute ecstasy (we need to get her in the pool more often), walks for blocks without complaining now, developed a lisp (I guess that would have happened where ever she lost her top front tooth;-)), and she keeps throwing in Spanish phrases in her daily speech.

Needless to say - we are amazed at how well they are all adapting!  We know that there are going to be bumps (and there have been - J. is longing to be invited over to a friend's house, E. cries and gets frustrated in class, R. is navigating the "girly" scene here) but overall they are really, really doing well.