The Harrison Family: September 2019 - Sakhalin International School Starts

The longest summer for the Harrison Kids has finally ended. School in Sakhalin started September 1 and I officially have a first grader and a third grader... WOW! The school here is on the British School system so they are in grades P3 (Carter) and P5 (Riley). It is so nice here - we have a bus that pics up the kids at our front door and brings them home to the same place. They even go and pick them up late if they have after school clubs or activities.... so we are certainly spoiled!

Riley in P5 is blessed to have a great teacher named Mr Andy. Mr Andy is a very experienced teacher that just moved to Sakhalin from another British school in Houston (Katy). He is fantastic and Riley's class only has 11 kids. A lot of her friends from the neighborhood are in the class too... so she already had a bunch of great friends.

Carter is in P3 and he has 22 kids in his class and an amazing teacher from Ukraine named Ms Katya. She is very experienced and has taught here in Sakhalin for a number of years. She is a lovely woman that works very hard to help her students including Carter. Carter has had a harder transition to the new school than Riley. He too has some neighborhood friends in his class so that has helped a bit with the adjustment.

Since the school is on the British system the curriculum is different and both my kids are pretty far behind. The quality of education is fantastic here. The school is used to kids coming from other countries so we are lucky they have experience with catching up kids and helping them get adjusted. I am very excited to see what the kids learn and accomplish this year!

First day of school pictures!

The Girls of P5

Carter and his friend Everett Lake

Carters P3 class

ExxonMobil has a large expat community here in Sakhalin and so does Shell. Since Shell is a British company their big annual expat event is October Fest. Justin and I went with a group of ExxonMobil friends that are also expats and we had a blast! Thats one thing we are quickly learning - the expat life is all about making friends and having fun. These communities are used to people coming in and out and they have been so welcoming to us! October fest was a lot of fun! They had delicious German food, good beer and Karaoke. I don't understand the obsession with Karaoke but people around here love it!

Here are some other random pictures for the month. We are still exploring the city and learning our way around. The weather has been fantastic so we are spending lots of time outdoors!