October was a crazy month. Things around here are not quite yet normal or routine. The kids seem to be getting into a routine with school and seem to be making some friends. It seems these kids that have attended the international school for some time are used to kids coming and going pretty regularly and seem to welcome the new ones with open arms. Riley was invited to her first birthday party here in Russia. It was a friend named Maya that lives in the other expat compound here that Shell owns. The school has employees kids from both Shell and ExxonMobil. Maya had a spa party here and the girls seemed to really enjoy themselves!
I am getting to know my team more and more and they really are a great group of ladies. Its an all female team and a lot have the same name - I have 3 Irina's and two Katya's. They are all super talented and are patient with my lack of Russian language skills and lack of familiarity of Russian Labor Law. We had our first group team building and the team planned for us to take sewing lessons and we made sweatshirts. Not my favorite activity for sure - I hate to sew but it was fun spending the day with the team!
Riley started ballet here in Russia. We are lucky that one of the expat wives here in Olympia (ExxonMobil Expat Compound) was a professional ballerina in the Houston Ballet and teaches the girls ballet on Saturday. Its not quite the same as Houston but we are so lucky that the girls get to stay involved in dance so far away!
I had to head to Houston in early October for a global HR Managers meeting. Justin handled it like a champ and had a great time in Sakhalin with the kids. They kept busy exploring the local parks and enjoying the beautiful fall weather!
School has been an adjustment for my two. The school teaches with a British (Shell Owned) curicculum that is on a different pace than what mine were studying in America. They have a strong focus on math and writing - far more than mine were used to so they are a decent bit behind. Luckily this is no challenge for this school as they are experts at integrating students from all different backgrounds and getting them on a common pace. The kids will have to work extra hard but I know they are up to the challenge!
The school has some unique differences from a traditional western school. First is they have NO grades. They teach to mastery... not to past a test. I was unsure of how I would feel about this in application but so far there is a lot of communication between me and the teachers and I have a really great understanding of how my kids are doing. Second, they focus a lot on developing a well rounded child. Its interesting - this school wants kids to be ready for the real word - far different than America. They teach kids to lose - they want them to experience that and they are ok with tears - they love them and its not in a mean way - but the focus is on growth mindset and building resilience which I cannot complain with! See the school mission below:
Challenging the potential of each child, Sakhalin International School is a community where a learner’s reflective thinking - through personal qualities, academic rigour and international perspectives - supports their future as an accountable global citizen.
They have a strong focus on personal qualities and asses the kids on them which is interesting. The personal qualities are Enquiry, Adaptability Resilience, Morality, Communication, Reflection, Cooperation, Respect, International Mindedness.
Here are some photos from the month - of things that were shared with me...
Carters class on Math Hats Day
Riley working on math building cubes with Elmin
At the end of each term the kids have a term exit point where the parents are invited and have the chance to see the kids present all what they learned. Carter and his group walked me through his science experiment and scientific journal that they completed. Very impressive they are doing this in 1st grade.
Super Proud of Carter and the hard work he did this term
Rileys Exit point was the Dragon's den - UK version of Shark Tank. Her and a partner had to develop a restaurant and write a sales pitch and sell it. I thought they did amazing... What great skills - descriptive writing, public speaking... super proud of her and her friend Eliza!
Riley had her first field trip. On a Saturday her and her class got dressed up and went to a Russian School to perform a poem in English and Russian- they called it the Pushkin Ball - after the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Picture below of Riley and her friends ready for the ball
The kids school had a run and swim for the kids to compete in. They both had to swim and then transition - change clothes - and then run. We are lucky in this town the school has an indoor pool because the weather outside can be tough. Of course my two know how to swim but neither are really runners and they have never transitioned from swim clothes to running clothes during a race. On this morning it started to get cold so I brought Riley tights to run in, what a mistake that was... those were probably the worst thing to try and put on when you are wet and just coming from a swim. To her credit.- she could not get her tights on so she threw on her shoes and ran in the cold in her wet bathing suit. I was super proud of her resilience! She killed the swim and lost a ton of time during transition but finished the run cold and with a huge smile! Carter came in second in his swim, had a great transition and then passed the fastest swimmer in the race to take first in his age group. They both competed well and I was beyond proud of them!
Halloween is not celebrated here in Sakhalin but it certainly is celebrated here on the expat compound! The kids all dressed up and we had a great dinner in our community restaurant - then we headed out to trick or treat at all the houses in the compound. As you can see from the below group picture there is no shortage of kids around here! Riley decided to dress as Audrey from the Disney movie Descendants 3 and Carter was Harry Potter.
Carter has been struggling a bit at school and as many of you know I have taken him to Dr's, Psychiatrists, and all have told me things are ok.. he is just a typical boy. Well when challenges started in this school I just could not ignore them. I talked to my pediatrician in Houston and her suggestion was to get him on ADHD meds. Of course that is a lot harder to do when you live in Russia - and those meds are not available in this country. So after much work - our medical department sent Carter and I to Seoul, Korea to meet with a therapist and see a Dr about ADHD meds. This was not a step I was excited to take but its hard to watch your child struggle so much and for people to see only the negatives and not all the wonderful things Carter has to offer. The school here has been super amazing with him but its just time for us to see if there are things to help Carter.
I am not going to lie I was a nervous wreck heading to Korea - with Carter by myself. I had no phone - no idea what I was getting into and did not speak the language. This will be a common theme I suppose of my expat adventure - but I have to be strong and help my sweet boy! I met with a therapist and saw a Dr and they both aligned that we should start Carter on ADHD meds. At this point I am willing to try anything. Continuing to get the medicine in a country that does not have them will be a hurdle I will have to jump later...
While in Seoul - we had the opportunity to have some fun too. Seoul has some traditional western food so we were able to eat Mexican while we were there which was a great treat! Unfortunately while in the restaurant Carter threw up - I think from nerves due to all the anxiety about all the dr's we saw.
While in Korea we had to take a cab everywhere. And then with the language barrier we have no clue how to communicate to the drivers. It is an adventure to say the least. In Korea they drive - well to me its very aggressive and scary. On our final cab ride to the airport I thought Carter and I were going to get in an accident. The cab driver was an older man that seemed to have no clue how to get to the airport. He pulled over once or twice to talk to someone on the phone and would throw up his hands to me like he was confused... and then at one point on a busy interstate 4 lane road he stopped, not on the side but in the middle of the road, so he could use his magnifying glass to read his navigation system. I was beside myself as cars honked and blew past us... I was certain we were going to get rear ended but luckily we made it to the airport in one piece!
Finally back from Seoul and its the fall break - I had promised the kids we would do something fun. Turned out Justin had to work during the break so I was on my own. Here goes another Resilience moment for me.... taking the kids on an international vacation to a country I have never been to with two kids! After much discussion we decided we wanted to explore Tokyo Disney and Tokyo DisneySea. As everyone knows me and my kids LOVE all things Disney so I thought it would be a taste of the familiar since they have been so out of the familiar since August. Tokyo is also just a short flight from here - its only 2.5 hours so easy flight and off to our adventure!
This is what the Sakhalin airport looks like on the Friday of a school holiday. Most of the neighborhood piles into the airport. Everyone here was going to different places, Tokyo, Philippines, Australia and Canada.
About to take off - little did I know the plane ride would be super bumpy and most of the plane would be throwing up - including Carter about an hour later!
Daddy offshore working on the OIMS assessment while we enjoy Disney!
We made it to Japan!
So of course in my amazing luck - The day we went to Japan there was a huge rainstorm and flooding in Japan. This caused the flight from Sakhalin to Japan to be super turbulent and have many kids and adults sick. And then when we arrived in Japan there were no cabs available and the airport transport bus I had planned to take to the hotel by Disney was not running. We had to take the subway which was another crazy adventure. Nothing was in English and very few spoke. Luckily there were other Sakhalin families heading the same way so we had other American friends to enjoy this crazy adventure.
After many failed attempts talking to Japanese people on the subway and ask how do we get to Disney... we had one girl who finally drew Mickey to indicate she understood where we were trying to go, it was such an exciting moment for us!
We finally arrived in Tokyo and in our Hotel. It was a crazy ride to get there but overall once we arrived things went pretty smooth. Tokyo Disney and DisneySea are the busiest of all the Disney parks in the world. I knew this going in so I decided to arrive on Friday and wait to take Disney until the following week - as I knew the weekends would be crazy. So the weekend we went exploring some fun places in Tokyo. We went to a place called Team Borderless Labs which was awesome. IT was like an LED show that the kids were able to play in. They had a ton of fun! We also had an opportunity to see an English Movie - the new Disney movie Mailifcent!
Kids loved room service - Club Sandwiches were a group favorite
Red Lobster for the win!
I am sharing the below two pictures so you can see how beautiful Sakhalin really is. I think people suspect its a frozen tundra all the time - which I know it will be, but we really are blessed... this place is beautiful!
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