RAT!!!

In order to have 'options' for entry into the NYC Public School system, Margaret has to take tests, yes, as a 4 yr. old, to see if she can qualify for certain programs. It would take to long to explain....just believe me, finding the right school, even for kindergarten, in NYC is a ridiculously difficult process. It's usually a bad idea to just send your kid to the closest school to your house, and trust that it will be a safe and positive environment. You have to be selective and careful.

We received notice of her test date/time/location only two days before the test. And the location was in a very inconvenient part of the city to get to. I guess part of the test was to see how serious the parents are about getting their kid there on a Saturday morning.

Since mom just had a baby a fews day prior, I got to take her, just her and me. And boy, was it an adventure. We live on the most northern tip of Manhattan(Inwood). Her test was on the lower-east side in the heart of Chinatown. Not in the Canal Street - touristy part of Chinatown - but in the heart of no-English signs, we are the only white people around, Chinatown. After a bus, and three subway transfers, we arrived in the middle of another country.

The funny things is, this foreign land is only 5 miles from our house.

Thanks to Googlemaps, I was able to find the school quickly. What a beautiful school. I started to wish Margaret could come here. We were surprised to find Margaret's friends and their parents, from our neighborhood, also there for the test. Interestingly, we were the only group there. I guess they were really testing our resolve, and not just our kids' IQs.

After an hour-long test(don't get me started-she's only 4), Margaret emerged from her one-on-one, with the tester, full of smiles and confidence.

"That was so much fun, Daddy!", was her reaction to the experience. Well, I guess she is cut out for the rigors of the educational system in this city. Go Margaret.

Since it was a long trip, a long test, and would ultimately end up being a long day, I decided to really make it a real "day" for Margaret and me. Also, I could sense her feelings of displacement with the arrival of little Stella in the home. She needed some one-on-one time.

We found a great noodle-house dive - Great N.Y Noodletown, and ate the most delicious shrimp dumpling soup and chicken with bean sprouts.


Then we walked to a fruit market to get some exotic sweets for dinner that night.

Longan Fruit
(similar to Lychee)

Pomelo
(in grapefruit family)

All along the way we saw dancing dragons and New Yorkers celebrating the Chinese New Year. 2008 - The Year of the Rat!!!

I let Margaret pick out a pretty pink trinket from a local vendor. After first calling it her "Jewels of Terror"(I have no idea why), she changed it to her "Chinese Dream Catcher". She's been having scary dreams lately. Big imagination, you see....

After a fun cultural exploration of our Chinese neighbors, we reversed our complicated travails to our uptown 'hood, enriched, ready for a nap and a Pipers Kilt burger.

Thanks, New York City. My daughter loves you.

A little info. on NYC's Chinatown
New York City’s Chinatown, the largest Chinatown in the United States—and the site of the largest concentration of Chinese in the western hemisphere—is located on the lower east side of Manhattan. Its two square miles are loosely bounded by Kenmore and Delancey streets on the north, East and Worth streets on the south, Allen street on the east, and Broadway on the west. With a population estimated between 70,000 and 150,000.