We have been here for 10 days now. Today is Leilani’s first day in school, she is going to Glen Oaks Montessori.
The first days were very disrupted, Leilani’s behaved badly – as in the last weeks on Kauai – beyond what I want to describe on the baby blog, and I was pretty depressed, sometimes there was an intense feeling of non-belonging, although it was better for me than in the last week on Kauai.
But I did pay attention, and lots of little details gave me hope, and by the end of the week I really started feeling at home here again. Don’t get me wrong, I love Kauai, miss it, and want to return, but…
- The average car here is 3 sizes smaller than the average car on Kauai. One in 10 or so is a hybrid.
- I have not seen a pitbull so far, and not one chained dog in the neighborhood. But lots of golden retrievers and fluffy little friendly dogs.
- Obama signs outnumber McCain signs 20:1 – that includes driving through Hollister
- I mentioned Leilani’s problem with red food coloring to a kidless friend – who replied that that was a pretty common problem
- I mentioned to 3 friends and acquaintances who had kids (2 of them grown) that Leilani was in a Montessori preschool, not only did they know what it was, all 3(!!!) had had their kids in Montessori schools too.
- The weather is nice. I regret having left my shorts and slippahs.
- The parks are awesome. There are swings (bad rumor had said CA had removed all swings from playgrounds because of liability reasons) and high climbing walls
- Kids are allowed to run in many places, including indoor play areas, and especially on playgrounds (another bad rumor)
- people are active and exercise
- The closest Walmart is 45 minutes away, the closest K-Mart almost 1/2 hour. But there are more restaurants in walking distance (< 1 mile) than on the entire island of Kauai (including Saimin, Hawaiian BBQ, Fiji and plate lunch places) Good Sushi lunches for $9, and the store down the road sells Hawaiian and Fiji (strong) Kava.
- People are very friendly, neighbors, strangers, people at the park and the cityhall.
- Hiking here is awesome
- Leilani likes cold weather camping just as much!