Fluency

On Friday we went down to the San Francisco Unified School District offices to re-register for Mandarin Immersion school in case we decide to stay in SF for awhile and go back to school here.  If they have openings one can only join a class above 1st grade if one tests in.  Nevermind that we left the very same MI school in 3rd grade and have spent the last year in, you know, Beijing.  The whole thing took over two hours and involved lots of paper forms.  A Spanish-speaking mom who is apparently a teacher in Oakland fumed because the tester didn't know the name of the test she was supposedly administering to the teacher's son.  I got even less from our tester.  SF schools' bureaucracy is the subject of much scorn.  But LiLi tested fluent and we got into school.  Waiting and annoyed, I kept saying to myself, "it's free...it's free...it's free."  School starts tomorrow but LiLi won't go for a few more days because we are still jetlagged and a bit wiggy with culture shock.  Or Mama is, anyway.