I found out around Thursday night that they call this “Hell Week” at Wharton. Josh had one class presentation, two projects, one quiz, two mid-terms, the usual load of assignments, two case write-ups, the General Management Conference, which he was involved in organizing, planning meetings for the Energy Conference, Cohort leadership meetings, a learning team 360, and a Wharton Service Day. Fortunately for us, we were so busy we hardly noticed, except that when Josh came home for dinner on Thursday it completely threw me off. ☺
A week ago Kate started Mommy School, a pre-school co-op I set up with four other moms. This was our first week hosting. I based our activities on the book Where the Wild Things Are. After reading the story we made and decorated paper boats and then floated them in the bathtub. We played charades. We ate animal crackers. We crowned each child “King of the Wild Things” and had a parade around the house. The truth is, I had a great time! The kids loved having everything targeted right at them. Jane was by far the most enthusiastic. She thought she was some serious big stuff getting to hang with the big kids. We topped it all off with an outing to the zoo on Thursday, which was the perfect opportunity to enjoy the Fall weather.
To really get me out of my comfort zone, I had lunch on Wednesday with a girl from Japan whose husband is also at Wharton. We met at some of the social events during pre-term. My Japanese is at best rusty these days. I am great at introducing myself and then my ability to converse comes to a screeching halt. I was nervous, but sitting down to lunch with her was actually the perfect opportunity to practice. We had a great time. She is so sweet. We spoke mostly in Japanese with an occasional English word or hand gesture thrown in to clarify. About half way through lunch Kate looked over at me with her eyebrows knit together and said, “start talking real!” Hopefully this will be the beginning of a good friendship with Satomi.
The weather is so nice these days that you feel an urge to go outside. The leaves are beginning to change and the temperature is delightful. Besides going to the zoo for Mommy School we went to the playground with some moms from our ward, we went for a walk into the city to return our books to the library, we went to Linvilla Orchards for a hayride and pumpkin festival with the Wharton Kids’ Club, and we went to Longwood Gardens for a Harvest Festival. Every place we went I found myself thinking, “It is so nice here. We should come back again next week.” Autumn is such a great season.
On Friday we were driving to a friend’s house to drop the girls off for our babysitting group, after a few sharp turns, some pink lights, and a horn honk or two, Kate threw her arms in the air and said, “Dad, You are going to kill us all!” I have been telling him that for years, but somehow coming from your three-year-old it holds a little more punch.
We had a great date night this week. I was only about 11% confident Josh would make it home in time, so I hadn’t even dressed. Bless his heart he did make it albeit a few minutes late but with plenty of time to have a fun evening. We ended up going to the Philadelphia Museum of Art for what they call “Art after 5.” Every Friday night they have a live band and table service in the lobby and then most of the galleries are open. We wandered through one of the European Art sections taking all the time we wanted in front of each painting. It was just so slow paced and relaxing--a nice contrast to the rest of the week.
1 comment:
Marlee has the daughter of a second year student, from Japan, in her class. Cool family, I think the girl's name is Mitsora.
Same family?
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