Victor’s School Choice

We live in a newly developed neighborhood. The assigned school O doesn't have a high ranking. When we moved here four years ago, it was too early to worry about Victor's school choice. That was then, now the school problem is right in front of us. Yang and I talked about school often.

We need to get Victor to a decent school.

There are not many options for us. We can wait and hope his assigned school gets better, which is not likely. Or we can move to a different location with better schools. The last resort is to send Victor to a private school. Our friends and acquaintances deal with it differently. L brought an apartment in a good school district twenty minutes from her house, just so that her kids can go to school there. This is too costly. Yang and I considered this option, went house hunting once, and decided against it. I know somebody who sent their kids to private schools in San Francisco. His kids even got a scholarship to pay some bills. This option is also expensive and we cannot take in our current financial situation.

Fortunately there seems to be a loophole in the school assignment rules. We can transfer Victor to a different school within the same school district. Almost all other schools have better ranking than O. H is a school in the same city but with a higher score; O2 is even better; K, in an area full of million-dollar houses, is the best. Yang did extensive research and applied to all three of them. This week we learned that Victor was accepted as a transfer student at H. He will be set for seven years. Oliver will follow him to the same school in a couple of years.

Some interesting school district politics: O2 is a very good school, but they need more students to fill their classrooms and get some funding. They practically beg for extra students from other cities. A week ago they held an open house with cookies and drinks. I took Victor there. A teacher spent thirty minutes explaining to me and Yang (over the phone) how to transfer Victor to her school. Yang sent in the transfer form. Victor may get in there too.

Do you, too, have a school problem?

Aquarium of the Bay

We've been to the Oakland Zoo many time, but never been to an aquarium together. This morning Victor told me he wanted to go the aquarium in San Francisco. So after breakfast and some playing time in our garden, Victor and I headed for San Francisco.

It was a beautiful day in the Bay Area. There was a traffic jam in the city and many people are out. There are a large crowd near the ferry building. We drove to Pier 39 and parked our car on the top level of the public garage. Pier 39 was very crowded. There were many tourists.

We bought a family pass to the aquarium for $72. It was a good deal if all four of us went there twice in a year. The Aquarium is small, with the usual creatures. We saw some ugly fish and some pretty ones.

And some starfish.

We saw a big school of fish.

We saw sharks, not the scary big one but small pretty sharks.

Rays were flying on top of us, with funny faces.

There was even a small petting place. I petted a ray and shark. The water was cold. Victor didn't want to touch any fish; I wondered why.

Victor was mesmerized.

We had fun and will come back again with Yang and Oliver.

Oakland Zoo, Again

Oakland Zoo must be the number one place Victor and I hang out during weekends. We were there so many times. The amazing thing about zoo is that we never grow tired of. Animals move, run, jump, and play, the season changes, and the zoo is always different. Sometimes animals went hiding and it’s still fun to try to find where they went.

Yang, Victor, Oliver and I went to the Oakland Zoo on Saturday morning, for a second week in a roll. It was a sunny day and the parking lot was nearly full. This time we went to the left side, where the Children’s Zoo is. Oliver and Victor immediately ran wild into the grass. We saw some monkeys, chimpanzees, and two huge turtles. We didn’t stay long, as the kids wanted to take rides. Victor went for his favorite airplane ride, as always, he flew the airplane really high. Oliver, a couple of months short of three years, took the fire truck ride. It was the first time Oliver took a ride. He really enjoyed and smiled broadly.

After the zoo, four of us went to Oakland China Town. We had a big lunch with Dim Sum and two seafood dishes. We even brought something home.