Day 4

Today was the day to go visit Manny's school. It started bright and early at 9:15 am. Manny met us at the MTR station and was so excited to see us. I noticed that he looked a bit tired and his eyes were all red. He has eye drops because he rubs at his eyes and they get irritated. Pink mentioned that he was a little wound up after yesterday with us and so he fell asleep later than normal. Part of his condition or one of his coping skills is that he always carries a little pouch of clips or tiny toys – some things to keep his fingers busy. He had to show us every little toy in there today and practice the english names of the little animals he brought along. Ducks, zebra, etc. His school was pretty wonderful. We met his primary teacher, his mandarin teacher, his choir instructor, his principal, his speech therapist, everyone. His teacher made him a special photo album of him with his friends, doing different things at school, etc. She also gave us his most current report card and walked us through it. He is on his way to being tri-lingual (Cantonese, English, and Mandarin) and he loves to draw and sketch things. He seems to be at about a first grade level academically and preschool level with his english. I am hoping that if we can get him some ESL lessons this summer, he will test into about 2^nd grade come August. His teacher even gave us her e-mail address so if we or his teacher in August has any questions regarding curriculum, we can contact her. I am hoping I can get Manny to e-mail her notes to let her know how he's doing too.

Although kids in US schools tend to be mainstreamed, here in HK the special needs kids go to special schools. Every child in this school had varying degrees of special needs but they were wonderful. We came on the day they were practicing for the graduation ceremony so we got to watch the rehearsal and Manny got to sing with his friends 1 last time. He loves to sing. :)

He seemed really nervous or scared while we were there. I asked Pink if it was fear of being left there instead of coming home. She asked him and yeah, he was nervous about that. We both reassured him and he hung on to Nick's hand pretty tightly the entire time. As soon as we walked back out the front door, he was much happier. We went and walked around a mall for a bit to cool off, had a drink, and then took Manny back home.

He broke my heart at the MTR stop by his foster home. He hung on to Nick for dear life and had what Nick called a temper tantrum. I swore he was crying without shedding tears. Only time will tell which it was. He didn't want to leave us and did not care that he was coming back to the hotel with us tomorrow. Pink tried to tell him that he had to go back to at least say good bye to Auntie and Uncle and to get his toys and suitcase. He didn't care and just kept saying bye to Pink. We finally got him through the gate and then he hugged us goodbye. Pink ran with him so he'd be distracted and we hit the escalator down to grab the train back to our hotel. She then called us after she got him settled back at his foster home and let us know that he was ok and calmed down.

We had the entire rest of the day to ourselves to regroup and rest before Manny comes with us permanently tomorrow. We rested for a bit and then caved and went to McDonald's for lunch. Yep, a fish sandwich and french fries taste the same no matter where you are. LOL We are both honestly craving a burger but we know we will be able to get one at Disneyland on Sunday. After McDonalds, we decided to walk up to the Jade market. On the way Nick took a picture of one of the few stop signs we have seen here in HK. :)

Neither of us fully realized it's more of a bazaar with everyone clamoring for your business. Neither of us enjoy that type of scene. We don't haggle or negotiate and we want to just be left in peace to look and shop on our own terms. Needless to say, we didn't stick around for long. Then we stopped at the Tin Hau Temple which is a temple to Tin Hau, the Goddess of Seafarers. We looked around but it was a sacred place and there were folks worshiping so we again left pretty quickly.

We are trying to decide how to handle dinner and the rest of our afternoon. We stopped at the 7-11 and picked up more water and some ice cream for me and then headed to the e-club here in the hotel to have a cup of tea and relax a bit to give the house keeping staff a chance to clean our room. It was also our chance to cool off for a bit.

 I think I may take a bit of a nap or read a book with my feet up in the blessed air conditioning. We have so many papers and photo albums for Manny and I really need to sort them out and figure out the best way to travel with them.