Firsts

13 Jan night. K, Peanut & I were at the airport at night to send Nadya off on her dance training trip. It's her first trip abroad without us. I was excited but also apprehensive/worried.

I only found out at the airport that there were only 6 girls going and all were her peers i.e. all of them are in P5 this year. 

Sunday was a day of excitement and nerves as all parents waited for updates from the girls. We were all in a group chat and updates started trickling in in the late morning. That they arrived safe & sound, that they were on the way to the serviced apartment, that they were going to head out for a meal and to the supermarket, etc.

We didn't hear a peep from N though lol. I was a little disappointed and thought she forgot to update us. Lo & behold at 5pm SG time, 8pm Sydney time (i.e. 7 hours after they arrived), a whole bunch of texts  and photos suddenly flooded our family WA chat group. Things like "Landed!" and "On the way to apartment!" came in...so she did update us! Just that the texts were somehow delayed for a loooong time. 

We've managed to have video calls with her each night so far. Said she was homesick yesterday morning and felt like crying. Hugsss little girl...you can do it!!

Spent close to an hour last evening on a video call with her. Her luggage's built-in combination lock couldn't be opened. It was somehow jammed up. K guided her teacher to no avail. Finally, the both of them decided to cut through the lock. He gave tips & pointers virtually, and the teacher used her Swiss Army knife to cut through some of the lock's mechanism. Kudos to her for managing to do so!! Really thankful.

It was an old old luggage but one that K treasured. No choice....

So now she's got no luggage to bring back. The teacher will try to get a duffel bag for her with a manual padlock. We'll see how it goes.