Preparing to leave Singapore, I muse on our trip so far. One may think of the trip as starting in the "New World", represented by Taipei and Singapore, moving to the Middle East, Istanbul and Cyprus, and ending in "Old Europe", represented by Italy and Ireland. (The NYTimes columnist, Thomas Friedman has in the last weeks made part of our traverse, going from Singapore to Egypt and Jordan.) The sights and conversations with Greg and Lisa in Singapore and Jerry Shih in Taipei, and reading about Tunisia and Egypt, cause one's head to swim with new ideas and dimly aware of the inchoate forces shaping the future. 

It is interesting to see what the kids are learning in their International Chinese American school. Louise, in second grade, is learning her multiplication tables up to nine and working with fractions and decimals. In English, she writes paragraphs and takes dictation. She also takes dictation in Chinese. Nora, in kindergarten, is learning to print her letters (she is working on printing as I write). She can sound out words with regular spelling.

Yesterday, Mary Jo and I took the kids to High Tea at the Raffles Hotel. We printed invitations several days earlier, which they then responded to (orally). They were primed with excitement and we had a great time. They were very well behaved; various High Tea attendees commented on them. The picture does not do justice to the occasion.