There IS a silver lining...

I went to the middle school "community meeting", first time that I'm actually driving to school, so I was a little nervous about it. We arrived an hour early, but a good book and the chance to talk to Eric's Spanish teacher made it seem so much shorter. I  walked into the MS office to ask where the meeting was taking place at the same time another lady was getting my answer, so I just asked if I could follow her there. It turned out she's a French who's lived here for 5 years, with a kid in 8th ("great!" I thought to myself, a chance to make a friend!). Wrong. As soon as we reached the place, and in the middle of my sentence, she simply turned around and greeted her other friend, leaving me standing there, perplexed, wondering if it was just a matter of seconds till she went on with the introductions... I could only see her back, with not a single sign of moving, so I moved along, entered the room and scanned the area. A group of about 6 were seated on the sofas, I  went there and cheered "hello!", got some responses, but everyone just turned around to keep on talking to the one nearby... so much for my "Lynda approach".
I started feeling very bad about it, totally set aside and lonely. I  was just sitting there and nobody even tried to take me into the group, so I decided to  move to the table and start writing in my agenda what was going through my mind:
"you can hold back the tears and suck them in from the inside. Watery eyes start giving you away and you fight  hard to  prevent it.
You try  to remember happy times with your friends and it only makes it worse. Where are you??(talking to all my friends, screaming inside and trying to  seem normal on the outside)..." And suddenly, a hand was over my agenda! I looked up and Yuwei, the Chinese lady I had talked to the other day, handed me my lost pen. "Is this yours?" she asked with a smile, and proceeded to double kiss and hug me.
(imagine angels singing in the back)," Ni hao, yuwei! Xie xie." I warily answered. She went on and on about the kids, the traffic, the meeting, and everything seemed right again.
The meeting was quite insightful, we met [yet again] the new MS principal, talked about school  affairs and I left to see Alan's counselor.
At this school, they have a "total communication " policy, and the counselors meet regularly with the parents to see how the kids- and the family- are coping with the new  school, city, environment, etc., to offer their support, tips- very warm and helpful.
As I walked out, I met Yuwei again and asked if I wanted to join her for lunch- we decided it would be easier to have it there at school. For those of you shocked about this (ie, all of you), school lunch at EARJ is actually very good and cheap. It's a very complete and well made meal, with a salad bar, a dessert bar and a beautiful view. Plus, grown ups get to sit outside and away from the kids! yeah!
After that, I offered to drive her home and she asked if I could help her translate (!!!) some things to her maid, so I got to see her house too.
By the time I was leaving, it was time to get the kids, so we both went back to school and I almost pulled mine off the bus.
It was a good day after all, plus I didn't get lost!