First day of school, foreign service Xmas, and a mini moving rant

Due to our move, the holidays and a business trip, yesterday was Babes' first day of Kindergarten.  On a whole, it was not as traumatic for any of us as I thought it might be.  She has to wear a uniform, which she initially objected to ("I don't know about this school thing, how am I to go everyday to school all day not wearing pretty dresses or skirts"), but she seems to have accepted her fate.  I have promised to get her a bunch of pretty hair things and crazy socks.  We went with her on the first day, but she really didn't need us, after the first couple of kids arrived she was busy playing and having fun (as I had hoped).  I however, now have all this free time.... I need a job.

Last week we received the our first shipment of our stuff from Chengdu (for those of you in the know it was our airfreight).  While it was just essentials, dishes, clothes, toys it went a long way towards making this big empty place feel more like home.  FS people often say that receiving a shipment is a lot like Christmas.  Especially because by the time your stuff arrives you have already forgotten what you packed in the boxes, so for every box they unpack you think to yourself "HEY it's THAT!"  Exciting times my friends.

Do you want to know one of the things that irks me about moving every two years?  It's a little thing, you probably don't even think about it, but maybe you don't move every two years...  You know how when you cook on the stove, you reach down and turn on the eye you want without even looking, or how when you walk into a room your hand automatically reaches for the right spot on the wall to flip on the switch?  Well when you move every two years, you can't do that.  Right now I'm in the process of learning a new set of switches, flips, dials, and squeaks.  I walk out of the restroom and keep trying to turn off the bathroom lights from the outside.  I have to flip every living room light switch (for some reason there are EIGHT) to get the right lights to come on.  There are all these random sounds in the house that I don't know where they come from, and we don't have Honeydog yet so I don't know if I have to worry about them, so I'm constantly chasing down noises.  *sigh*  moving pains.  I'll get used to them, but for now I'm still fumbling in the dark.