Atop Stephansdom (Saint Stephen’s Cathedral), originally uploaded by scottpartee.

Today was Maple’s first day of Kindergarten.

I simply can’t go into what we went through to find a spot for her, because there aren’t enough tables left in my database. However, the end result is that we’re at a Kindergarten that we’re relatively happy with.

Life is all about compromises, and for every freaky Montessori Cult Kindergarten, there was a Montessori Nice People Kindergarten. Just as it is inevitable that one’s favourite Kindergarten is the one furthest from your house, and your first choice school is going to reject you, it’s also true that nice people run a nice Kindergarten upstairs from a hash bar. The Kindergarten of the State, which, feature the loving, embracing nature one would expect from both a State and a State that is famous for having parents that do not believe in coddling their children, is ubiquitous and very cheap. But compromise we did and now Maple is in Kindergarten with the stated objective of gaining social interaction and the German language.

Anyway, the end result is that Maple started Kindergarten and, from all reports, the first day was a smashing success. I can hardly believe my baby is ready for this, but she is expanding beyond what we can provide. She needs educational experts and opportunities, she needs peers and, already possessing a very good proficiency in her mother tongue, she is ready to learn Deutsch — something she is *very* excited about.