Roblog

On Saturday, we received the letters from the elementary schools we applied to. They indicated which ones our daughters were accepted into. For all of them but one, admissions were determined solely by a random selection of the applications received. The lone exception was the homogeneous GT (gifted and talented) school.

We were happy to find out that our girls were accepted into all but one, including the GT school*. We know have the happy problem of having to choose from among them. Our initial first choice was among the ones we were accepted into, so we will just need to confirm that is still our first choice before settling on our final answer.

* One note about our GT admission. Both girls scored well enough on the entrance examination to meet the criteria for admission. As twins, we were advised that if they qualified, they would be selected one after another in the random lottery. It turns out that one was accepted and the other was wait-listed - as the first one on the waitlist. Since that school is not our first choice, it is moot.

I was instant-messaging with one of the India members of my team, and we were discussing who would take responsibility for something. I thought he should, but he was reluctant. In the end, I relented with a statement of "Very well." If I were to say that to someone here in the US, I trust the person I was talking to would pick up on the nuance of that phrase that implies I am accepting, but doing so reluctantly. I'm not at all sure if my India colleague got the same message.

I almost said "OK" as my response, but that did not set the right tone. Even knowing that the tone may be lost in the IM-India exchange, I used what verbiage I thought best communicated my perspective. Perhaps he did pick up on that, or perhaps my using it in this context will help him build that awareness.