Well, the short story is that we are going to Vienna.  Much rejoicing!

School number two did finally get back to us with a letter thanking us AGAIN for our “honesty.” ( I swear, we must be the most honest parents in the expat universe.)

And stating that they will admit our son, but will be watching him like a hawk from both an academic and disciplinary point of view, and he has exactly one semester to get his act together before they decide whether or not they can “accommodate” him for 11th and 12th grade.

Of course, normal expat kids never have issues adjusting to schools and get iffy grades the first semester.

And normal 15 year old boys never do dumb things. Says the mother of the kid who just gave himself a Mohawk haircut.

(I think it’s really funny that all the women in my life were sympathetic about this, and all the men were like: DUDE!  Go for it! This is clearly a normal, dumb, teenage Guy Thing.)

Needless to say, while I am thankful for the forces that came together and made this happen, and derive satisfaction from the knowledge that the school was forced to honor their original decision, I am not altogether comfortable with the arrangement.  I mean, jeez, who wants to spend several months worrying their kid might get kicked out just for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, or for failing an algebra test?

School number three, however, could still work out.  I was impressed by their request this week for a contact at his current school.  School number two never asked for this information, but if you think about it, if you are worried that a kid is going to be a troublemaker, why not just get on the phone and find out? And since the teenager is not actually a troublemaker, I have absolutely no problem with the schools communicating about him.  In fact, his guidance counselor likes him a lot, she just doesn’t know what to do with him.  That is how most of his teachers seem to think–well, actually, it’s pretty much where we are on the subject.

So, I am very much hoping that school number three works out, but if for some reason it does not, I guess we’ll just have to take a chance on school number two.  We showed the teenager the letter, so he knows exactly where he stands.  He was kind of embarrassed by it.  I don’t think it has ever been his intention to come off as a real punk, despite the haircut. And that night he caught up on all his English homework.

Hopefully, by the end of next week, everything will be in place for us to truly look forward to this tour.  (And never, ever have to go through this again! I did mention that, right?)