Annie Burgess and son Adrian will spend their first school year in the United States this year. Catherine Steenkeste/WNBAE/Getty Images

For the last four years, Washington Mystics starting point guard Annie Burgess has played the summer months in the WNBA and then the rest of the year playing overseas. During that time, Annie has taken her son Adrian with her overseas and he has attended school in the country where she was playing. He began his schooling in Australia and, last year, was a student at an international school in France.

This year, rather than heading overseas to play basketball in the international leagues, Burgess has decided to remain in the Washington-Metropolitan area for the WNBA off-season. She has taken up residence in Maryland and enrolled her eight year-old son Adrian in a local elementary school.

Although Adrian and mom took a quick trip to their home country of Australia after the Mystics season ended in late August, they are now back in the States and Adrian is looking forward to joining his fellow third graders in class. This will be Adrian’s first stint in an American school.

Annie doesn’t think it will be too different, however, than what she is used to in Australia.

“I think the standard of education is the same,” Annie said recently.

The difference seems to be in the length of terms…

“[In Australia], we go to school the whole year,” said Annie. “School starts the first of February and finishes in December, two weeks before Christmas. Summer break is during Christmas. But we have a four term system so we go to school for six or eight weeks and then we have two weeks off. So, every term has a two week break after it and Christmas has a six week break.”

That could take getting used to but Adrian, who is as seasoned a traveler as his mom, seems up for it and is ready to dig into his favorite subject, math.

As millions of parents all across the United States prepared to send their children back to school, they were probably reminded of their own childhood memories. There are many feelings surrounding school that translate to any generation, any school and any country.

Some, however, are unique and created by the individual. For instance, Annie, unlike her son, preferred Geography to Math. Her favorite grade was the sixth grade while Adrian, so far, liked Kindergarten, “Probably because he could nap,” offered his mom.

It’s also apparent that Annie has had experiences that Adrian will probably never be exposed to. One of Annie’s favorite memories is when she was in high school and she was the only girl on the boy’s basketball team because they didn’t have a girl’s team yet.

Despite the wisdom and knowledge that his mom has to offer, Adrian is set to make his own experiences as a new resident of the Washington-Metropolitan area. His other favorite school was in France because he liked going to school in the snow. Well, if last winter is any indication, he should like it just fine around here.