There are many little stories that do not fit into the chronology of our travels thus far and events slip my mind until post my posting of a blog, so now I bring you some bits and pieces of stories:
Brit Urinals
The kids have repeatedly insisted that I share the following bit (the Brits use the terms 'bit' and 'pieces' quite often, especially together as in "Let me just grab some bits and pieces from the store."). Noah, Liv, and I were in a public bathroom. As I began to use the urinal, they both yelled that I was in fact using the sink. This was my first (and their second) encounter with these interesting English public sinks that are built into the wall. They have automatic soap, water, and air dryer tucked at the top out of sight and once you place your hands (or other body parts) into the opening it somehow knows what to do. They delight in sharing this story with anyone who cares to listen.
Dishing the Dishes
If you recall a past blog about the kids washing dishes, they have figured out a routine to excuse themselves from the chore. Well, I should admit that I am in on the scheme ("scheme" is another commom British word; it is used as Americans might use "strategy" or "plan"). The kids ask Rachelle if they can go "exercise" outside while she cleans the kitchen. How can she resist. So, the twosome and I (Rachelle always declines the option to join them as she has worked out on showered earlier in the day) jog around the sports fields and then end up at one of the soccer goals for shots. On any given night, there might be 5-10 different small and big soccer games being played on these fields.
School Updates
Each morning at school, I enjoy accompanying the kids into school. As we enter the back playground, my kids join the rest of the green and yellow uniformed kids playing, running, wrestling, and tumbling around on the playground as parents wave and say "Hello, hello" in rising intonations to each other as only the Brits can do. It is mayhem. At 8:40 sharp, Ms. Dangerfield (Noah's teacher) marches out through the throng with long and straight strides. She lifts her chin, stands very straight, blows a sharp whistle, and announces in her clear and deep voice. "Gooood morning children! Please line up smartly!"
I do plan to videotape this moment, but I haven't gotten up the courage. Noah can tell you that Ms. Dangefield is a force to be reckoned with. Of course, some of the other teachers, such as Ms. Starch and Ms. Onion (those are their real names!) are tough too.
Noah reports that when his classmates are acting up (which is common), Ms. Dangerfield will say, "I am about to become very cross with you!" Fortunately, the children have not witnessed her actually become cross.
Liv has the sweetest teacher imaginable. Her name is Ms. Mumford and when we first met her, she said, "I have been to Atlanta," and added in a whisper, smile, and shrug, "I was following the Grateful Dead." She is terribly stylish, is always beaming, and clearly delights in the children. See the picture. Liv loves imitating Ms. Mumford with a big smile, raised arms, and sunny exclamations of "superb!" "brilliant!" and "Lovely!"
When Ms. Mumford learned that we would be heading to Rome for holidays, she provided us with a 3-page typed document of travel tips, restaurants, and places of interest. She had lived in Rome with her boyfriend. One of our favorite Ms. Mumford stories involves a school assignment. Liv was supposed to create a family tree. Rather than a tree, she decided to do a family bookshelf. Each shelf was a different generation, and she labeled the bindings of the book with the person's name, age, relatives, and some interesting fact or comment about the person. Although I do admit it came out quite nicely, I was worried that the format might not meet the letter of the law of a family tree. Rachelle frowned at me when I pointed out that you could not really link up the parents and children because there were no connecting branches.
I kept my worries in my shut mouth as Liv strutted into class with her large colorful poster board of her family bookshelf. When Liv came home, I anxiously looked her over. She was beaming. She let us know that Ms. Mumford stood Liv up, hugged her shoulders as they both faced the class, and brightly announced, "Genius moment everyone!". Ms. Mumford proceeded to praise Liv's unique, creative, and beautiful family "tree".
We had our parent-teacher meetings not too long ago. In meeting with Ms. Dangerfield, we learned that Noah is doing well, he is ahead of his peers in most subjects, but his handwriting is poor. She also pointed out, "he has a strong sense of justice", and is not shy to point out inconsistencies in her teaching. At the end of the meeting, I collected my courage and asked if I could videotape her rounding up the kids in the morning. She paused, looked puzzled, then she said it would be okay and smiled and blushed. At that moment we saw another side to the Ms. Dangerfield we know.
So, I am posting a video of the morning routine. However, the video is not good because I tried to be sly about it and held the camera by my waist. So, it is hard to make out what is going on. I will make another attempt.
Liv's parent-teacher meeting was "superb" and "wonderful". Liv is doing swimmingly in all subjects, and Ms. Mumford enjoys Liv immensely. As with Noah, Liv's handwriting does stand out as being especially messy and inconsistent (capital letters in the middle of words, smiley faces to dot the i's). We explained that Liv's school in the states, Paideia, likely reinforced such a creative writing style, but that we would work on getting her script up to snuff.
Noah's class was studying World War II. At one point in class, Ms. Dangerfield informed the class that they would likely all be speaking German if it were not for the Americans stepping in to help out. Noah had a good day taking full credit and expecting thank yous from his classmates. To culminate this work, the students dressed as "evacuees". See the picture of Noah and his fellow 1939 mates heading to the safety of the country.
National Trust
We joined the National Trust, which is an organization that helps maintain historic properties in the United Kingdom. As members, we have free access to thousands of castles, homes, and other sites. Occasionally we will pop into places. Here is a picture of Liv at one of the homes in the Trust in Bath.
Cheers!
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