May 1, 2007

Hello, all.
The children are finally back to school after a month
break. That's a long time. We had an amazing month,
though. Aidan and I sneaked away to the United States
for 10 days. It was as if we had never left, except
all the children had grown. Dividing our time between
my parents' house and Prairie Crossing, I got alot
accomplished: visiting the dentist, doctor and
stocking up on American goods. I was struck with how
clean the American streets and sidewalks are. It's
like they had been sanitized. I've grown used to
stepping over lots of disgusting things on the
sidewalks in England. Maybe one day I'll share my
list of personal favorites with you...
Meanwhile, the big kids were off skiing with a group
from school in the French Alps. Nice life! They flew
into Torino, Italy where the last winter Olympics were
held and drove to Serre Chevalier, France. After
watching the Olympics, it's easy to envision their
location. They had a blast skiing for a week. Siobhan
was awarded "Smiler of the Week" and Ryan earned the
"Top Skier Award" for his group. A very proud boy he
was. The only dark cloud over the week was an 18 hour
flu that spread quite quickly. Michael got it the
last day, so thankfully, he didn't miss any skiing,
but did have to travel home feeling lousy. I'm still
hearing funny stories about their trip, mostly how
much fun the teachers were outside of school.
We all returned home for a few days (Poor Jim had to
stay home and work. He puts the "fun" in
fundraising.), shook off jet lag or, in Siobhan's
case, her bout with the 18 hour flu. Then it was off
to Southern Spain for nearly two weeks. Our trip to
Spain started off like most of our vacations: Jim
steps in dog poop outside while loading the car in
pre-dawn darkness, unknowingly tracks it through the
back garden so in order to reach the car without
stepping in it ourselves, we all have to huddle
together like we're Scooby, Shaggy, Thelma, Daphne and
Fred and tip toe on a single, weak beam from a dying
flashlight.
Southern Spain, if you turned your back to the sea,
looks like every Western movie you've ever seen.
There are donkeys, skinny and sad, wandering up the
hills. There are emaciated bulls grazing up the
mountainsides. The sheep that dotted the landscapes
looked malnourished and depressed. Quite different
from the cute, fluffy well adjusted sheep we have in
England. Yet for all the stark beauty, along the sea,
Spain was awfully built up. Like Florida. We stayed
in Sotogrande, in a luxury flat owned by a friend of a
friend. White marble floors, spa-like bathrooms, all
white furniture, vintage French ticking slip covers.
The veranda had lounge chairs, a huge round table
which sat all of us and two full sized couches just
perfect for napping. It even had such luxuries as a
washer AND a dryer as well as this nifty gadget in the
kitchen into which you could put all your dirty
dishes, add a little soap and short time later, poof,
they'd come out clean. Gosh, I wish I had one of
those...
The area we stayed was surrounded by a marina so we
spent time fantasizing about life on board the
vessels. Sign me up. The area boasts not one but two
polo clubs, so it was truly a study of the good life.
The wealthy Spaniards were the most gorgeous people
I've seen in my life. Effortlessly dressed in casual,
but elegant clothes. The men, women, children, even
the grandparents were stunning and looked as if they
had stepped out of a Ralph Lauren ad, (though most all
of them chain smoked). Couple the polo crowd with the
yachting crowd who were all "Jacqueline Kennedy-The
Onassis Years" and it felt like we were extras on the
set of a movie. We spent a couple of days in
Marbella, which is a favorite warm weather destination
of celebs. The atmosphere is much more over the top
and flashy, but what a family friendly place with
American style playgrounds, beach side restaurants and
carnival-like activities for the kids. Great people
watching, too-lots of high heels and hair extensions.
During our time in Spain, children loved playing on
the beach (such a shame the weather was unseasonably
cold). One day, the big kids and I sailed a catamaran
on the Mediterranean Sea and we hung out eating lots
of fresh fruits and fish (we introduced pate to the
kids-Aidan came running to me announcing in a
horrified way, "Daddy's eating cat food!") but hands
down, their favorite thing in Spain was actually not
Spain at all, but Gibraltar. Gibraltar is this huge
mountain jutting curiously out from the sea. Being a
part of the United Kingdom, it is connected to Spain
by a man made landing strip. You drive up, show
passports and wait in line until an official gives the
all clear. When the coast is clear, you drive across
the airport's runway to get onto the "island".
Gibraltar is grimy. The streets are narrow and, not
surprisingly, quite steep. The children will forever
hold in their hearts the memory of Jim desperately
trying to maneuver the huge rental, manual van through
the tiny roads with inclines like San Francisco. As
he was stressing out I, his loyal navigator, best
friend and life partner, was encouraging him, in my
cheerful and ever supportive way to relax. For some
reason, he found this irritating and about the same
time, as he was turning onto a side road, the van
stalled. In the middle of an intersection. On a
steep hill. With a 3 point turn necessary in order to
complete the turn. Suddenly, life in the front seats
became even more animated as Jim colorfully pondered
the virtues of family vacations and I, perhaps too
loudly, questioned his attendance record at drivers
education classes. In the end, he burned so much
rubber that there was a tremendous squealing of the
tires along with a fabulous cloud of smoke and we were
off. The poor kids in the back suppressed their
laughter for at least three blocks before Michael
said, "Does anyone smell smoke?" and they went to
pieces...That van provided more laughs throughout our
vacation than I could ever count (mostly the kind you
have to suppress until the heat of the moment has
passed).
Anyway, you're thinking, "Wow! Good times, Pierce
family", but that wasn't the best part of our time in
Gibraltar. We toured some military tunnels
(interesting) and St. Michael's Cave which has been
made into a natural amphitheater (interesting and
breathtaking). Then, at the top of the mountain, we
came to the area where there are wild apes. They are
really more like monkeys. How cute they were
entertaining the tourists as we pulled up. We got out
of the van, I walked around it and suddenly, I felt
someone try push me down. A split second scan and all
children were accounted for-no pranksters. A split
second after that, I realize I have four soft hands
on my head: a monkey had jumped onto my head. Instead
of reacting like a cool person, I reacted like someone
who might have a bat stuck in her hair. I started
screaming and running, bent over trying to shake it
off, forgetting in the moment that it was a MONKEY and
it was quite used to being tossed about. So, for what
seemed like an eternity (20 seconds?), I ran around
shrieking, bent in half, shaking my head until the
monkey tired of me and jumped off. Aidan then became
hysterical (mostly because I almost pushed him over)
and I happily waited in the van with him for the
remainder of our time there. They were nasty little
monkeys, climbing all over the van, sliding down the
windshield with their hairless rear ends and sticking
their hands in through the slightly open windows like
it was a horror movie. Michael, Siobhan and Ryan
loved every minute spent with monkeys climbing over
them. Two got into a fight on Michael's back and
shoulders! Ryan begged for days for us to get one as
a pet. As if...
I'm attatching a picture of the kids in Sotogrande
with Gibraltar in the background, of Ryan and Siobhan
on a bungee jumping thing in Marbella, one of a wild
sky over Tarifa (the wind surfing capitol of Europe,
so close to Africa you can almost touch it) and one of
Michael with monkeys on his back, so to speak.

With love from England,
T-Ann