June 27, 2006

Good Morning Everyone!

I have a new email address. Our SBC account closed.
My new address is:
tapierce14@yahoo.com. I enjoy every newsy and
not-so-newsy email I get from you!

It has been all about Michael and Siobhan this week as
they enjoyed two school related overnights in one
week! British prep school at its finest. The first
overnight was an "outdoor experience" or as normal
people call it: camping. The kids enjoyed lots of
out door activities and then camped on the campus of
Cheltenham College right in front of the headmaster's
home as chance (?) would have it. They had a blast.
They were poorly chaperoned by "gappies" from New
Zealand. Gappies are kids in their "gap" year or year
off between senior school and university. Not all
kids take advantage of the gap year, but any kid who
is lucky enough to convince their parents that his/her
life will be richer by backpacking through Europe or
taking an easy job in another country and drinking for
a year has the time of their lives. So anyway, there
were a couple of teachers, but mostly the gappies were
supposed to be keeping all the 12 year olds in line.
Well, the gappies drank so much (mixing beer and
champagne I understand from Siobhan) they passed out
and the headmaster himself had to come out at 1:30a.m.
and 3:00a.m. to tell the kids to stop playing football
and go to bed. The kids woke up in the morning and
because they were hungry, finally had to wake up the
gappies who were, shall we say, "sleeping in"! Hard to
imagine a world where that can happen and people don't
lose their jobs the next day.

Our interviewing process for the schools here was
grueling. Each interview was four hours long (we
interviewed four schools). Cheltenham College's
interview was more than 6 1/2 hours because we liked
it enough to set up a separate interview at the senior
school. Believe me, there was plenty of time to ask
questions. At Dean Close, another fine prep school, I
asked about drug use. The answer didn't surprise me.
They didn't tolerate it, blah blah blah. When I asked
about underage drinking (the drinking age is 21), the
housemaster replied, "Well, we monitor how much we
give the kids and always offer non-alcoholic options."
So there ya go! I was stunned! Jaw on the ground.
That is Cheltenham College's policy as well, but by
the time we got to that interview, I was able to hide
my disbelief. And don't think I can't hear all of you
chuckling about my concern over underage
drinking...its different when its your own kids!

Saturday, the boys and I spent the day at our friends
the Shortts house out in the country (Siobhan was off
with friends). Their home has the most spectacular
views of the cotswolds. The boys, along with Charlie
Shortt, the very cool 14 year old friend, disposed of
a dead fox on their property. This was done by
stabbing it with a pitch fork and tossing him into the
woods. In Boyland, its pretty hard to top that and
just when the day couldn't get any better, Dennis
Shortt (the dad) took us all for a helicopter ride!
It was wonderful. At first, I was a bit nervous.
Lets face it, the newspaper articles always start
off, "It was supposed to be a fun sight seeing ride,
BUT...". I relaxed after seeing how beautiful the
countryside is from the air! The manor homes,
castles, hillsides, sheep, poppy fields and lavender
fields in bloom...It all made me realize that there
are worse ways to go than plummeting to your death
into a field of English lavender! Ryan, the night
before, told me that he was missing living in a
neighborhood, running around with all his friends
during the summer. That evening, he told me it was
one of the best days of his life! There are trade
offs.

Sunday, Michael and Siobhan went to the senior school
for their "24 hours". It is actually, a 28 hour taste
of life at the senior school intended to have the kids
have so much fun, they choose to go to senior school
at Cheltenham College. They had the whole senior
school at their disposal and did all sorts of sports
and fun activities. They slept at their prospective
"houses". The houses are alot like our fraternities
and sororities. They are free standing beautiful
homes run by housemasters (well Queens, Siobhan's
house, is lovely anyway. Southwood, although beautiful
from the outside, is like a sparsely furnished frat
house without the stale beer smell). Being day
students, they go there to do homework, practice
piano, eat, change into sport uniforms, relax,
hangout, etc, but not to sleep over normally. The
kids had so much fun and were WELL supervised. Just
before he left to go to the 24 hours, Michael realized
he lost his track suit bottoms which he was supposed
to be wearing (actually, he accused ME of losing them
which I found to be a new and interesting twist on the
taking-responsibility-for-your-actions policy) so life
here at home was a bit ugly before he left, thus
making boarding school life even more appealing than
it already is! And, it was bound to happen to one of
us in public sometime: Siobhan was served spotted
dick as a snack. There are so many jokes there I
won't even waste your time...

Life at school is winding down. The house
competitions at school, however, are heating up. Like
in Harry Potter, each child belongs to a house (in the
junior school there isn't a physical "house" they go
to). Our kids belong to the Corinth House. The
houses compete for points throughout the term. House
sporting events earn you points as do red entries
(getting caught doing something good). Demerits (like
getting caught with those pesky, droopy, wool socks or
mud on your trousers) will lose your house points.
Both Ryan and Michael have earned red entries for
their houses. Siobhan has not and you can imagine how
much this bothers her! The last day of school is
parents day and the last day of competition. The
families all picnic together (aging rock stars,
fashion moguls and the Pierces) and the kids change
into their house competition uniforms and compete for
their final points. It is so Harry Potter! Hopefully,
there will be no dragons to slay. Truth be told,
Corinth isn't even close to winning, but it is really
storybook, nonetheless.

Jim returned home safely from the States last night
with bags bursting with tennis racquets, books and
sheets (much cheaper back home), lots of cinnamon
which we cannot get here and Dunkin Donuts French
Vanilla coffee. My world just got a little better!

Lots of love,

T-Ann