December 5, 2006

Lately

Good morning!

I'm a little belated in getting my latest installment
out. Can't think of any real reason for this, other
than the fact that I've decided to have a go at
"ladies lunching". You may remember that, initially,
I was bewildered by the amount of lovely ladies
lunching in England. They lunch with grace and
dignity. Their hair is always immaculate, their
handbags match their shoes and always, always they
wear stylish clothes. I decided to forget all of
those details and just go to lunch. So I put on my
"smart" coat which covers up my jeans and sweater (or
"jumper" as they say) and do what I do so well: eat
and drink and chit chat. This came in handy recently.
In all seriousness, a couple of weeks ago we headed
into town to see the end of a concert and to catch the
lighting of the town Christmas tree. A crowd of 4,000
was expected so you can imagine the madness when
40,000 appeared. Unfortunately, by the time anyone
realized, we were swept into the crushing crowd. It
was a nightmare. Thankfully, after what seemed to be
an eternity, we were able to turn a corner and get out
of the mess. The cafe owner where I like to lunch let
us in after hours. We ate a lovely dinner, waited for
the crowds to dissipate and headed safely home.

Moments like this make me question who exactly is in
charge in this country, but then my faith is restored
when, say, the power goes out. In England, when the
power goes out, the stop lights do not work. No
flashing reds. No "understood" four way stops. It
could be truly dangerous, but those polite Brits wave
everyone through even at the most difficult
intersections. Unimaginable!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in England. The
school had an assembly and a gathering afterwards for
the American families. During the assembly, the
headmaster described the American flag, that it hangs
in every classroom in America, children pledge their
allegiance to the flag every morning and that it hangs
outside every school. The flag that Cheltenham
College Junior School flies on Independence Day,
September 11 and Thanksgiving once flew over Congress.
I was hoping he would stop, but he continued to the
point that I cried! Then, all the children in school
sang, "Make me a Channel of Your Peace" and I could
barely recover! We spent the evening with another
American family. Fiona (who is actually Irish) cooked
the turkey at her house (no way could I stuff a bird
into my kitchenette oven) and we ate at our house
because their house was too small (as small as our
house is, we have a kitchen and dining room). Very
festive complete with pumpkin pie. It felt like a
real Thanksgiving.

The kids made it through their first exams. This is
an exam based educational system. Exams don't just
cover what a student was taught over the term, but
they cover all that has been covered in the prior
years! The pressure is tremendous. Kids are strung
out, crying, staying up late, studying constantly.
It's unhealthy. Thankfully for our kids, I think this
is completely ridiculous. No one is allowed to be
stressed out about these exams (Well, secretly, me,
but only a little bit and I don't let the kids know).
They study, go to sleep early, eat a good breakfast
and get on with it. Michael and Siobhan must test to
get into senior school in the spring. The tests they
took a couple weeks ago are mock, mock Common Entrance
Exams. It's nuts. The kids have done brilliantly!
Last term, Siobhan received the highest grade in her
class in British History. This term Michael received
the highest grade in the ENTIRE EIGHTH YEAR in British
History! How is that possible from a couple of
Americans? Ryan scored a very high mark in Latin
which he only started last term. This was typical of
their marks, scoring just points behind kids who have
had French since the age of three, for instance. I
don't know what to attribute it to. I'd love to take
credit for our bright children, but maybe it was
Prairie Crossing Charter School that taught them how
to think outside the box and enjoy learning. Maybe
this British system isn't as demanding as it appears.
Maybe our American education system gets a bad rap.
Whatever the case, the children are very proud of all
their marks and Michael and Siobhan are all but
guaranteed entry into "the College" next fall.

We had a very "Pride and Prejudice" moment the other
weekend. Michael slept over at his friend Edward's
house. Driving down the wooded lane and pulling in
front of the house felt as if we had stumbled onto a
movie set. This home was designed by the same
architect who designed the White House. The Cotswold
stone house was a country house for a man whose city
house takes up a full block in Cheltenham and is now a
part of Cheltenham College. Gorgeous. The queen
herself wanted to give this home to Charles and Diana
as a wedding present, but the National Trust took
Charles to court to prevent the purchase on account of
the fact that the view is so spectacular, it would not
be legal to fence it in. The view belonged to "the
people". The National Trust won. This particular
day, Royals were hunting on the property (By law they
must allow the public, and Royals, to hunt and people
are allowed to walk the property. Phyllis tells funny
stories of opening the door in the morning and having
scads of Japanese tourists picnicking and looking in
the windows.). The Wong's purchased this home as a
holiday home as their main home is in Hong Kong. Our
Grayslake home would fit nicely into this home's main,
double staircase. Because it is a family home (They
have four boys. Joe, the father, is Chinese and
spends most of his time in Hong Kong, but the boys
were unhappy boarding at school, so Phyllis moved to
England) it is actually very warm. For those of you
keeping score, Siobhan has now changed her wedding
venue to the Wong's drawing room. (God willing, to
one of their sons...)

I met Jim in Brussels last week. A getaway like this
requires a bit more choreography now that my Number
One Babysitter, Old Reliable (my dear mother) is
thousands of miles away. I had Aidan's sitter come
here and the older kids were treated to five days of
boarding school. They LOVED it. Siobhan sent me a
text message at one point that said we would have to
fight her to come home. We didn't speak with Ryan the
entire time because he was always running in the yard
with his mates whenever we called. Alas, we did rope
them all into returning home and while little could be
better than a year long slumber party, they each
admitted that it was nice to be home. Siobhan, 13
years old going on 30, told me that she would lay in
bed at night thanking God for the experience of
boarding. She realized that she was blessed to be
experiencing something that most American kids never
would. And Ryan was just glad no one made him take a
shower all week.

Jim, who has been traveling for the better part of a
month, will return from the U.S. with my parents on
Saturday. They'll be here for Michael and Siobhan's
first ball next Wednesday and we'll all go to London
before they return home. I need a dose of Mom and
Dad.

Peace,

T-Ann