June 26, 1007

Dear all,

I will share a few things that I have discovered since
moving to England.

First, kids are amazingly resilient. Second, there is
a staggering number of hunchbacks here (again, I
relate this to always having to walk with your head
down to avoid stepping in poop and/or lots of other
items that, to describe them, are nearly always
preceded by the adjective "used"). One of the best
things about England however is, hands down, the
gossip. I am not kidding. I now fully understand why
women lunch. Lunch just tastes better when your jaw
hangs open and rests on a sticky cafe table. The
queen's loyal subjects in Cheltenham are hard at work
creating a steamy storyline for the next PBS
mini-series.

I just found out that our estate agent (and fellow
parent at school) ran off with his sister-in-law last
week. This explains why he wasn't returning phone
calls... God bless them, the wife and her brother had
to make a special visit to Mom to break the news that
their spouses just ran off together. "Kids? Uncle
Nigel is your new daddy!" Family birthday parties
will be a bit awkward for awhile.

There is also the friend of a friend who had a heart
attack and died in his flat he shared with his
mistress. She found him and had to ring his brother
so that the brother could technically be the one to
find him. I'm thinking that even with the brother
"discovering" him, there isn't much of a way to hide
the husband's double life at that point.
There was also another tragic love triangle (again
parents at school) in which one scorned wife committed
suicide after her husband had an affair with her best
friend.

Believe it or not, there is more gossip and it
involves key parties and unplanned pregnancies (in
adulthood) where the well respected father leaves the
country to avoid responsibility. Clearly, these
people where not born and raised in the Midwest! We
never get good gossip like this back home.

We are all home after a week of independent trips.
M and S went to Cornwall for their class
trip. They spent 5 days surfing, caving, doing team
building activities and stretching their survival
skills (mainly stripping their sheets and re-making
their beds and dealing with hormonal roommates). Two
"Wally" awards were given to the most entertaining
kids. M was one of them. That always scares a
mother. One thing is for sure: the Brits adore
M's dry sense of humor.

J and I went away to Poole, a seaside town, for a
few days to soak up the sun, slurp down wine and eat
our meals in peace. R was in Normandy, France for a
week. R loved his trip. He visited Monet's garden
and the American cemetery at Omaha beach, which was
powerful although mostly R reported back about the
quality of the gift shops. The kids were required to
speak French as much as possible and had to order in
French in cafes and speak French while asking for help
grocery shops and around villages. I was surprised to
learn that Ryan embraced this. Apparently, there was
no end to the roar of approval from his friends as he
approached people throughout the trip saying his most
favorite French phrase, "J'ai mes regles," which,
translated means, "I have my period." Nice.

The most exciting thing as of late, however, is the
fact that M and S took their Common
Entrance Exams. While M did extremely well, he
was a bit overshadowed by S who achieved the
highest marks of all candidates who applied to "the
college". She worked so hard! We are proud of her
and people are coming out of the woodwork to
congratulate her...and us. Most people try to guess
which parent S, the overachiever, takes after.
Hmmm. Not so much either of us...

Hope you are enjoying the sun and summer. We have had
terrible weather the last two weeks. Temps in the
60's and spotty rain. The heat was put back on, not
only to take the chill out of the air, but my laundry
will not dry without it. It just isn't right. Still,
it is a small price to pay to live in such a swingin'
country. I should be become a romance novelist.

With love from England,

T-Ann