Hello friends and family!

I have been an incredibly terrible blogger.  Not good at consistency,  I suppose, which is why I was never a big success at teaching spelling. However, I eventually pick up where I left off, and I never expect from others what I can't do myself

So, first things first— yes, Forrest, Roblin and I are still in London. We are happily nesting in The Roost (our name for the flat we share with Miguel, Isla and Cecile because it has four wonderful flights of stairs and lovely views) in Hackney, East London, and working hard at school. Forrest is also now in school. He began Reception class (sort of like pre-kindergarten) at the state school up the street (Shacklewell Primary School  www.shacklewell.hackney.sch.uk/ ). His teacher's name is Jim and he is a super nice guy and Forrest really likes him. When I asked him what I should tell you about his school he said that you should know about the fox den in the playground (I suspect this is a fictitious fox) and that he gets school dinners and they are yummy, and that he and his friends play outside a lot.

Roblin and I have completed two terms- we are now on break for a few more days before term 3 begins. So far we've studied telling big stories in a small space, epic stories, the grotesque, butoh, the tragic space, chorus, and construction of puppets and costumes from our "abyss." There is other stuff as well, but that is what i remember at the moment! It has been, as always, incredibly challenging and also extremely fun- life changing and enriching. Can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing right now. This term in particular was challenging for me as in one piece i took some big personal risks with both content (rape by a trusted person) and being in my undies on stage. Term 3 will be all about comedy- clown and such (phew) but no less challenging, I'm sure, as we're not talking about "circus clowns." Then term 4 will be for a reworking and presentation of the "best of" work from the year and then working on our individual projects and the public presentations of that work.  Our presentation at the end of this term was special for us as my mom, Jan, was able to be there to watch. She got off the airplane in the afternoon and bravely came to the presentation that night!

This Christmas we also had visitors. Maya came, of course, and we were lucky to have her here for nearly a month. It was a special time for us and she got to come and watch our presentations at the end of that term, which was great. Then Roblin's brother, Scott, arrived on Christmas day- delayed a bit by the snow in Minneapolis- and his parents, Bill and Nancy, arrived a few days later. We were able to do several lovely London holiday events with them all, including seeing a Panto (a very silly kind of musical that is traditional holiday fare here) and going in the London Eye at dusk(a giant ferris wheel on the Thames).

Maya and Forrest at Christmas in London:
Maya's big news is that she has happily moved out of the dorm at Annie Wright High School. She is living with an Annie Wright family and really enjoying it. She also spent several weeks with our good friends Carol and Andrew up in Seattle and still sees them about one weekend each month.

Maya and some of her classmates at one of the universities they visited- she is the one in the middle with the orange bag in her lap:

She is busy with school, as usual, but also really working hard on a project with World Vision. She is also on the board of directors for Make the Dash Count ( www.makethedashcount.com/South-Sound.html ).  I am really proud of her dedication to work in her community to make a difference for teens who live with the realities of gangs, poverty, and racism.  She helps keep us informed on the Presidential race, and one highlight recently was that she got to go and see Barack Obama speak in Seattle- she was one of the 3,000 that couldn't fit into the Seattle Stadium, but he came out and spoke to the group outside and "was standing really really close to where she was."  Very cool.  She said it was inspiring to hear him speak. She recently came back from a college trip with her entire jr. class; they saw something like 12 schools in 10 days. They went to different types of schools on the West Coast, not to necessarily promote those particular schools but to look at the differences between a small liberal arts school and a large state university. She said she had a fantastic time, and that the trip gave her a lot to think about.  She'll be coming over here when her school let's out in June to be Forrest's Nanny while we are in our last busy term of school. That way she can also come to our graduation, which I am super excited about.

During this break Roblin took a trip to the East Coast to see some good friends and also to help remount a show he worked on in Juneau (The Tides and The Tempest, for those of you who saw it) at the Kennedy Center in Washington DC.  Forrest, my Mom and I hired a car and drove to Northwest Wales to a little village on the Lelyn Peninsula (the tale of the dragon) called Pwllheli. We stayed in a self catering cottage on an organic dairy farm. It was exactly the break we needed from the city- we fed the animals, watched the cows getting milked, played on the windy beach, and visited some amazing castles. Did you know that Wales has more castles than anywhere else in the UK?  On the drive back to London we took a little detour to a village in mid-Wales called Montgomery. This is where my great-great-great grandparents on my mom's side were born, grew up and got married before they came to America. We walked the streets, which are still the same layout as they were in the 1200's when the village was founded, and poked about in the graveyard looking for relatives. We went into the church where they got married and then had a lovely tea in the old tea house on the town square. Everyone we met we told about why were there and people were so friendly and excited for us. Forrest now wears his Welsh Flag tee shirt with pride and his new favorite game is to play "Welsh Prince."

Cheers,
Ellie



Forrest and Ellie atop Castle Harlech in Wales: