The April Files

Wales
I am on a school trip to Wales at the moment. We are staying in a town called Llain (pronounced Cline) for 5 days. It is very pretty here but has rained most of the time. The activities carry on rain or shine so I haven’t been dry for a long time now it seems. There are all kinds of fun things for the kids to do and I have been joining in to the best of my ability and inclination. We came down by coach which took up most of the first day. The kids were allowed to bring a gaming system with them which meant that they were basically quiet for most of the trip and that most of the scenic views were lost on them. Kids aren’t really into that kind of thing anyway though. I was invited along on this trip rather last minute. It was Th

ursday of last week when they offered me a spot and I hummed and hawed about it until Friday afternoon. I would normally snap things up like this right away but I was a bit nervous about the musical getting sorted out because the performances start next week. In a fit of poor planning, the entire year group that is doing the performance is now here in Wales with me and we can’t exactly rehearse because I can’t take them away from the activities. I wouldn’t want to either but we have had so little time to practise before the show that I feel nervous all the time. The songs and dances are just fine but the acting bits are quite week. I have to keep reminding myself that this isn’t high school and we can’t work the kids constantly and expect their full cooperation and attention. Because it is my first big show all on my own, I really want it to turn out well.

Ann Park and Canada Day

Another reason I was hesitant to join the trip was that I have a house guest at the moment. Ann Park has come to England for 3 weeks! School is of course over in Canada now but we are still going for another 2 weeks. So I have been crazy busy trying to finish up the rest of the year. I made Ann come in and help me sort out a bunch of sets for the musical on Saturday. She is also a music teacher so she understood the need to get everything sorted and didn’t resent me too much for wasting a day of her holidays. We went to Trafalgar Square again for Canada Day which was nice. We all drank beer and ate donuts. There were a

bunch of nut jobs there protesting the Canadian seal hunt as well. They had fake blood all over them and were requesting that myself and the other Canadians present at the square stop clubbing seals to death. None of us seemed to have been involved in too much of that recently so it seemed like an ill targeted publicity stunt.

I also made a delightful Canada Day cake for my co-workers pictured in my previous post. I haven’t baked in ages so I thought it would be fun. Also none of them know what Canada Day is so it was nice to do it and tell them about it. It helps them to remember that I am not actually American. Anyways, Ann has decided to go to France this week so I didn’t feel bad about going to camp. It was a great time. The kids absolutely loved it. The following is a montage of photos of our trip.

Here is the cove where we went sailing.

Here is Darryl, Helen and Caroline doing some pre-celebrating on our incredible raft we built. We were competing against 10 year olds but the point is we beat them.