jj went on a school trip today to london. it was not lost on her, how special this was. she said, “imagine, that here, a school trip is: “la, la, off to london to shakespeare’s globe theatre for the day!”. they all met at 6:15 in the morning at the eurostar station, to go through the “chunnel”. they were going to see “much ado about nothing”. she quite enjoyed it, saying that the acting was very good. apparently, the boys didn’t appreciate it as much. she said they looked bored. then, they had to leave the theatre 4 minutes before it ended to catch the train home. they had to run through the streets to the station. one girl, had 300 euros with her, and it fell out of her purse during the run. she thought she also had lost her passport, but in the end, it was found. our question, as was everyone’s was WHY had she brought 300 euros to start with? i was pleased that jj’s analysis was that the girl had brought it to show-off.
meanwhile, that evening, sandra, who is in the conversation group, and is also a mom of one of jj’s good group of friends, hosted an evening pot luck dinner to include the husbands. our conversation group has been very good fun, as well as very helpful to our french language skills. apparently, many of the husbands have been jealous and want to be part of the fun. sandra and family have a beautiful, high ceilinged, classic french apartment facing trocadero. she is a wonderful decorator and the home is very classy.
originally, the plan was that roland, sandra’s husband would pick up the girls from the train station when they arrived back from london at 9:30pm. they would come back to this apartment, where there would be food and we could go home together. the plan evolved so that the girls just took the metro together. of course, the idea of sleepover was floating around there. jj had not gotten enough sleep for days, between various school projects and getting up early for this trip. this is always my concern, as this eventually leads to her getting sick. then, another one of the friends was going to go home first and then join them for the sleepover. sleepovers are a sure formula for grave overtiredness. so i was a bit resistant to the idea. in front of the other parents, jj was imploring me to stay over. 2 other moms were so charmed by jj, they took her side. “oh come on, she’s so adorable! let her sleep over”. then one of them, a very funny and dynamic british ex-tv journalist started calling me “tiger mum”(reference to the controversial book in the US about chinese moms). i found this entertaining and then she was apologizing but coming back to it. finally i was pleased to say, “ladies, butt out!” which was sort of a half joke, because i had already decided that it would probably be fine. i was just holding out so it wouldn’t be so easily had. i had to discuss privately with jj the condition that she be absolutely in bed trying to sleep by midnight whether the others were in bed or not. jj promised. we’ll see if it comes true. anyway, the next day was a day off.
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