Singing With the British

The children have quickly acclimated to British school and culture. They are certainly surrounded by it. 

But still, some things surprise me.

It is funny to hear the girls play shop in pounds with their shopping trolley and you can be sure it took the Mister and me by surprise when Big Sister and Big Brother constructed a traffic jam with Matchbox cars recently. With the traffic going the British direction.

It catches my ear to hear them praise each other with "brilliant" and "well done" and even to thank someone in passing with "Cheers!" Don't get me started on the number of times I've worked very, very hard to keep a straight face while they have long discussions on different and colorful "rubbers." They frequent pubs and hop on and off, in and out of tubes, cabs and buses easily. They have even be praised by the same cab driver (! what are the chances?!) for their sweetness and camraderie.

And with all my in-house and public celebrating of the Queen's Jubilee, I am tickled that Our Sweet School is preparing the kids to celebrate on Friday. A homework assignment was to make special fabric triangles for bunting to decorate the school's rooftop playground for a Jubilee party. I'll give you just a few guesses as to whether I was eager to help with that assignment. Really, it is surprising that I didn't send in my own! But I'll get a chance to create this week as we're to send in "tea cakes" for the party. Everyone is to wear red, white and blue. There is lots of practicing "God Save the Queen" going on in our flat.

In ways that the Mister and I can't relate to, I imagine that the children will hear the strains of that song in years to come and feel an affinity for the British always. Maybe they'll think of the summer of 2012, the Queen's Jubilee, the London Olympics, and all the fanfare in our flat and in our city. I sure hope so.

That makes my heart sing.