Mid-september and the weather is more beautiful than it has been all summer. We have had continuous gorgeous sunshine for two weeks now, and some days it is actually quite hot. Yesterday I picked Lucas up from preschool at 5 and took him for a swim in the lake. The lake is smelly with weeds at this time of year but temperature-wise it is just heaven. We are very fortunate!
So the new semester is well underway. Lucas started preschool 2 weeks ago and has settled in remarkably well. His main teacher and 3 classmates are the same as in daycare, and there are also new teaching staff and other, and older, children to get used to. He seems to love it, he does kick up the occasional fuss when I drop him but he always seems happy when I pick him up. Some days I find it hard to believe he is only still 2 (not for much longer), he seems so grown up sitting at a little table cutting pieces of cardboard or doing the alphabet puzzle. (He knows the names of the letters but he can't really connect them to the letters themselves, though when he accidentally does I feel really proud!!) Work is busy and great, the usual mix of organising things and being creative and having to do some boring admin as well, listening and giving lectures, finding different ways of promoting the Center and fundraising for it, academic planning - there are so many different aspects to my job and I really enjoy that. The students are out in full force, especially on Saturdays when the football team plays (Go Badgers!), and the most exciting sight is that of the Marching Band practising on the playing field. They practise every afternoon and I cycle by on my way to pick up Lucas, and some days I leave work a little earlier so I get 10 minutes to sit there and watch. Eveline took some video when she was here and you'll find that at the bottom of this blog - 3 short clips but maybe you get a flavour. Note the army-style abusive coach! There's a still pic at the top of the blog as well. My phone/camera died so I am sans camera at the moment but Chris took lots of photos when he was here (see below) and as soon as I get those I will upload them, and then next payday I will buy a new camera.
Rolf and Chris visited from London for a week (they spent a week in Chicago as well), and it was wonderful. I was proud to show my new home town which they seemed to enjoy and yet it was lovely to have some "old" people visit me here so we could chat and catch up. They left yesterday and having had visitors for 6 weeks straight I was anxious about being alone again, but so far so good. We have a manically busy weekend anyway, there is a Tibet Fest in Madison which my Center has co-sponsored so I will go to that (and eat momos), and then we have also organised a teacher workshop about the Raj and I am presenting a lecture tomorrow morning. Then tomorrow evening I have to speak at an Indian music concert which was also sponsored by my Center, and in between all these work engagements I want to spend time with Grandma who turns 88 tomorrow. The other thing I am busy with is Lucas' third birthday, I am taking him and 9 other kids bowling - I think he will be thrilled. I am also trawling the internet looking for small and not-too-expensive gifts for my boy. He starts soccer next Sunday, he's in the 3-4 team and they sent me the match schedule yesterday. His team is called Starfish and next week, one hour after his first ever practice, he is playing a team called 'Swarm'. I didn't realise there was a competitive element to baby football, I have no idea how he will cope with that - not, is my gut feeling, not that he won't cope but there is no way he is going to understand the concept of a 'team'. He sees a ball, he kicks it in some direction or other. Simple. This could be very interesting. Admittedly, the instructions say that kids from one team may have to play on the other team if the numbers don't match so that suggests the competitive element is subdued. :-)
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