May has arrived!

Dear all, I am sorry I kept you waiting so long for another blog. I try to write every 2-3 weeks but sometimes even that doesn't happen. The spring semester in the States drags on for 16 weeks and everyone is exhausted, and there is so much work! Our Center remains busy in summer with teacher training, the language institute, and other activities, but it is obviously much quieter than during term time. And Campus gets so quiet! So only a few more weeks and a more peaceful time will arrive. Meanwhile the weather has become beautiful although it remains windy by the lake. A few days ago we had such a bad storm that we were put on tornado watch!
Our Easter weekend lasted a week as the following weekend we were invited to colour and hunt for eggs in the garden of a friend's house. The weather was once again beautiful and we had a lovely day. The next morning we drove up to a place by Lake Michigan where there is a waterpark suitable for young people. There are many waterparks in Wisconsin, many clustered together in a place celled Wisconsin Dells, but they are all for older children and adults. The place Lucas and I went to was perfect, and we had a blast. He was unbelievably daring, much more so than me but in some of the rides he could only go if I went with him and so I had no choice. The evening after we got back I went to see and hear the writer David Sedaris. I am an enormous fan of his writing but I was unimpressed with the event. He read a few stories - some of which I already knew -, plugged a book published by the same publisher, and then answered questions in a bored and monotonous manner. It was a bit of a letdown but still great to get to do things like that - Madison always has something cultural on offer. The week after I went for a cultural event of a different kind - while Lucas was in the free childcare occasionally offered by the community center, I went for margaritas with a neighbour. As a college town Madison has a vibrant evening and nightlife. These days all the students stay up late to cram for their exams, and when we drove by the library at 9pm this evening we could see that the reading room was packed. All university libraries are open 24 hours for 5 days a week, and something like 16 hours per day at the weekends. No wonder American students always complained when they got to soas and found that the library shut at 8pm every night!
Last weekend I took the Center staff bowling - we had 3 lanes, 1 of which was for the children. As it turned out Lucas was the only child apart from a baby and so he had a whole lane all to himself. He got a few strikes - quite incredibly! - but spent most of the afternoon in the little arcade playing racing car computer games.
This weekend was busy again. On Saturday I taught a community Hindi class to one person (10 people are enrolled but on sunny days when the farmers' market is on class probably loses some of its appeal) and in the afternoon we went to a celebration of Sri Lankan new year. The actual date is in mid April but the celebration was May 1st. It was totally fun, I met lots of nice people and Lucas got to play games with all the other kids. He played musical chairs for the first time ever, he totally got into it and made it to the last 4 (partially because I morphed into one of those super-annoying mums who trips up the other kids as they aim for the same chair), and when he finally was out it was of course great drama. But apart from that it was fun.
Yesterday my friend Kay and her little Ethiopian daughter Lela went to a town about 60 miles west of Madison to visit the railway museum and the toy and doll museum which had only just reopened. We had a wonderful day, the kids love each other and the people in both museums were enamoured of them, though not as much as of my British accent (which I try to emphasize in places like that). They had me sign the guest book and meet the owner and Lord knows what. I do always admit to my Dutchness which is an even better thing as there are invariably people around with Dutch ancestry, and I often hear stories of grandparents who only spoke Friesian and things like that. Wonderful nostalgia. Pics above.