June been and gone!

Sorry it has taken me so long to get a new blog up. I have partly been busy with other  things - notably the football! - but also Blogger has redesigned its page and I can't find my way round it at all anymore. It is very annoying and makes it less fun to blog. I may look into an alternative but for now bear with me.

Nicolas visited us from London in the middle of June. Early on in his visit he took Lucas to our local little beach one day where they met all sorts of interesting people. I love the pic of him talking to a strange (as in unknown) family as the two older boys are clearly completely bemused by Lucas' speech, whereas the mom has the familiar "I have no idea what you're saying but boy are you adorable" look. His speech is actually coming on in leaps and bounds and the new school is giving him lots of structure which he seems to need. He has some lovely set phrases now, along the lines of "Mummy, I need chocolate", and "Wait there, I not ready". People are finding it easier and easier to understand him and at this stage I don't even know that he will need the speech therapy he was referred to for September - but we shall see.

One Saturday in June we went to a music festival not far from my house. There were games and ice cream for children, music and beer for adults, and a ride in a horsedrawn cart for whomever wanted to pay for that. Lucas loved riding the cart, even if it was only round the block.

After that we went camping for a weekend. Lucas loved being in the tent and helping with all the outdoorsy activities. We went fishing both on and off the boat, and just as Lucas had crashed out on my lap Nicolas caught a fish, which he skillfully killed and fed us for dinner. I like the idea of Lucas fishing but am a lot less keen on the whole murdering the catch aspect of it all. I essentially like the idea of him fishing without catching anything! I joined the University sailing cub at the weekend, I have been keen to do that as we after all live on a lake and the club is affordable and totally low-tech/unpretentious, but I was concerned how I would find the time to go sailing. Turns out that after 3 lessons when I am deemed OK to venture out on my own in a bathtub-type vessel I can actually take Lucas with me. So that makes it totally manageable. The membership includes unlimited lessons so when I have time I can just free up a couple of hours and go for class. It should be great fun!

Work has been quiet-ish with still a lot to arrange for next year. My freshmen course for the Fall semester has been slow to enrol and so I have to give talks to incoming students to inspire them. My last effort yielded two new enrollments so hopefully we will be able to go ahead. I look forward to working with freshmen, they will mostly be local (i.e. Wisconsin) kids fresh out of high school, so it will be a whole new challenge and experience for me.  Last weekend the Center hosted a bunch of school teachers who are on their way to India to have a first-hand experience to share with their students, and I spent 3 days with them organising various lectures, meals and events. I also taught a Hindi 101 class as you can see in the last pic.

More on the football soon! Check back in a week or so - I promise it won't be a whole other month.