Chatsworth House and Bakewell

This past summer, the girls were introduced to Pride and Prejudice (the BBC version which is only the best version). They absolutely loved it and were hooked after the first one and then couldn't stop watching episode after episode til late into the night. So since we became such big fans, then a trip to Chatsworth House was an absolute must. It is only 2 1/2 hours from our house after all.  

Freaky porcelain clown we all agreed we would not want in our bedroom at night. 

Practicing our aristocratic waves

A friend of ours blowing Mr. Darcy a kiss....however he is the wrong Mr. Darcy in our opinion. We like the BBC version of Mr. Darcy played by Colin Firth

A large number 8 outside Chatsworth makes a great photo op for a soon-to-be 8 year old. 

The lovely stone village of Bakewell where the famous Bakewell puddings or tarts are made. Gorgeous little place. 

Eating our authentic tarts that don't look like the ones today. They were the original style and recipe. Delicious! 

Purple fields of heather to frolic in on the way home. ..

Tate Modern

I took the girls to the Tate Modern this past summer. We have been before but it has been a few years. 

Ham sandwich in front of the tower bridge

There was some famous pieces we recognized and then there was some really weird stuff. We did not know what it was even supposed to represent...modern art! 

Stonehenge

Bike London

Yesterday (Saturday) the 29 July, we caught the train into London early with our bikes in tow. It was the annual Prudential Bike London day where roads all around London were closed off for cyclists to ride through the city freely. We rode past all the major landmarks on our little bikes. It was quite a way to see London. I absolutely enjoyed it. There was an 8 mile loop around the whole of the city and all the major sites. We rode around the whole thing once. Abby and her friend took off without us and lapped us riding 16 miles! wow! Such a great experience! Definitely going next year. I don't even own a bike but was able to rent one. I rented the ever-famous Boris bike (Boris Johnson ex-mayor of London - a bit of a buffoon in my opinion, but I love the bikes he installed for rent all over London). Anyway, I couldn't get that many pictures because I am not that skilled as a biker not to crash into someone while snapping pictures but here are a few pictures from our day....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Arabic

 I now have 5 Arabic tutors/conversation partners - one from Aleppo, Syria who is a refugee in Armenia; one from a village near Aleppo who is a refugee in Istanbul; one from Damascus who lives in Dubai; a Palestinian who lives in Finland and an Egyptian in Egypt. Why in the world would I need so many tutors, you ask?   Well I think it helps a lot to hear all the different ways of speaking and accents. They each help me with different aspects of Arabic. I really love it. In fact, the most recent one I got from Egypt is tutoring me on reading the Quran. I absolutely love it. I think it helps a lot with my pronunciation of words. Reading the Quran is very different from reading other Arabic because it is written in a very old, traditional way so even classical or formal Arabic which is used on television news for instance, is very different. I could practice Arabic all day. When I am studying for two hours during Sadie's nap, I often get so involved in it that I forget completely what is going on in my life. For instance, last week, I finished my Quranic Arabic session and then woke Sadie and rushed off to school pickup (like I often do), I went in to pick up Alex and realized that she had ballet that day and I had arranged for someone else to pick her up but my brain was so far away doing Quranic Arabic that I forgot and confused the woman picking Alex up along with Alex herself!

I went to a photography exhibit the other day in a nearby city, where refugees had done a photography course and put together  an exhibit of photographs as visuals of what they thought of their new home. It was very interesting and the photos were quite lovely. I met some of the photographers as well. I made some new contacts and re-established some old ones. Through an old contact, I found out about a program here in the UK that helps settle refugees in our council (county). They said there were opportunities to meet Syrian families who had been cleared for asylum in the UK at the airport and mentor or support them in setting up their lives here for up to a year. The families were assigned different mentors to help with everyday life like getting children into school and setting up a bank account to other things like learning English. Having an Arabic background would be very helpful especially learning English because many of them come off the aeroplane not knowing a word of English. I am hoping this might be where I could be of service. It sounds like a great opportunity. For now, I will keep on study with all my tutors and conversation partners. Having five does get complicated at times but it keeps me constantly motivated and engaged in learning. I just have to keep straight what homework is for which tutor. But I feel like I am making more progress than I have in the past.