The latest!

Hi all!

We have had the most wonderful couple of days. Our show Saturday night was awesome, maybe one of our favorites as the audience totally ‘got’ all the inside jokes as well as the obvious ones. It continued to pour rain Saturday (think January in California) and yet we still had over 110 in attendance, which is amazing, as the Scots don’t come out in the rain, according to the theater operator. Sunday we got to sleep in a bit and then met to see another AHSTF show – but not before we sang happy b-day to Alex! We like going to see shows at Churchill because they have an awesome café. So, everybody got something yummy (I bought Alex a birthday drink of his choice – Earl Grey was his choice!) and then we found a corner where I could give notes from our show the night prior.

After watching the other show (we gave it mixed reviews), we headed back to the dorms for an after noon of split activities. A group went to a seaside village with Mr. Daren (Siobhan, Cailin, Aseem, Julia, Nina and Kit) and Aseem has a very funny story about trying to get a ‘cheese’ sandwich in that town -it amounted to the chef tossing cold grated cheese into a hamburger bun. I told him that we all have to ‘suffer for our art’. They enjoyed beautiful sights and some awesome local fish and chips. I took a group to the University gym where Ali and Scott worked out in the gym, I swam laps, and Emma, Kendra and Kriti told me they were treading water and talking but I just saw a whole lot of laughing going on!! Then, we went out for a wee bit of shopping. Mr. Vallerga took Ben, Josh and I think David to the National Scottish Museum, and the rest of the kids went touring the two big shopping areas with Mr. Larsen and Ms. Snider.

We came back and had a slow evening eating at the dorm and then the kids excitedly got ready for the Ceilidh (Scottish country dancing). Now, I was only in the girls dorm, but the energy was big! The girls went all out getting dolled up for the evening and the boys looked great. We met several other schools in the great hall and were treated to part demonstration, part participation, part dance and it was a HUGE highlight! We all loved dancing Scottish country dance. I had to pull the kids away at 10:45pm (actually, I relented and let them dance one more dance until 11pm), as we were up bright and early for our 10am show. This was, by far, our smallest audience with only 60 in attendance, but that’s to be expected at 10am. The kids were great and the audience was appreciative. Back at the dorm, we relaxed again with most of the kids taking long showers and having a big lunch. Mr. Daren went to buy tickets for the last of the show that I picked out and took Siobhan, Julia, Scott, Aseem, Ali and Kendra with him to ‘sell’ our show on the mile one last time. They said it was great fun and as a treat, they got more time to browse the cute Mile shopping district. I took Cailin (carefully), Lauren, Shelby, Kit, Alex, Josh, Shilpa and Nina up the easy side of Arthur’s Seat and then we made the climb up the Lion (or, what we fondly call “the Lion’s butt”). It was an amazing view and we had a great workout! An hour an a half later, we made it back to the dorm just in time for a shower. Notes, the final notes for U’town the musical, were given (!) and then we all hit the public bus for a ride into town for the show Tap Ole! It was so great! 2 unbelievable tappers and 2 on Spanish guitar. They were so talented and had so much charisma. It was a huge hit with us. Then, it was off to dinner in our chaperone groups. My group – Shelby, Shilpa, Siobhan, Julia, Emma and Melinda, choose Thai food. The same Thai food restaurant that Ms. Snider’s group told endless stories about the week prior as it took over an hour to get the meal (they had to take it to go or they would have missed a show) and the waiter was madly in love with Ananya– but we didn’t listen. We wanted Thai food! Yes, the service was again that slow, but alas, the waiter didn’t fall in love with any of us.

We have lots of stories like that so be sure to ask your kids when they get home….check in with Lauren and the 11 year old boy that followed us down the mile yelling “Can I touch your bum?!?!” when she was in costume (I’m not kidding…), or the nice boy from another high school that took a liking to Shilpa and threw her far to high on the dance floor during the Ceildh! Not to worry, we took care of Shilpa and the group takes care of each other - always on the look out for trouble ; ) Honestly, the Scots have been great and the town has been very safe and friendly. But we do have a few good stories!

Onward – we all then met up for the world famous Military Tattoo that only plays for a few weeks in August in Edinburgh at the castle. You walk up the mile, literally engulfed in a sea of humanity. Then, once inside the stadium, the MC introduces all the countries while those in the audience cheer in response. All the schools from AHSTF were announced too, which was a big thrill. The show didn’t disappoint – truly a highlight and something that’s hard to explain. It’s a show that focuses on and showcases military bands from around the world with narration, history, dance, fireworks, and fun. It’s one of my favorite experiences in the performance world. Deej has the whole thing on tape – ask him. We all decided that Kendra, our b-day girl, had the best birthday treat of all with the Tattoo on her day! The kids were big eyed and exuberant all the way back to the dorm.

Tuesday – Happy Birthday Josh! - today, was our all day bus tour to the highlands of Scotland. We had a great narrator and boy, did he talk! Maybe a wee bit too much. But we learned a lot, loved the parks, the castle and some of us even splurged for a ride through a 1/3 mile long zip line in the Scottish forest – including me! See pictures for details on the trip that Mr. Vallerga, Scott, Ali, Alex, Kit, Alex and I took. The kids were ready for some more historical information as you can only shop so much. They were even asking to go to more historical spots so this was perfect. We are resting now and heading to another AHSTF show at 7:30pm. We are calling an early curfew, 11pm, tonight as we’ve been burning the candle at both ends the last two days.

Tomorrow is our last show, then off to another Fringe show, followed by one last AHSTF show! We’ve seen so many awesome production from around the world and the kids keep asking for more which is so great. I’ve just spend our last fringe-fund dime on two more shows for this week (I’ll end a revised schedule, just for fun). I was at a Director’s meeting earlier this week and was asking around for suggestions as to what to see at the end of this week. I was stunned to learn that out of 5 other directors, only one or two have seen one other show outside of AHSTF. Why? “We don’t have time….” Or “our kids often just want to stick around the dorm…”. I’ve thought about this a lot as it’s struck me as so strange – why come all the way across the country to the world’s largest performance festival and see little or nothing?? My theory is this : We’ve all come together under the Harker umbrella as students and teachers, so to one degree or another, we are all a little ‘type-A’. All of us, teachers and students alike, have been kids-in-a-candy store here, and I can say with total confidence that they have truly seen the world perform on this trip.

More later!