Sue's Blog - Some assembly required.

Weekend

A star is born.
Friday night we went to see Lauren in her first ever production.
She has really thrown herself into her theatre studies at school and landed one of the main parts in a school play.
The play was entitled.....'War of The Nerds'.
Now this had a touch of deja vu for me.

The story was about a bunch of Star Wars fans and a bunch of Lord of the Rings fans, who meet at a convention.
They are all dressed as their favourite characters.....Lauren was the hobbit.  She looked good , with wig, make up and hobbit ears.
Both groups of fans converge on a room where the Star Wars characters insist Harrison Ford will be talking but the Lord of the Rings fans are convinced that Orlando Bloom will be the speaker.
Each side tells the other side to leave.
They start calling each other names and after some harsh words a fight breaks out.
A Jedi with a light saber fights the hobbit (Lauren) who is armed with a little sword.  The Wookie is fighting an elf.......you get the picture.
My favourite line that Lauren had was when the Jedi referred to her as an Ewok.
This was just before the fight started.
She looks very puzzled and says, in a voice with Michael Caine overtones......."Ewok, what the bloody hell's an Ewok?"

Now remembering this is an American school and she is the only British pupil........it produced a huge laugh from the audience.

Anyway, after they have beaten each other into a pulp, another person arrives with a huge sign to put outside the room they are all fighting over.
The cover is removed to reveal that it is actually William Shatner who will be the speaker - shock, horror.
This is obviously a very condensed version on the play.

It was a lot of fun and I feel privileged to be part of her school life.  American high school has been something of a revelation for us.  It is lovely to be around someone young and enthusiastic.
Before the play started we were able to buy 'Dramagrams' to have sent backstage to the actors of our choice.
They cost a couple of dollars each and not only is it a brilliant idea, but it also raises funds for the school.
We waited for her to come out afterwards.........when she did.......oh my "Luvvie Alert"..........the kids were all hugging and kissing each other.
Who is this girl ?
What happened to our little punk rocker?

Now she is auditioning for the school musical..."Hello Dolly."
She is practicing her songs and dances all over the place.  I would never have believed we would be hearing her sing anything like this.
This girl has changed so much in these 3 months.....she is almost unrecognisable.   The reason......confidence.  She has so much more confidence now.  We think we know why.  We have noticed, and Donna and Lauren have particularly noticed, how no one over here takes the 'mick' or makes fun of anyone else.
There isn't even an expression, that I am aware of, for 'taking the mick'.
No one seems to make fun of anyone's appearance, dress sense, accent etc.  Americans are very accepting.
Even Alan has said in the past how he likes it here as you can dress how you want, and no one cares what you look like.  They certainly wouldn't remark on it.
I think this is what has given her the confidence to try new things.  She isn't afraid of failing and being made to feel a fool.
Brilliant.

Donna practised her one hour massage on me on Sunday.
It was very, very enjoyable.
I was a bit concerned at first though as there seemed to be a new massage therapist who wanted to have a go.


Fortunately we persuaded her to let Donna take over and all was well.
Philip is going to be having a massage this weekend.
I wonder if he will have an 'official observer' too.

posted by Sue Banks @ 11:32 AM