Live and Learn

Tomorrow is a Bank Holiday here. As Americans living in England, it is taking us a while to learn some of the things that are “givens” to everyone else. Like, guess what? No school tomorrow. Was this on the school calendar that outlines all the half-term and between-term breaks until 2008? No. Was it mentioned in any of the notices Jack brought home from school last week? No. Did I only find out about it while talking with someone at church this morning? Yes.

I guess that explains why the congregation was a bit sparse today. This is the May Day Bank Holiday (first Monday in May), then there’s the Spring Bank Holiday (last Monday in May) and the Summer Bank Holiday (last Monday in August). Kind of like Memorial Day and Labor Day weekends in the States, except here we get an extra one at the beginning of May. (I like to think of it as a little bonus for making it through the winter.) Being a public holiday, I guess it just stands to reason that there’s no school, right? Like in America, there’s no school on Memorial Day. Of course! You’d think we would’ve figured it out from all the TV ads for Bank Holiday sales over the weekend. Like, DUH.

Unfortunately, there’s 90% chance of rain tomorrow. After all the sunshine and warm temps over the past month, it’s disappointing not to be able to enjoy this Bank Holiday outside. The good news is we spent part of Saturday afternoon at a big park nearby, where Jack practiced riding his bike on a path next to a small lake, Sophie made quack-quack sounds at the ducks, and Matt and I thoroughly enjoyed watching the kiddos enjoy themselves. In the sunshine!

The other good news is the Spring Bank Holiday is only three weeks away.