London Calling

So Travis has certainly proven to be a much more regular blogger then I. But then he is not writing a screenplay :-) So family and friends, here are some pictures from our most recent journeys on sabbatical.

First, I have been working on the film. What that means is that i have been watching all of the footage we shot in brazil and trying to formulate everything into a 56 minute script. I have (as of today!) an outline completed and the script is moving along. We are blessed to have a team of translators volunteering on the transcribing over 20 hours of footage of interviews in Portuguese! Isn't it amazing how much time goes into creating something that in the end will be less than an hour? AMAZING.

In between, time working on the film, I am trying trying trying to relax and have a sabbatical. After all, as Tuti Scott our sabbatical consultant at WGF reminds me whenever I speak to her. That is the point of sabbatical.

So, I have been reading a lot. But NON WORK RELATED.

This is often where I do my reading. On Barcelonetta Beach.

I re-read some Hemingway & Gertrude Stein because it felt like it was only right to read expats writings on living abroad. And Hemingway  (of course) writes at length about Spain. (And Paris too of course, where we will spend a few days at the end of our trip). I know it might seem strange but I am a feminist who LOVES Hemingway. I always have. I discovered him in Junior High and just fell in love with his clarity of language. The way he could really see things and name them and describe them simply, getting at the essence of things. I would like to try to do that myself with my work.

So, in addition to reading we continue to explore Spain. David has been invited to give lectures in many places throughout Europe while we are here. In fact so many, that for his birthday I made him his own world tour t-shirt that shows all the places he is speaking at while we are here. I went with him to Zaragosa and while we were there we went to Rioja (which is not too far) and that is where they make the wine of that name and later this week Travis & I will join him in Madrid. Over spring break we were in London and Liverpool. Before we left, we spent Passover in Spain. So what was it like you ask?

Well...I had hoped it would be like this...

And admittedly with a little bit of this...

but actually it was your basic...

 

But they did serve a very nice Duck Confit for the entree (which David was very happy about). And if you notice their seder plate had an orange & a chocolate bar on it. More on that later.

 The orange on the seder plate is a reference to when a rabbi said that "A woman belongs on the bimmah like an orange belongs on a seder plate" yes friends, I did manage to find the one feminist seder in town. :-) And the chocolate somehow represents how we should support sustainable agriculture that does not "enslave" anyone. We did not quite get the subtelties of this tradition, but really who is going to argue with having some good dark chocolate on the table, certainly not us.


Right after Passover, we were on our way to England. Where we were able to see friends, and tons of museums, and....best parts...we took Travis to see....

Romeo & Juliet performed at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre!!!!

 

You can see Travis was pretty excited!!! (So were we!)

 

 

 

Also we went to the Beatles Museum in Liverpool.

And DEFINITELY the highlight of the trip was seeing the Harry Potter Studio Tour in London.

We were able to go on the set of the real "Great Hall" where they have all the meals and large meetings in Hogworts, and see all the original costumes, and lots of other sets like "Grifindoor Common Room" and "Dumbledore's office" and "Snape's classroom" and the "Wesley's House" and the boys' dorm rooms, and really the list could go on and on. We were a little cynical b/c it was quite expensive and worried it might just be a 20 minute tour. But we actually spent nearly 4 hours there! So it was quite worth it and quite remarkable and impressive. Travis was especially excited to see the car, and motorcycle, and "night bus" and chess pieces of course. Here are some of our favorite pics.

That's all for now. Lots of Love, Heather, David, and Travis