Some Fretwork and the Interminable Christmas Play at the Chalet School

So Jo and entourage have arrived with no misadventures I hope.
Went to the Great Wall of China, which borders China and Inner Mongolia, once just before Christmas. Our bus skidded in the snow into a ditch.
Still it was 'great fun' getting out and walking, in our inadequate clothes and no nailed boots, only to find it closed because of the weather. True CS spirit although couldn't explain that to the Chinese as I don't have Jo's gift for languages.
Perhaps we need some sleighs.
Is there a dentist on hand as despite Jo's dental phobia she is sure to need a tooth out soon. That is if she has any left as by my reckoning she would have been decidedly gappy by the time she left school.
Still now she's 90 I suppose it doesn't matter.
How is the polocrosse going ?

Well that is your plan - but you are not taking account of the real nature of my folk dancers

Calling all folk dancers, calling all folk dancers. The baby angels invite you to a night of fun and frolics in mushy pea on the eve of the interminable Christmas play. Come and eat raw smoked bacon to your hearts' content, and wash it all down with several jorums of special milk. Seeing as how we're angels we'll refrain from indulgence, but you can go right ahead. What could possibly go wrong?

"Giant" reindeer, you say? Hang on, have I been cast in this role because of my robust build?

I would like to play the glockenspiel in the orchestra please....(I do have one..)

Aaah mornington your German / French / Mongolian is clearly much better than mine. I'd missed several of those details. It's all sounding very Christmassy now, especially with Emily's folk dancers as well. I'm looking forward to being a baby angel (as I was promised I could be one on account of my blondish golden hair).

Ooooh! I've been such a model Chalet School girl this term that Ferry has said I can lead the Battle of the Baby Angels.

It's great - we lob bookends at skip merrily around Genghis Kahn until he gets dizzy and falls to the ground. Then we sit on him and ply him with special milk until he begs for mercy. Eventually Miss Annersley arrives in a cameo role where she talks to him wisely and sadly until he sobs with remorse and promises to be a much nicer warlord from now on. Finally everyone joins in with the beautiful old Adeste Fidelis around the tree and marvels at how true it all is.

I am going to be a tree.
I will be the most realistic tree you know.
I've been practicing...

Ah, yes - they said there would be something at the end that would make us feel like crying. That will be Genghis then. Lucky you, not needing to rehearse. Still, it gives you more time for fretwork I suppose?

Now, I'm a fairly new girl, so my German, French and Mongolian aren't that good yet (though learning 10 words a day is helping lots and I'm beginning to find that I can follow whole lessons on history with hardly any trouble...). However, I THINK we had the play reading at the weekend? This was my understanding of the basic plot (though of course I could be terribly confused and it could just have been a hilarious game of book titles or consequences).

Plot:

Rich Mongolian girl has lots of presents under Christmas tree but sulks because she wants more. Goes to sleep crying. Dreams of a giant reindeer which transports her to Christmases around the world, making her realise the true meaning of Christmas. Finishes with a tableaux with the sheep centre stage singing a solo, surrounded by baby angels.

Have I missed anything?

Sanitoriyurt, surely? We shall have a little plaque above the cot saying "Chalet-Yurt-School Bed". Not too dusty, is it? The Sanitoriyurt moved to Mongolia because of the sparkling clear air there, like champagne, and not at all because the Head of the Swiss San's wife cried and threatened to have septuplets if he didn't agree to follow the School.

I have got a nice lot of fermented yaks milk maturing in the cupboard, next to Matey's jam.

It should make a tidy sum at the next fête, so long as the mistresses don't notice it's there - I caught them using the distillery in Mushy Pea!

Perhaps we could sell it at the Christmas play, too? We could put the money raised towards the hospiyurt, I'm sure one's been set up by now?

Come on, girls, EmilyAlice is a poppet but a perfect tartar when roused (and therefore perfectly typecast as Genghis Khan ).

The Mongolian for reindeer is tsaa buga. I am considering changing my username to EElisaveTsaaBuga for the festive season.

I seem to remember something like that, Hels. But I've often wondered about whichever play it is where the pastor asks them to do it for the children of his poor parish. Surely they would have wanted it in German? Perhaps the girls did it in translation for them.

I take it we're all familiar with Mongolian by now, having lived here for half a term, so if necessary we can do our play in translation for the simple locals. Joey of course speaks it like a local herself so I'm sure she'll help us with any sticky passages. Google translate tells me that Mongolian for baby angel is хүүхэд тэнгэр элч, or 'khüükhed tenger elch' in the Roman alphabet. First rehearsals this afternoon, all you khüükhed tenger elch.

In the first play they do doesn't it say that the audience did not all understand the words but the meaning and simplicity were clear? Or have I made that up?

Ooh - so do we know who wrote the play now? I'm impressed you've got 4 lines Ionacat. You must have a very clear speaking voice though nothing like the clarion tones of OOAO.

Pondering the play - if it was always in English did the audience understand it? Or was everyone who was invited so closely connected with the school that they were fluent in all three languages? Or maybe the magic of the play was enough to make them feel like crying regardless of whether they understood it?

We've got a magnificent afternoon ahead tomorrow copying out our parts in the hall yurt first and we can speak our own languages as well. (I'm never sure why some of the rooms were in German and not others, I assume EBD's German wasn't up to it.) However as I'm not a Bettany/Maynard/Russell, I have four lines as a beggar girl!

The Swiss location according to one website is thought to be Wengen.

Ahem, we don't seem to have actually had the play reading yet so nobody can start rehearsing anything. I don't even know which Bettany wrote the thing this year. Unless, that is, you went ahead with the reading without me while I was in bed with the after-effects of fermented yaks' milk a bad headache into which I'd cried myself after Miss Annersley tutted at me as I walked past on my way to the speisesyurt.

Somehow the school at Briesau doesn't seem anything like as stifling. Not sure if that's because the location itself is actually any better

There's only one way to find out, Nell. Now that you've been to Pertisau Briesau, you're going to have to go to Switzerland so that you can compare and contrast. Only, now I come to think about it, just where in Switzerland would you go? Presumably near Interlaken somewhere, but is there an actual location for the Swiss school? I don't seem to recall hearing it mentioned, whereas everyone knows the Tyrol location.

Primrose with those golden locks, all you need to do is look angelic for the play.