Hello again family and friends!  Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  For my Thanksgiving, a friend and I made a complete mess of ourselves eating Jaffna crabs.  Then we went for ice cream sundaes and drinks on the beach.  It wasn't turkey, but it was a great night nonetheless.  The next day I held my ballet workshop at the Fulbright Commission.  Nearly 30 people showed up for each of the children's and adults' classes.  It was so packed that moving around was a bit difficult, but I was happy to have attracted such a crowd.  The students really seemed to enjoy the class, and there will be another workshop on January 24th.



Dance workshop at the Fulbright Commission

Last weekend I moved to Kandy to begin lessons with the Surasenas.  Master Peter Surasena is a famous traditional dancer and his son Janika is a well-known dancer as well.  Both have performed Kandyan dance abroad.  Every day I have dancing class for about and hour and a half and then drumming for another half hour, plus I'm expected to practice every morning.  Both father and son teach and play the drum for me, and a 16-year-old student of Surasena's named Tishani helps demonstrate.  They seem to think I'm doing very well.  Their school is having a performance in February and they've asked me to perform a Kandyan piece as well as a ballet piece.  Considering how long it's been since I've performed ballet, should be... interesting.  Thankfully there is so little ballet in Sri Lanka that no one will know how terrible I am right now.

I'm currently living with the son Janika and his family.  There is a studio in the house and the father Peter lives next door.  All my food is provided, so there is no need to ever leave the house.  I can laze around cross stitching all day or play with my nangi (little sister) and malli (little brother) who are ridiculously adorable, good kids.  Yesterday I woke up from my nap to a little voice saying "Sarah-akki" (big sister) outside my door.  I opened it and my malli led me downstairs to where the two of them had made me a snack.  Made my week.  Today I bought some thread so we can make friendship bracelets.  Finally I get to hang out with people who share my love of crafts.  I thought I didn't like Sri Lankan food, but Janika's wife Inoka makes some delicious grub.  Yes, it's mostly curry, but I have a secret chocolate stash to add some variety.  Lastly, it's gloriously cool here.  Some nights I can sleep in a sweatshirt!  All in all, Kandy has been an extremely pleasant change of pace.         

Nangi playing with cards...

And malli.  We knocked over cards all day.