Description Grateful Nomads: The Final-ish Goodbye

Friday, March 1, 2013

The Final-ish Goodbye

Yesterday was my last day of school. I’d finished classes the week before, making over 400 Thai-English Apples to Apples cards so the students could play this super fun game while I snapped photos of them.

I also got some photos of classes and groups of friends. Cute little hellions, aren’t they?IMG_6722IMG_6786IMG_6801IMG_6824IMG_6864IMG_6861IMG_6900IMG_6929IMG_6960IMG_6987IMG_7014IMG_7038IMG_7086

Uhmmmmm, teachaaaaah, what did you say?
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So anyway, after all this fun, I still had a couple of days of work until the end of the month. I didn’t really have any real work to do this week so I spent most of the days trying to spend time with the students when they weren’t taking exams. I even got to have a mini water fight with Jojo here. He was always pretty naughty in class, but he’s got a lot of personality and I like that.
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At the morning announcements, I had to give a little farewell speech. I gave it in English and had Pii Lan translate it into Thai because I really wanted the students to understand. I told them about how much I enjoyed teaching, how I’m proud of them, and how much I’m going to miss them. Then the principal gave a very sweet speech thanking me. They gave me a huge beautiful bouquet of flowers and took some pictures.
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When I got to the English office, one of my students was waiting for me with a gift. For the record, I have no favorite students. Off the record, Peter is my favorite. He always finds me outside of class and speaks a ton of English. He is the only student who willingly steps outside of his comfort zone to practice with me. Plus, he’s the sweetest young man you will ever meet. So anyway, Peter gave me a beautiful present and told me he wishes me all the best and good luck in the future, d’awww.

For lunch, all the English teachers took Jack and I out to Pok ๙. We chatted about the school year, the students, and the future. They gave me a really cute burgundy top, and Pii Pan said a few words of thanks and farewell. We both ended up shedding some tears.

Today was graduation, and though I didn’t have to go, I wanted to show my support and say some more goodbyes. It was a pretty typical graduation ceremony, albeit with more monk chanting and prayers. Both the M6 (senior) class and the M3 (freshman) class were being celebrated. After the formal commemoration was finished, students ran around the assembly hall signing each others shirts with markers and getting white cotton thread tied around their wrists by teachers (and me!)
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It was a very bittersweet day for me. I’m going to miss them all dearly but tomorrow I get to start 6 weeks of travel before moving to Bangkok…First stop: Mae Hong Son!

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