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Published: December 4th 2009
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cute mini poinsettia
these need to come to America! So I realize the blog has kind of been ignored of late, but I have been busy surviving the last couple of weeks. Today was actually my last day at St. Albans, which was bittersweet. On the one hand it was only slightly heart-wrenching to leave the kids. However, given the events of the last couple weeks (which I just don't even feel like I can go into right now for those of you who haven't been in the loop) I realize that staying is not even anywhere close to being an option. The other day one of my little girls did suggest "Miss Quinn maybe you could just be our teacher... and Mr. Tebbutt could retire!" Such a wise child.
Today was an odd but good day though. I received MANY hugs 😊 In the morning I gave the kids all of my leftover stickers, and it turned into an all-out sticker fest. Each child was wearing anywhere from 3 to 20 stickers. Then the kids had to do RE which was not so fun, but it gave me a chance to get some much needed work done. I made the kids several books to leave, including a photo
memory book, a book of their poems, and a copy of the book they made for the American students.
Then the kids had a reconciliation mass (of course there would be some sort of mass on my last day!)... something about telling the kids how they have all sinned followed up by sending them out to confession. What really irked me was that A)confession was during their playtime... no child should have to choose between confession and playtime... B) the fact that they claimed it was optional but then were like, well actually everyone needs to go... so messed up. But I did get to hear St. Alban's favorite/overplayed inspirational christian song one more time. So great.
I went out during playtime and took pictures of and with the kids which was good fun. (I do have many pictures of the kids now. I don't want to post them for safety reasons, but I will try to send some out via email soon. One of the kids did get a great picture of Jeff today and I WILL post that one. Since I know everyone has their own mental picture of the legendary Jeff and it will be
fun to compare.) Then the kids did math (fractions) which was sort of ridiculous. By ridiculous I mean very few of the kids actually seemed to understand the assignment so I had to go around with counters and try to explain it to them. They had been told they shouldn't draw pictures. So sad.
Anyway then was lunch. I ate with the kids which was crazy because they ALL wanted me to sit at their table. I had to switch tables and I had several little groupies who just sort of followed me around as I migrated. I told them it was the closest I had ever been to feeling like a celebrity.
I had thought I was going to have PE time to get ready for our much anticipated popcorn party (I love that kids that age think microwave popcorn is a party!) BUT Jeff randomly decided he was not in the mood for PE. So I think they pretty much just sat there while I went and popped the popcorn and he yelled at some of them for making decorations for the room for the party. Funsucker. Anyway we did eat the popcorn, which seemed to be a big success, and we watched the rest of Because of Winn Dixie (we finished reading the book yesterday, so it was perfect). Then we had the raffle, which was very exciting. Basically the kids have been trying to earn happy face tickets for good behavior. And today I drew tickets out of a box for various little UVA items, silly putty, and some books.
Then we went to whole school assembly which got kicked off with the headteacher screaming at the whole school. So toxic. I did receive a lovely bouquet of flowers (very awkward to bring home on the bus though, in addition to all of my other treasures) and a St. Albans pen. The goodbye with the kids was pretty much the most extended thing ever. Granted most of them filed out relatively quickly. But a few lingered around longer than Jeff (who also didn't stick around) and their parents basically had to drag them away. Yikes.
Anyway, judging from the number of cards I received, it amazes me that the kids got anything else done at all today. There were really all kinds. Some store bought. Many handmade. Some from individuals. Others from groups. I received multiple cards from many children. I received one "sorry" card as in "sorry you are leaving" 😞 My favorite though might be the card which was clearly a wedding card with big hearts drawn over pictures of the bride and groom and the "together" in "wishing you a bright future together." Very creative I must say. I even received a card from Jeff. I am pretty sure his wife must have picked it out. It has a little flower jewel thingy on the front, which I of course liked, but can't in a million years see him picking out.
I received many treasures, including a stuffed elephant, a jar of Christmas conserve (don't actually know what that is...looks like jam though), several chocolate bars, a pastel drawing, body butter, a glow in the dark star, a reflector bear, a toy horse, a handmade ball, flashing reindeer earrings, a ballerina figurine, and the most adorable miniature poinsettia I've ever seen. You might ask what I am going to do with these things. (Packing up my stuff this weekend is looming...) Intellectually I know that it would be ridiculous to even consider holding onto these items... but we shall see.
In terms of my general life plan I am leaving for Cambridge for Greece on Tuesday. I will be staying Athens for 4 nights and then I will fly to the island of Santorini where I will be for 8 days. I am so excited. I am going to go tomorrow and pick out some travel books as well as some grown up paperbacks to take with me. On December 20th I will be flying back to London to meet up with Mom and Alan. We are going to be doing London-y things but we have actually arranged to go from the 24-28th to Paris for Christmas. So exciting! Mom and Alan will fly home on the January 4th and I will follow on January 5th.
I still have pictures from Italy over half term and Paris last weekend which I will try to get up this weekend!
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Cory
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Weirdly, I envisioned Jeff as being much younger.