My Second Goodbye

Hello everybody!! :)

Wow, so it's been about a month since my last post. I had hoped to never go that long without posting, but the business of the summer is in full bloom, and sadly that's what happened. But...I'm BACK! I have 27 days left in Slovakia, and then I will be returning home to Minnesota on the 19th of August. I plan to take advantage of every minute I can spend with the people I have grown to love so much, and truthfully trying to avoid the thought of saying goodbye. I'm sure it will be one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do.

Anyways, more to come. More blogs about my times here, more pictures, more newsletters. I promise to deliver eventually. (I've just returned from my 15th trip to Bratislava...whoa!) For now I want to tell you about my final goodbye at the Hybe primary school. I wrote in a previous blog about my final day of school with the kids. We mostly played games on the final day, and the youngest class gave me postcards of Hybe with their names written on it. Very sweet, and they requested that I come back the next week to say goodbye again, since I had time.

I usually had lunch every weekday at the school, even on days where I didn't help with class, so I headed over to eat on Tuesday afternoon. While I was eating, the phone rang in the kitchen (mine had been turned off...oops...), and then one of the kitchen assistants came out to tell me that the teachers had called, and that I was supposed to head upstairs after I was finished. So I went up to the teacher's lounge, and Zdenka immediately told me to follow her. She brought me into one of the classrooms we taught in and it was JAMMED with every student of every class that I helped with (5 different classes, probably about 75-80 students), as well as a bunch of teachers. They had all been waiting for me, and wanted to say goodbye and have a little presentation for me! Wow, I didn't really know what to say, and I wasn't expecting anything like it. I thought the second goodbye would be me hanging out with some of the kids from the 5th class in the backyard, making basic conversation in english. But, to my surprise...

So the oldest class, the 9th graders, were standing together in a group in the corner with sheets of paper. They had prepared a song for me in English and were ready to go. And the song was...."Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer"! Haha! I have no idea why, in June, but I loved it anyway. Even most of the boys were trying to sing (usually they're pretty cool for things...being 15 and all), and the girls were in the front singing with perky smiles. So funny! After they finished, one of the girls (Alica, who is a cousin of my host sisters') came over and gave me a gift on behalf of the class. It was a white mug, decorated and painted with their class number on it, the year and school name, and stickers. It also had a ribbon (signed with all of their names) tied to the handle. So sweet!

The 7th graders presented me with a t-shirt, and on it they marked their class and year, and every student signed it! The youngest class gave me a big stuffed frog that ribits when you squeeze it's stomach...so cute! The girls in the class were randomly asking (or so I thought) what animals I liked during one of our last classes, and I had said frogs. Then one of the teachers (who is fun, she was in the aerobics class I took this winter) presented me with a big hardcover book about Slovakia! The book is beautiful, with loads of great pictures from each region of the country, and the book is also in English, Slovak, Czech and French. She gave it to me on behalf of the whole school staff and headmaster. Then last, the two teachers I worked with during the year (Sona and Zdenka, who I really enjoyed spending time with) gave me copies of the pictures I had taken with the teaching staff and 9th class. They also gave me a little quote/verse book in Slovak, "so you can practice next year."

The whole thing was really amazing, and I was feeling a bit overwhelmed and surprised, so I ended up crying through most of it, haha! And the crying took me by surprise too. It made me realize that my goodbyes to the people and places here in Slovakia will maybe be a bit unpredictable, maybe a bit more emotional than I'd expected. It really meant a lot to me that they took the time and energy to plan something for me, and that they really wanted a chance to say goodbye to me. I will miss those people very much next year, and I have a lot of good memories of my times at the school, both in class with the students and hanging out with the teachers and staff in the lounge. I think mostly I will miss meeting the kids in the hallways, and them yelling hi to me down the hallway or from the windows in the back of the school.

Well, I'll be in touch again soon! I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer in the states (and whoa, I'll be there soon too)!