The First Last.

I. Did. It.

We're sexy and we know it.,

Friday, May 31 marked my first last day of teaching. I still have a month of curriculum planning and recuperation exams, but as far as full class instruction goes, I'm all done.

We spent the day at Los Salmones, the local pool. And by we, I mean Grades 1 through 6. And it was insane. Awesome, but insane. Grades 1 and 2 arrived at the pool around 8:30am and the other grades trickled in soon after. By 9am we were all at the pool, dunking each other, throwing each other in the pool, and having a great time until we left around 12:30. A little fried chicken for lunch and the rest of the afternoon spent playing on the playground. Easily one of my top ten favorite days of the school year.

While the Spanish teachers spent a lot of time observing from the sidelines, the English teachers had no problem jumping in and getting their feet wet. Literally. Grades 1-4 were all hanging out in the little baby pool, so Cristian, Nelsy, and I spent a lot of our day acting as human jungle gyms. At one point in time we were making a whirlpool and I had upwards of five children hanging onto me. Photographic evidence above.

I couldn't have asked for a better first year of teaching. Don't get me wrong, it was HARD. Really, really hard. Not only did I have to tackle my first classroom on my own, but it was in a culture completely different from my own, thousands of miles away from my family and friends. But I learned so much throughout this first year. And not only about teaching, but things about myself that I didn't know before.


There have been so many ups and downs throughout the past ten months. But saying good-bye to my kiddos on Friday, despite the fact that I will see them at the clausura in two weeks, was way more difficult than I could have ever imagined.



L One. As in Last One. As in Last Day of School.

My kiddos are all so much more grown-up than when I met them in August. I cannot believe that my Grade Two babies are grown-up Grade Threes now. Where did time go? Is the last day of school always this difficult? Because I don't know if I can do this every year for the rest of my life.