Saying a Thousand Goodbyes (at least)

Some Students and me from Class 19
It's been such a sad and busy week. Every time I go into a class I know it is the last time. So every day is a last time. The last couple days I have stayed at the school and had lunch with my students in the school cafeteria. So we just hang out and chat.
Tuesday night the school took us out for a farewell dinner. We went to a nice place and ordered to our hearts desire. Grace, Maggie, Mark and one of the vice principals were there with Brenda, Arthur, Anna, and me. Brenda brought her laptop and showed a slide show of some of the pictures I have taken throughout the past year. The principal asked us many questions about how we thought of the school and the students, and they thanked us for our work. Then they gave us each a parting gift... these really funny kung fu figurines.
Each day as I get closer to going home I feel sadder and sadder, yet more excited! It's the weirdest feeling. I'm so excited to go home, yet so sad to leave.
I've been really busy trying to get my things together and sort through things. I had a huge pile of stuff that I knew I wasn't going to take home so I let maggie rummage through it and she took most of it, which is great. She's like me, hates to see anything go to waste. It's so hard to believe that tomorrow is my last day of teaching. And that in 4 days I will be going home. The feeling that I might never come back here or see these people again is really sad.

I'm sorry, I feeling like I'm really depressing right now. Ok, happy thoughts. I had such fun in class today. We are playing "Dice of Fortune." It's like Wheel of Fortune only with dice as you may have guessed. It's such fun. They really get into it, especially when we play boys vs. girls.

Tonight we may go to the HaiBin hotel one last time for a swim in the spa. Most of my time before I leave is already booked with things to do and people to see.

When Brenda gets back from class today her and I are going to go to all our usual spots and take photos of the great shopkeepers that we see everday, and the ladys on the street where we buy our veggies. They have the best faces and sweetest smiles. Most of them probably never get their picture taken. So we're going to get the pictures all printed out and give them a copy. They'll love it.