This week was the last week of school. I'm now realizing that the only thing I regret about about this trip is having to say goodbye to 27 teary eyed children while they were asking me if they would ever see me again. Granted, they'd cry if they saw a pencil tip break, so we'll take the tears with a grain of salt. My tears, however, were embarrassing, but real. In order to explain why I was leaving England to go back to America (or at times, Australia and Africa, it's confusing), I showed them pictures of Charlottesville and my family explaining that I needed to go back because that's where they are. They were all really hung up by that boy standing next to me (my brother). I tried to leave them with a bit of America- gave them each a silly band, of which they all requested a different color and "more please," and a UVA pencil. I am amazed by how well these five year olds kept a secret - they each drew me a picture which they put into a huge book and no one told me! They had to keep the secret for five days - I don't think I could have done it....Friday was the last of the Christmas play. It seems like ours could have been a one class show. My children performed the dance moves of every other class, took on and off costumes (including regular articles of clothing) as they pleased, and sang while no one else was singing. During our song we have about 15 seconds of free dance, in rehearsals we had to really encourage them to actually dance, but when they saw that audience, they lost all inhibition. They did, however, remember that we told them no break-dancing. I am going to miss these children!
On Tuesday night, we went
to the last formal dinner at Homerton College. At formal, they had finally opened and revealed a painting on the wall that has been curtained off the entire time we've been here! The dinner was candlelit, they had a beautiful Christmas tree, and there were poppers. The food was great, until we tried a traditional Christmas pudding, which was actually just really dry fruitcake with some white sauce drizzled on top...On Wednesday night we had a combined good bye and Christmas dinner with Helen and her husband, Ellie and Richard, and all of us. All of this is reminding me of Jim Carrey, "I hate goodbyes....shhh, just go."
Then, on Friday, Mom and Dad got here! We went to dinner at the Rock, then a quick walk around Cambridge and off to bed. On Saturday, I tried to show them as much of Cambridge as I could. It was actually a fairly warm, sunny day! We went to Homerton, where again, we saw the mysterious painting, to the Round Church, punting (Peyton and Caity - another Paul Bunyan sighting), to the Mitre for lunch, the Fitzwilliam after, then to the Prince Regent for some orange dark hot chocolate and the Oak Bistro for dinner. Exhausted after hours of walking, we came back to the B&B to talk to Katherine, Turner and Colin and then off to bed!It's so exciting to be here at Christmas time! We'll be in Cambridge for the next two days, South England for three, London for three and then back to Charlottesville!
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