Last two days of Cambridge :(

I had my last day in school on Wednesday and the kids were very sweet. They made me a book with all of their good byes and what they really enjoyed that I taught them. Many of the students loved the new sports I taught them- Kickball, American Football ( I would say that rather than just football so it wasn't confused with football) and four square which they forgot the name of and called it 4 in a box. Haha. The two classes I had been teaching my internship all gathered in one room and they first gave me the presents they had for me. Of course I was thrown off because I didn't think they had made anything for me since I was with them every day all day. Little did I know when they sent me off to year 2 to observe a lesson on Esperanza they had plenty of time to take class pictures and write me letters. They put together a book of some of the funny things or phrases I learned and the students letters in a book with two fun pictures of each class. They also gave me the class pictures that were taken at the beginning of the year. And of course a huge bar of Cadbury dairy milk! yum yum! Before I showed them the candy I had brought for them one of the students asked " did you bring us dairy milk?" and I replied to the class that American can't compete with Cadbury so I brought something different and showed them the starbursts and airheads. They were really excited to try it. However, the school I was at has a strict no candy or soda policy so my teacher explained the students were to take it home and it was up to their parents if they were allowed to try it. As I was handing the candy out at the door as they were leaving a few of the kids would go running out yelling "We got candy from AMERICA!" Haha. Then I had also given my interning teacher and the other year 4 teacher thank you cards as well as the head teacher.

Back to my observation on year 2 of Esperanza- It was very interesting because these are 1st graders learning a new language which is designed to help them learn other languages in the future. What I gathered from it was that it was a mixture of many languages that formed the base for others. The students really seemed to enjoy the lesson and language.

Thursday morning we woke up and had our last full English breakfast, what a sad sad morning :( We headed out to do a little shopping around and a few of us went to Wren Library in Trinity College which had a display case of  a few of Isacc Newtons belongings-walking cane, lock of hair, pocket watch as well as a a copy of a first edition copy of Principia Mathematica. There was also a display case with the manuscript of Winnie the Pooh. It was pretty awesome to see in a library filled with books dating back to the 13th Century. Afterwards we went and grabbed a crepe for lunch, mine was chicken, brie, cranberry and delicious! I had not been on a guided punting tour and Kimmy was willing to go along with me so we bargained down to paying 10 pounds each and were rewarded with seeing "the backs" or the backs of the colleges. It was definitely an interesting punting tour. Of course we ran by the market afterwards and grabbed a desert crepe because we simply couldn't resist. Another wonderful choice- sugar cinnamon and butter. When we were waiting in line for the first one I was listening to what a lot of the locals were ordering and this one seemed popular. I had been looking for a popular children's book whilst in Cambridge because I noticed "The Gruffalo" was extremely popular with the kids and in stores. I even found it quite entertaining so picked one up for my future classroom and as a gift for little Liam Piam.

Thursday night all the interns, teachers and head teacher were invited to a farewell dinner at the Free Press Pub. I knew my teacher probably wouldn't come because the other two teachers from our school would not be able to make it and it is a bit of a drive by yourself from the area of our school. In all only two teachers showed up but we are a fun group of students and had a lot of fun for one of our last meetings as a group. They brought out a delicious desert and the name I will have to find out again but it was like a chocolate cake with a butterscotch pudding over it.

Friday morning Kimmy, Brittany, Grace and I had a taxi pick us up and drive us all the way to Gatwick- best decision over! It costs the same as it would have to take a bus and was much easier. Luckily we arrived at the airport early because we had packed and planned all wrong. You can take more luggage over than you can brig back. So when I planned to take on a carry on suitcase as a well as a back pack I was wrong. You can only take on one carry on and a small bag. So I had to stuff the contents of my back pack in my luggage and a few things from my carry on into me luggage because that was over the limit as well and pay 30 pounds. At that point I didn't care what I had to pay as long as I got home. Of course on the plane we were all split up again but Kimmy had the seat right behind me and no one ever sat next to her so I went and got Brittany so we all sat in the same row :)

It took forever to get through customs but luckily we made it through! It was so nice to see my family but it still seems so unreal that I even went to the U.K. for 5 weeks. This weekend will be the giving away all of the souvenirs that I bought! It really has been nice writing this blog and I think it will help me remember everything that I did a few years down the road :)