The End of a Wonderful Journey

And so I arrived back at home. It's been a while since my last blog post because the last week got insanely busy but I will provide a quick recap.

Wednesday June 19, 2013

Since it was my last week at the school, the teachers decided to make this week very special and wanted to dress Kati, Danielle, and I up into traditional Rama V costumes full blown with tights, pants, shirts, and make up!  It was ridiculously hard to put on tights in 100 degree weather, but we all somehow managed to get them on and then all of the picture taking ensued. We took pictures with a lot of the teachers and the students and then went out to lunch for some delicious Thai food.  The day was spent getting to know the teachers more and eating out with them was definitely a lot of fun.

After the work day, we went on our cultural activity which consisted of visiting the Temple of Dawn.  It isn't exactly a stuppa or a pagoda, but it is very tall and the neat part about this temple is the fact that you can climb it up to a certain level.  The stairs were insanely steep but it offered a great view of the river and Bangkok and the breeze up there felt rather nice too!

This part is out of order, but a group of the volunteers also ended up going to the sky bar one of the nights in Bangkok.  For those of you who don't know, Sky Bar was featured in the Hangover II and is found in Bangkok at the hotel Lebua which offers the WORLD's highest open air bar.  (It is on the 63rd floor).  The views from here were absolutely amazing and it was definitely a super classy place and definitely had the high prices to match, but it was absolutely well worth the view and the bragging rights to say... I've been to the Sky Bar :D 

Thursday June 20, 2013

Today was the real last day at the volunteer placement and it was one of the saddest yet happiest days. On this day, the school held an assembly for Teacher Appreciation Day.  This happens once a year and is a huge huge deal.  The school spends the whole week preparing for this assembly because they want to make sure it goes perfectly.  The assembly started out in the beginning of the day with a visit from 5 monks who sat on the stage and chanted for one whole hour.  The students and teachers chimed in when they knew the chant but we all had to hold our hands in the "wai" position (hands together in front of the chest) for that whole hour.  After the chanting, the teachers spoke a few words and then the students in pairs went up to the stage with intricate flower arrangements and offered them to the teachers on the stage. You had to crawl on your knees and then bow to the teachers, and I found it really cool because the students were paying respect to their teachers for all that they do (which is a lot!) and the teachers reciprocated full of love and smiles.  We even got to go up on the stage too! 

After everyone showed their appreciation for the teachers... the school director called all three of us up onto the stage and then announced that today was my last day.  They brought up some gifts for me (an elephant stuffed animal which I was ecstatic about!) and then they  made me say a speech on the spot in front of the school.  I don't exactly know why, but I got so emotional as in I cried on stage in front of the whole entire school- it was so embarrassing but at the same time it wasn't.  It wasn't embarrassing because these kids made such a big impact on my life.  Coming here from Monday to Thursday for three weeks may not seem like a lot of time, and in reality it isn't one bit a lot of time.  But in that time, these kids revealed a whole new side to me.  I never really "liked" kids because in all honestly they kind of scared me, but holy cow my mind has changed so much.  These kids were so full of love and just wanted to be loved.  They wanted to swim and dance and talk and play.  We were there to help them feel loved.  I felt such sadness in leaving them because I remember that even on the second day, they remembered who we were when we entered the school in the morning.  They knew our names and gave us hugs every morning.  One teacher in particular teared up when I was leaving as well probably because I was being such a nut case and crying saying good bye to her.  After the assembly, we all went outside for snacks and it was time for the final goodbyes.  Tons of pictures were taken and more crying happened.  I never thought in a million years that the good bye would be so emotional, but after three weeks these kids have the ability to capture your heart as well as the whole country of Thailand in itself.  I absolutely fell in love.  I want to say thank you for CCS for giving me the opportunity to volunteer, words cannot express how grateful I am for the fellowship and how coming home this year to the College of Lake County offered me this amazing opportunity.