I am through and I survived!

Thursday June, 22 was the very last day of instruction. The very last day of school here in LA. The very last day of teaching. The very last day with my "KIDS". INCREDIBLE!!!!! It was just yesterday when I opened the door to C87 for the first time, wondering what the year will be like. And now I know it has been the most wonderful year ever. I have really learnt a LOT here and I will be going home with happy memories. Birmingham High School is a special place indeed. I have made many good friends here and hopefully I will come back to see them and also to see my students graduate.
Because there were finals from Monday through Wednesday we planned our "party" in my classroom for Thursday. I was told by other teachers that the kids would not show up so I was a little worried. Not because of all the sodas I had bought but because I really had not had a chance to really say goodbye to my students. They did NOT put me down, they came and we had a good time I dare to say. There were about 30 students and they stayed in the classroom the whole day. The pizza place opened at 11 so everybody was very hungry by then. Abdulah saved us when he brought a huge cake which we all ate in ten minutes.

It was a very nice end of my "being" here indeed. At the end I got a gift and a card with all my students' names and they clapped their hands for me which was the best gift I could have possibly got. They told me they would miss me a lot. It makes me obviously very happy and I know now that the year was worth the effort. I will miss them all terribly. I guess we will be in touch and I wish them to have excellent lives here in US.

I could NOT wish for a better year.

Then I was just taking thousands of pictures. So here they are, my students:

Chris Pillado - both very funny and very annoying bug sometimes. I will miss your rapping Chris

Juan Benjumea - a Malibu surfer, cool kid. I will miss you bro!

Iris Rodriguez - a pleasure to have in class. Very nice girl.

My whole Period 6 - tough most of the times, but also a lot of fun

Ana Ortiz - from El Salvador - A big help in class. I will miss you "pelotas" a lot.

Ana "Banana" Bautista from Mexico and Arshak Grygorian from Armenia. Great kids.

Anakaren Cebrero - the sweetest girl I know. I will miss you a lot Karena.

Manith from Cambodia and Abdulah Zafar from Pakistan. I will come to see your graduation and I will be proud!!!

Guadalupe and Luis Rodriguez from Chile I am very happy meeting you both. Good luck with your lives.

Yasmin Rodriguez - my "Pele" Good luck next year on that Soccer team Yasmin!!

Jackie Alas from El Salvador and her assistant. I will miss you Jackie, thank you for the very nice letter you wrote for me. I will always remember you.

Hugo Munoz from Guatemala - I will miss you Hugo. Take care.

The boys - Arshak, Ivan, Omar and Jose

The girls - Yasmin, Liana Pilian( Armenian from Germany) and Anakaren - I will miss you a lot girls.

Elizabeth Rocha and Marisol Bustamante - both from Mexico. Where is the Kleenex Marisol???

Maira Gamez, Fabiola Macias and Krissia Gamez - Senor Potter will miss you girls.

I really had the best kids I could have possibly got and yes, I would undergo the year again, if I could. I will miss you all indeed.