Our Last Day of School

The entire school with us!
Originally uploaded by juliebriggsdunn.

Last night, we had our final meal in Nong Khai. We went to dinner with our Belgian buddies and opted for some Mexican food...it is run by a 30-something guy who was in the military and cursed like a sailor, but the food was sure good! The founder of Travel to Teach, Kirsten was at the restaurant as well so we got to talk with her about her story, how she started Travel to Teach and her vision. She is a 60-something year old woman from Sweden who came here on a holiday to volunteer and then decided she could creat a better volunteer organization than the one she experieced. Five years and many locations later (they just opened in Costa Rica yesterday) she is very happy with where the program is going. We shared our appreciation and experiences with her, she was thrilled to hear how much we enjoyed our time.

Then we went to our local watering hole, Surreal, and I had one last banana milkshake - they are so healthy for you, what with all the bananas and milk, I usually have two of them a night...they might be as healthy as a chocolate brownie frappucino, but I haven't reached a conclusion yet. [Insert Julie's comment: I think the milkshakes here are made with coconut milk so I'm not sure how "healthy" they are but they sure are good! Ryan says their good calcium!]

Today, Julie and I woke up and rode our bikes to school for one last time. On the bike ride over to school we talked about how we would miss the kids and teachers (I spoke of how I would miss our director, Julie was unusually quiet at that point)...but also, how we were both ready to move on from Nong Khai and explore more of Southeast Asia.

We pulled up to the school (me on my hot pink bike and Julie on her cool blue one) and the entire student body was lined up to go over daily prayers and announcements. The Director explained that we were leaving. Then the director sat us down on and the students, one by one, all came up to us and presented us with flowers, drawings and even a stuffed animal. It was very touching and Julie and I appreciated it very much. The Director then gave us each a present and we took a ceremonious photo with him. We then gave the Director our gift (bottle of Scotch) and then opened our backpacks and began tossing out the sports equipment (soccer balls, volleyballs, badminton sets, jump ropes, bouncy balls) to the kids that we purchased the previous day at the store. The kids went nuts and pandemonium ensued - the director looked a bit out of sorts and we realized it was too late to "put the toothpaste back in the tube." After a while, with the help of the faculty, the Director regained control and we took a few more photos and said our "goodbyes." The Director turned to Julie and said, "I want to say so much to you, but I do not know the words." I thought it could have been the tipping point in Julie's relationship with the Director, but then the Director immediately turned to me and said "Ryan you could wear anything" as he touched my pants "because you are so handsome." Awkward moment, indeed. [Insert Julie's comment: I wasn't quite sure what to do at this point other than take Ryan's hand in mine and squeeze it!!!] Julie's moment with the Director once again picked up steam as we were leaving and the Director said, "Julie you are lovely and very pretty." [Insert Julie's comment: no mention of me being a GENIUS, intersting!!] Julie said, "thank you" and all seemed right with the world.

We rode out of school with our gifts and flowers and we are back at our dorm. We will be leaving in a few hours for Chiang Mai. We are very excited for the journey that lies ahead, and we look back on the road we have traveled with a sense of accomplishment and happiness. We have met some wonderful people, made some good friends, had some interesting experiences and become a part of this community.