saying goodbye

Beginning this last week has been tough. I realized that this exchange was almost over and that I would soon be forced to say goodbye to everyone. It was very difficult to leave everyone behind on Thursday. Goodbyes have never been this hard for me, I’ve become so close to especially the exchange girls and my host family means so much to me. They have made this exchange as amazing as it is now.  The thought of leaving was making me sad but I had to try to enjoy my last week, make it as good as possible, unforgettable. We started our week by spending the Monday at Bishops. We had to attend to all the classes to experience what it is like to go to Bishops.We had to be there at 7:30 to meet with Mr Court and go to chapel. For the people who read my blog, you already know this was not our first chapel at Bishops. After assembly we were paired up with a boy from grade 11 who we had to follow around all day. This meant that all the exchange girls were separated and couldn’t go the classes together seeing that we then would be too much of a distraction. I was paired up with a boy called Joe who took me to tutor. Tutor at Bishops is quite different than tutor at Herschel because at Herschel you are in a class with only your grade but at Bishops, your tutor class consists of boys from different grades.  After that I had Afrikaans where the boys had to give an oral about animal testing. Pipa was in the same class as me now so we went to the next class together, science. During the first break, I saw my neighbour Shaun, and he showed me around his house (Grey House) and the rest of the school. I really like the fact that Bishops has actual physical houses whereas Herschel only has imaginary houses. I had lost my partner so I ended up following two other guys. We went to maths and economics and had a lunch break after that where I went to School House (one of the boarding houses) to have lunch. It was quite an experience. All the guys had to line up and wait for the head of the house to give them permission to go in. In the lunch room there are 3 long tables to sit at. Before the boys can go and fetch their food, they have to pray; only then they can eat. After lunch we had English lesson and Lotte, Loic and I had to make our biology test from Holland. School ended at 3 ‘o clock and afterwards we went to Cavendish with all the exchange students to have our last dinner together and celebrate loic’s birthday seeing that he was turning 16 on Tuesday.

The next day we had to go back to our own school, Herschel. It was basically a normal day and we didn’t do anything special in particular. After school, Lauren had to stay at school for English Olympiads so I ended up being picked up alone.  My neighbor came over again to help me bake a cake. At night, Lauren and I were invited to go to Loic’s birthday party. On Wednesday morning, I took the rest of the cake to bring to school. When I arrived at school, everyone was either staring at my cake or just asking for a piece so no wonder that we finished all of it before first break. Instead of prefect assembly, we had a formal assembly. There was a special guest, Andre Devillias, who sang for us. Throughout his performance he told us his life story which was truly touching. We didn’t have any classes so we spend most of our time outside on the grass and in the library. We let everyone write their goodbyes on our flags.

On Thursday, our last day, I woke up feeling a bit depressed. It was hard thinking about leaving at night. I could see my bag lying at the other side of the room, half packed and I knew I had to finish packing soon. At school everyone was surprised at the fact that we were leaving so soon. We didn’t go to any classes to spend as much time with each other as possible. The entire day, people came to us to write on our flags and say goodbye. It was quite a dull and sad day but at least we had some cake because Lotte and Loren had baked this amazing oreo cake to bring to school. At the end of the day, it was time to say goodbye to everyone. Not only the girls at Herschel but also the exchange girls who I’ve become such good friends with. Lauren took me to Jump Hi which is basically teaching less-privileged children maths.  It was a really good experience and really nice to interact with them. At 4 ‘o clock, we were picked up by Lauren’s mom. My neighbor visited me for the last time but he had to leave quite early unfortunately because my host family wanted to take out for dinner. We went to a pizza restaurant we hadn’t been to before. The food was really nice and we went home satisfied. I still had one hour left to pack my bags and surprisingly I managed to be on time to leave at half past 9. When we arrived at the airport, the others were there already, we dropped off our bags and said our last goodbyes. It was really hard to say goodbye and I realized this was a definite end to  an amazing exchange. Even though I can keep the memories forever, the exchange was ‘physically’ over. I’ve had an unforgettable two months in South Africa and I now realize how fortunate and privileged I was to be chosen for this exchange. I am looking forward to making the third graders enthusiastic because I don’t want anyone to regret not signing in.