Wednesday, April 30

Today at school was an important day. We all came to school looking our best in full uniform including the official blazer (I was wearing Sally’s with my Instituto Ingles patch stapled over the patch of her school). We immediately went to the gym to take the picture of the whole senior class and then pictures of each of the 3 courses.

Then we had 2 classes—calculus (we had a test) and then math. After lunch, we all got ready for the important event of the day—the senior ceremony. Each member of the graduating class had to choose the teacher who has made most impact on their school career to be their “senior”. In the ceremony, each student would be called up to the stage in front of all the parents, faculty, and high school students, to give a pin to this teacher of their choosing. It’s a pretty big deal actually. We lined up at the back of the gym and then marched in to the song pomp and circumstance which was really cool for me because it kind of felt like the graduation that I am missing in the US. We sat in our seats and the class videos started. We had to send in a baby picture and a picture of us from recently, and I sent those in, but when they asked for cute photos from memories people had with their classmates I didn’t send any in because I didn’t want to intrude on a class that’s been together since kindergarten. I was really touched when a bunch of pictures of me with my friends showed up in the video. They thought of me as a real part of their class and it felt really amazing. Then we were each called up to give the senior pin. I had chosen Sebastian Gonzalez, the math teacher, because he was one of the few teachers who believed in me from the beginning. Even though I couldn’t speak Spanish very well, he still believed that I was smart and capable of achieving what the other students could (and I didn’t prove him wrong when I got a 6,9/7 on the first test). We finished giving the pins and taking pictures, and then all the seniors went up to the stage to sing a closing song. We started with “En Marcha Estoy” from Brother Bear, which is all slow and inspirational, and then in the middle we switched to this fast song called “La Guitarra” which is all about not wanting to grow up, and we started shouting and jumping around in circles and throwing papers and it just became this big mosh pit of happiness and I felt a lot of love for my classmates. After the ceremony finished, Chichi and I walked into the center to try to fix our cell phones. A bunch of really weird things happened to us in the center and we ended up laughing our heads off the entire walk there and back. We arrived in time to watch the second half od the teacher vs students soccer game (we won 3-0).

Then there was an asado for all the seniors and the teachers we had chosen. We ate meat (and chicken for me) and talked. I talked with Sebastian and we had a good time together.

Then after the asado ended, I sat outside for a while talking to Pablo, Nico, Bernardo, and Gabs before Nico’s mom drove Pablo, Nico, and I to Pablo’s house. Nico lives nearby and so while he went home to change, Pablo and I walked to the jumbo to buy snacks. When we got back, Fernanda, Vicente, Dani, and Nico were there waiting. We all went into Pablo’s house and ate snacks and watched funny videos on YouTube and talked and laughed a whole lot. We ended up staying up until like 6 am until I fell asleep on Pablo’s shoulder. I was still in my uniform because I hadn’t had a chance to go home since the morning. There was also a big class party tonight, but I’ve realized that pig parties where everyone is drunk are not the place to make friends and have a good time. I had so much more fun laughing and joking around with these amazing people than I would have had at a big party where everyone only wanted to talk to me because they were drunk.