Good Bye Colwill! :(

Six weeks at Colwill Primary School has come and gone. I cannot believe how fast those six weeks flew by! I cannot believe how fast this semester has flown by! One week from today I will be up north at Cape Raigna/Bay of Islands. Two weeks from today I will be in Sydney, Australia. Three weeks from today I will be back in America! Whoa.

Back to today. I just feel so loved! Not only were my students clinging on to me and telling me to stay in NZ forever, but random kids I don't even really know came up to me all day to give me a great big hug and tell me how much they were going to miss me. One of the most common mistakes made by kids around us recently was that they were getting Australia and America mixed up. Many would ask, "When do you have to go back to Australia?" One of Anna's students, Levi, would ask us about Australia all the time, but when we asked him where we were from, he would correctly say America. Maybe he thought America was in Australia? I guess the whole America thing was just too much for their narrow views of the world.

This morning was funny because after swimming I wasn't allowed to go into our classroom. It was a few of the students job to make sure I didn't go in during morning tea or even lunch! The kids were so funny because they would come up to me and say, "Miss we have a surprise for you in the room, but we're not allowed to tell you about it." Occasionally one of the older students would shh them and remind them that since it was supposed to be a surprise, they weren't supposed to say anything about it. Even though it wasn't really a surprise, I still loved it:

They made me a giant card! It had a huge "Thank You!!" on the front, and then a little card from each of the students on the inside. They were all pretty similar, all different variations of: "Dear Miss Burnett. Thank you. We will miss you. Good luck. I love you!" etc. So cute, and they were all SO excited for it. They were even more excited when I gave them a little thank you/goodbye treat: lollipops! They are all such sweet, special children, and I have learned so much from them over the past six weeks. My practicum experience here in New Zealand was completely different than anything I would have experienced back in Provo, and even though it was probably a bit more difficult at times here than it would have been there, I wouldn't trade it for anything :)

Here's my class, Room 14! And this was before I gave them all the lollies!

I kept saying, "Ok, everyone give me a big smile!" but Mrs. Eka was taking the pictures and kept telling them to say things like, "Miss Burnett is awesome!" or "We love Miss Burnett!" It was a sweet gesture, but none of the kids are smiling in any of the pictures because they're still repeating Mrs. Eka. Haha. Oh well, at least I can look at their wide open mouths and imagine them telling me how much they love me :)

They really were great at these silly faces!

Here are some of the older girls at Colwill. The two girls on either side of me, Rosealee on my right and Riana on my left, were always so much fun to talk to. They always had lots of questions for us, and made me feel like a superstar when they found out I had met Taylor Swift. We are now officially facebook friends and they have promised that they would keep in touch with us every day.

Riana already has a head start because she emailed us yesterday:

"Hi Awesome American Teachers,

Its Riana,

Im really going to miss you when you leave to go to Rotorua.

I hope you will never foget about me because il never forget yous.

You never growl and are so kind and pretty.

When you leave il have noone to have as much fun with you guys.

My expeience with you people was so amazing your funny nice & taleneted.

Highlights.

Miss Bringhurst: Tech was so cool how Mr Parker had the hots for you, your answer (HE WAS SO OLD !)xxx gonna miss you Heaps ! xxx :)

Miss Wirthlin:Our funny times were so cool your so awesome and fun hope you've had fun with us gonna be sad to see you leave! xxxx :(

Miss Goode:You were cool at the NorthWest swimming thanks for the awesome compliment btw about my swimming skills ! xxxx :L you are so fun to hang out with

Miss Burnett:OMG what to say about you WOW ! you standout I thourght you were a NZ teacher for a second you stand out in the Colwill Crowd !xoxoxoxoxoxoxox :P

WOW this is making me wanna cry typing this hahahaha but it was so cool to meet you im really gonna miss you out of the whole entire school you were my favourite student teachers still are but i dont know what to say i guess.Maybe just Bye and Il miss yous heaps .

Beyond the past few weeks ive learnt alot about you American people there are alot on different things about us but the same thing that we have in common is the passion and friendshop we have and I hope it will never end between us ! Thanx for being great friends with me! IM GONNA MISS YOU HEAPS ANDI LOVE YOU LIKE BIG SISTERS ! btw Miss Burnett i love the Taylor Swift shirt i wish i could have it your so lucky and i wish you the best for the future ! xxxx ! PLZ never forget about ME !!!!!! xxxxxx xx xxx xx xxx xx xxx xxx ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Ever lasting kisses and hugs !"'

Here are a few more of the older girls. The one hugging me is Szahn. She was always so sweet and helpful to me.

Here are some more of my Room 14 students! Sonya and Zia being cool as!

Santos and Joel having so much fun playing on the Senior Playground. (They are usually only allowed to play on the junior playground, but Mrs. Eka gave them an extra five minutes on the senior playground today. They LOVED it!)

Laine looked more like a girl today than ever before...she wore a skirt for the first time! :)

I know I'm not supposed to have favorites, but Lavenda is definitely one of my favorites. She actually reminded me of lot of myself :) (Before I saw her name on the roll, I thought her name was "Lavender" pronounced "Lavenda" with the NZ accent. Good thing I hadn't actually called her "LavenDER" before I realized this!)

Oh Hilton. He is another one of my favorites. One of the other students told me today, "Miss, Hilton is going to really miss you when you're gone, eh. You're his best friend, eh. He's your little buddy, eh." Couldn't have said it better myself. Here is a little play-by-play of one of my most recent favorite moments with Hilton:

Hilton: Do you know me in 100 days? (figured out that he meant, "will you remember me in 100 days?")

Me: Of course!

Hilton: Knock, knock!

Me: Who's there?

Hilton: Oh! You don't even know me, Miss!

Me: Ok, now it's my turn. Will you remember me in a week?

Hilton: Yes.

Me: Will you remember me in a month?

Hilton: Yes.

Me: Will you remember me in 100 days?

Hilton: Yes!

Me: Knock, knock!

Hilton: *big dramatic pause* Come in Miss Burnett!! (in his cute little Samoan accent and big gestures welcoming me towards him)

This video is a little re-enactment. It's not as good as the actual event, but you get the idea :)

Life is wonderful :) We leave tomorrow morning to go to the temple in Hamilton and then Rotorua until Tuesday. We're staying in a house in Rotorua, but I don't know if I'll have internet, so as of now, farewell until Tuesday!