Last of Venezuela

It feels weird to be writing about Venezuela from back home in New York, but I am happy/sad to say that I am officially done working in Venezuela. (Don't worry, the blog will still continue, just from Colombia now)

The last week was hectic, there was a lot to be done. As all teachers know, the end of the school year is always incredibly busy, finishing assessments, planning graduations/parties, writing report cards, hopefully finding time to still teach something, packing up your classroom, and just generally saying good bye. As an international teacher, it's even more stressful. In addition to those things you must find time to pack up your whole life into suitcases in order to move it to another country, hopefully keeping everything under airline weight limits... In addition to all of this, I, personally, also had master's classwork going on. Needless to say, it was a VERY busy week.

Out of this busy week, I can think of two highlights. One, was kindergarten graduation, and the other was spending one last beach day with Dereek. Kindergarten graduation went well. We had some technical difficulties due to just about every computer and pen drive in the school being infected with a virus, but it all worked out okay. I don't have too many pictures, but the kids looked adorable and we had fun.

Walking to the stage

Marcelo talking to the kids

Singing our song "first grade first grade" (It was to the tune of New York New York)

First grade gave advice about what is important when you are a first grader.

Getting diplomas and medals

After graduation, we went and saw the third grade's museum of ancient Rome that they had set up.

The awesome cake that the parents brought.

And then we had a party.

It was lots of fun. 

The next day, we did some tie-dying. We didn't get yearbooks this year, so it was decided to tie-dye shirts and then let the kids sign them. Thursday we did the dying, then on Friday we spent a large portion of the day going around and getting signatures. 

Rubber banding our shirts to tie dye. 

More rubber banding

Getting to dye them.

A little messy, but lots of fun.

Signing shirts the next day.

All my kids wanted them to look like soccer jerseys. So I wrote their names and they chose their number.

One of the last things I did before leaving Venezuela was get in one last beach day with Dereek. We went to Puinare, which was also the first beach I went to when I came to Venezuela. It was a relaxing day where we just hung out, ate food, and swam a little. A group of people a couple "umbrellas" down from us had come with instruments and spent a lot of the day playing music, singing and dancing, which was great fun to watch. The beaches are definitely going to be one of the things I miss the most about living in Venezuela. 

Beach huts on Puinare

Leaving the beach, one last time.

My last view of Puerto La Cruz, at least for a while. Hopefully Dereek and I will be making it back to Venezuela once in a while since we'll only be living one country over.

Perfect end to being in Venezuela, sitting on the beach listening to these guys playing music and having a good time. 

I'm definitely going to miss certain parts of living in Venezuela, the people, the beaches, the music, but I think I'm ready for a change. I definitely will not miss the instability, needing to buy basic goods on the black market, unreliable transportation, rioting and unrest. It's been an adventure, but it's a good time to move onto the next one. 

Starting on July 28th, all posts will be coming from Pereira, Colombia where I will be teaching SECOND grade. (I was going to teach 4th, that got changed a month or so ago). 

 Thanks for a good time Venezuela and all whom I met there!