"Viva Alex"

I just had the most touching surprise party ever. I´ve never had a surprise party before, but I think if I had, this would have topped it. Mari Carmen told me to come a little late to class today because the 5th graders were preparing something special for me. I had planned to go to the supermarket in the morning anyway to buy them some candy for the last class so I showed up around 9:20am. I knocked on the door and then slowly opened it to see if they were ready for me. The entire entrance way to the classroom was covered in all different colored balloons. They all screamed, "surprise!" when I walked in. On the white board they had written, "we will miss you" and "viva alex" and ""we love you." They read me a poem in English that they wrote together. Although it does not translate the same into English, it's so cute and I want to frame it in my room at home.

After, the girls, who were the ones in charge of this whole surprise, told me there were 4 presents hidden all around the room and they would give me clues to help find it. The first present was, "under a bag." I discovered it all wrapped up in smiley face wrapping paper- a pair of sungalsses! The next present was, "in an umbrella." Low and behold a bracelet with matching earrings and a ring!! Soo cute! The 3rd present was "on the shelf"- a pink scarf. The 4th present was "next to the computer"- a WATCH! I was so touched and was not expecting anything like this. It was so over the top! They said they wanted to give me some "recuerdos," to make sure I wouldn't forget them.

After my treasure hunt, I said some words about how I will miss them and that I hope they will continue to study English and they can email me with any questions (that might have been a mistake.) I wrote my email address on the board and they all copied it onto their arms. We had a short English lesson and then I spent the next 20minutes after our class writing a note and signing my name on a balloon for them (for each student), but also on to paper, beause they said the balloon wouldn´t last forever. At the end they gave me some of the pin wheels they had made for Martin Luther King Jr. Day that say, "USA," "peace," and "protest" on them. The whole thing was such a sweet, touching and thoughtful thing to do and I will never forget it, or them.
Above: The girls reading me the poem they wrote about me
Below: The poem