"Ms. Cobb, I'm going to hide in your suitcase!"

Brace yourself... this will probably be a pretty lengthy post as I have lots on my mind at the moment and lots more pictures to share with you from the weekend.

I am down to my last 2 days at Hummingbird, and I'm growing a little more sad about that fact each day. I really have come to love the school and will greatly miss it and the people there. Today one of my students (Yesmina) said, "Ms. Cobb, I'm going to hide in your suitcase!" She's been telling me not to go back to the States for a good month now and is getting more and more sad about my upcoming departure.

Overwhelmed, relieved, excited, sad, anxious, ready: All of the emotions and feelings going through my body at this very moment. I must confess that I expected to feel most of these, but others definitely hit me with a surprise attack. An overwhelming feeling comes over me to think of all the grand places and experiences I have collected memories of over the past 4 months along with the realization that these are all in fact just memories now rather than present life. A feeling of relief is felt to know that "I did it!" in terms of completing my student teaching, traveling internationally, and spending this amount of time away from my family and friends. I'm excited to know that in exactly 3 days I will be home with my family and sharing stories, pictures, and lessons learned from my adventure here in Belize yet sad to leave the place I've called "home" and the new friends and mentors I've called " family" during my stay. I'm anxious to know that this experience marks the end of my college life and the beginning of an exciting yet intimidating journey into the real, grown-up world that we call "life". And, finally, I'm ready to embark on the new beginnings and endings and new travels and experiences that may come my way.  Whew... who knew anyone could have that many things running through their little brain at one time?

As promised from the last post, I have more pictures from the teacher dinner...

 

This is Sue, the secretary from the school. We have dinner with her and Nikkie a lot.

Here's a picture of Sarah's kitchen... it was beautiful! Everyone was ready to dig in to the delicious food!

 

Have I mentioned that I love these girls? We've had so much fun together!

(Ok, so now might be an appropriate time for an intermission. Grab a snack, drink, take a jog around the neighborhood, or answer nature's call, and then continue on. I promise it won't be too much longer... I think...)

From my first day at Hummingbird one of the students' moms has been inviting the girls and I to go with her family to St. George's Caye which is an island about 10 miles off the coast that is occupied by about 30 private homes, one of which is owned by her family. Therese (Caroline's mom) is super sweet and really fun to be around because she has so many funny stories to tell and is always carrying on about something. Our schedules finally worked together, so Rachel and I spent the whole day at the Caye with her family on Sunday. I have to say that it was the perfect way to spend our final weekend in Belize. St.  George's Caye is really narrow and has that complete "island" feel to it as it has no stores, restaurants,  or busy crowds. Most of the morning was spent chatting on the dock with Therese's brothers and sisters who were also on the island and then we ventured out the sandbar that is just off the coast of the island. It's a huge sandbar in the middle of the sea and was a great location to soak up some sun, cool off, and meet more of the locals since everyone knows everyone here! To end the day, we went fishing and caught 18 King Mackerels. These fish were pretty good and very hard to reel in because they're pretty strong. Even a pro like me was completely worn out after reeling in just one of them. lol. Therese invited us over for dinner tomorrow night so we cane enjoy our catch. On our boat ride back to the mainland the sky was filled with beautiful pink rays from the sunset which was a beautiful sight. I began thinking about how gorgeous Belize is and all the little things like sunsets, fishing, eating with a local families, and just meeting new people that have made these 4 months so special and meaningful.

 

This is the island aquarium and is nothing really more than a few very small fish tanks, most of which are extremely too small for the fish, turtles, sharks, and other marine life that are in them. There were some beautiful species there, but it was a little sad to see. 

Caroline and Allysa. 

Today at school I bought one of the Hummingbird t-shirts and had all my students sign it as a souvenir for me to bring home. They thought it was really fun to sign it. I really am going to miss Ms. Morales and my 19 Kindergartners!

 

 In case you were wondering... I'm down to 3 days people!!! See you all VERY soon!