Our final morning in Buenos Aires. We are sad to leave. We've had an incredible time - we made wonderful friendships and many good memories; spent quality family time together; learned a lot; and had fun. We thank everyone who made this such an amazing experience, especially the Colegio del Salvador community. We will miss you, and your beautiful country, but we will be back!
B invited 2 friends for a movie and McDonalds on our last afternoon while F went to a friend's house.
Our friends coordinated a final despedida - pizza dinner at a local restaurant - the night before our flight. I have never had so many parties. We definitely feel loved!
Taking the boys to school and picking them up was sad. We have had such a wonderful experience, it is hard to see it end.
As part of my process of saying good-bye, I invited two groups of moms to our house to share mate while the boys played together. As always, it was really nice to spend time with the moms. Unfortunately, the second one was the afternoon before a big test for 5th grade. We could definitely feel the stress of 3 weeks of end of the semester exams. Everyone was ready for the two-week winter vacation.
As part of the good-bye process, we had both boys prepare a Powerpoint presentation and create postcards about Arizona. The boys presented both to their class-mates (along with rice crispy treats and Extremes - the most popular American candy at Colegio del Salvador) during English class. We thought it would be good psychologically for the boys to thank their friends and recognize that their return to Phoenix does not mean the end of their friendships. The presentations were great, and their friends enjoyed the postcards and the treats. I got to watch B's presentation.
Like the 3rd grade moms, the families of F's 5th grade class hosted a good-bye party for us. They wanted to include all of the families, so the despedida was part of a birthday party for several kids in the class. It was held on a Sunday at the weekend home in San Isidro of one of the 5th grade families. We dropped off F in the morning to take the bus with the other kids to the birthday party. Then the rest of the families joined them for afternoon tea. It was fun, and such an honor! We will really miss everyone, fortunately we can keep in touch over Facebook and we will visit them in Buenos Aires. Of course, we also hope they visit us in Phoenix, too.
We took our first family tour in Buenos Aires during our last weekend in the city. It was a tour of street art by Buenos Aires Street Art. We recommend it. The tour (in English) started in Via Urquiza. |