I Don't Know Why You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

Still running off adrenaline from the show, I was wide awake and ready for school that Friday morning. I grabbed the Oreo truffles and awards I made for my theater kids, and rode my bike to school.

Fridays are always fun because I have 8L1. I played Scattegories with them, which was a nice break from their usual lesson with Ingmar. It’s a great class, but they love messing around with me. One category was “Things You Would Find in a Bathroom.” One of my students argued “gravity” and “oxygen” as an answer with me to the point where my head wanted to explode, but at least they were doing it in English. I think they enjoy making my eyes nearly pop right out of my head every week. I’ll admit, they’re jokes are endearing.

When our lessons were over, Alex and I rode our bikes to Edeka to get two cakes, a 300g bag of paprika party mix, and two bottles of Coca-Cola in addition to the truffles I made for our cast party. We were thinking it would be plenty. There would probably be leftovers.

Everyone came to our usual rehearsal room, and dived right into the snacks. The Oreo truffles were a hit, but I can’t say I’m surprised. It’s just about the only thing I can make… a true Megan Brady specialty.

While they were all eating, Alex and I presented each student with an award we made for them all. They were tailored to every individual student, so we explained our reasoning behind the award and person, and then revealed the name. They all seemed to bask in their moment of glory. Once everyone received their certificate, Alex told them our big news…. Now that the American Theater Group has come to an end, we decided to start an American Film Group for the last three Fridays of school where we show one of our movies each week. I could really tell how much they actually liked being around us because they all rejoiced. One girl looked like she was going to faint. Our movie for next Friday will be The Breakfast Club, and we’re going to bring them in snacks, too.

Then, we showed the kids their final performance because our student brought us the DVD of the show. It was a great way to wrap up our group.

Our younger girls gave Alex and me a “danke” card and chocolate, thanking us for everything that year. This whole group is the best thing I have ever been a part of. It is really going to make going back to America very difficult for me.

As soon as we got home from school, Alex and I had several friend requests waiting on our Facebook accounts. We agreed to accept them because they made a difference in our lives, too, and they are people we want to stay in touch with.

That night, Pauline sent me a message:

“megan... in three weeks you will leave us. all the fridays would be so borring without you booth. we only have three weeks together before you leave i think everyone from the theater group is sad about that!! it was such a good time with you and i hope we will keep in touch :)”