Last Week of CELTA

Our last week of CELTA training was eventful and unbelievably beautiful. Our teachers and fellow students surprised us with a chocolate cake on September 12, our third wedding anniversary, and gave us a book with their pictures and some personal notes....we taught our two last classes in "new language" (code word for grammar) and language skills, turned in two 800 word papers each. Then on Thursday night we began celebrating at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel with our teachers and our fellow classmates. Friday we had a party for our students from Japan, Korea and Russia instead of the usual classes, and taught and learned card games and other games from the different countries we all represented. Kimiko had a barbeque on Friday nite, complete with leis for us, her teachers, and a wonderful celebration with all of our students. We have been very blessed, and to think that we're not going to be at 1601 Kapiolani Blvd on Monday morning at 9 am with all the people we've spent the last fabulous four weeks with is bittersweet at best. We've been stretched beyond what we thought we might be capable of, teaching from our second day out, spending almost every waking minute either teaching, studying or writing papers...6 and 1/2 days a week -- but it's hard to break away, it's been so enriching.