Everytime we say goodbye...

Yesterday was my final day at Lidget Green. It was pretty funny (actually) because it was our "Tudor" day; as in Henry VII and the Tudor family. Our class has been studying the Tudors over the last month and yesterday was our big "fancy dress day". 

a.k.a They made me dress up like Anne Boleyn. 

It was the perfect time to wear a full-length-faux-velvet Medieval dress, because of course I had to say good bye to al sorts of people... First, the school had an assembly for us where they presented us with some chocolates and  lovely picture book of Bradford. They thanks us for all of our hard work and said we really felt like a part of their family this year. It was very touching because I have felt so blessed by all of the students and staff at Lidget. Throughout the day I got lots of little leaving gifts and cards from the kids. Finally at our end of the day "Banquet," the two year 5 classes presented me with a card they had all signed. I cried for the first time that day, and it was all downhill from there. My final memory of our class will be their smiling faces sitting around me as I got to say a final goodbye to them. I told them they have a very special place in my heart and that they are all wonderful exactly as they are. I told them I wish I could be their next year, but that maybe someday I would come back and visit. And I will, someday...

It probably would have been a long melancholy night if one of our partners from Northern Ireland, Tim, hadn't treated us to dinner last night. It was so nice catching up with him since we last saw him in Belfast. We decided to try out this Russian Restaurant (The ONLY Russian restaurant) in Bradford city center. It was a lovely restaurant, but it screamed any action flick where the secret agent meets with a Russian Mob Head for dinner. It's a shame if anybody actually gets "wacked" before enjoying a Russian dinner, because it was gorgeous!!!

Tim thanked us for coming here this year. He said a lot of people who do service in England don't end up working in such a difficult urban setting. I know what he means... last week someone working at one of the Asian fabric stores near our house was brutally stabbed to death. We were just there a day or so before... Bradford is rough. And yet I have never felt more at home. 

But now I actually have to go home. Back to familiar surroundings.... but this time home will not feel like it did, because I will have changed. I'm going to miss this place... 

I'll miss the row housing...

I'll miss our street...

Our flat with its ghetto picket fence and clogged toilet....

(marie's photo)
Our crafty living room...

Our overgrown PEACE sign in the front yard...

The snicket we walk through everyday...

ARABIAN, the first Asian store we ever went in. Where we met "Fica" and

 broke the news that her name is an acronym for tax collectors in the US...

(marie's photo)
Websters, our local fish and chip shop...

(marie's photos)
Walking to school with Marie through Schoolmore cemetery...

(marie's photo)
The Alhambra theater, Bradfords claim to fame...

(marie's photo)
Walking downtown to the interchange...

(marie's photo)
Lister park with its incredible flowers...

(marie's photo)
Those horses owned by an Irish traveller up by Tescos...

Cannon Mill's Market, and how it made Bradford feel like Pakistan...

(marie's photo)
Looking out my window onto the vicarage...

(marie's photo)
Our local ice cream truck who drove through the neighbor at lightning speed...

(marie's photos)
Playing cricket on a Thursday afternoon with the kids club...

(marie's photo)
Great Horton UMC...

(marie's photo)
Singing unrecognizable hymns in St. Wilfrids...

(marie's photos)
Our British families...

(marie's photo)

Goodbye Bradford....