When it all sinks in...
The order of this post will be chronological, backwards.
I got home about 40 minutes ago from my last ever day at school! It's a very odd feeling and I don't think the full impact of being free has quite hit me yet. Maybe I'll suddenly have some moment of clarity in the shower, or lying in bed, or maybe not until tomorrow when I realise that I have no lessons to go to. I'm sad about it, as I will miss the place, however much I moan, but after 11 years there, I am so ready to leave. Loads of people got all tearful at the end of the day but my eyes were totally dry - perhaps I'll cry a little at the valedictory assembly (formal occasion where prizes are awarded and such like after the exams in June).
I had driven in, so I gave Sami and Sara lifts home - we joked and reminisced and sang along to Avril Lavigne (cringe!) on my car radio.
My last ever lesson was politics, with Mr. Mac, as we lovingly refer to him. Paul, now, as he is the offical fiance of the entire year group as of today. We chatted about the most random things and took a very posed group photo of the class. All my photos from today are probably somewhat posed. Cheese was the theme afterall.
I ate far too much food - there was a party at lunch break and the entire £200 profit made from ticket sales for the leavers ball was spent on food and drink, plus the fact that our german teachers had brought us a german themed feast for our last lesson with them - that was the one before lunch break.
The morning was a mad attempt to complete the 17 "tasks of year 13", listed below:
1) Go down the stairs and into the men's toilets in Red Square
2) Get into the school archive library
3) Go down the staff staircase in the Old House
4) Take something from the staffroom (nothing of value, just a fork or a mug)
5) Do a wee in any of the female staff toilets
6) Write "I love Mr. M" (head of sixth form) on any board in the school and sign your name to it
7) Compliment Mr. G on his marvellous tie (be serious, not sarcastic)
8) Get down on your knees and propose to Mr. Mac
9) Make your mobile ring in the library
10) Touch Mrs. McC (headmistress) - you only have to have some form of contact like brushing past her in the corridor
11) Ask Mr. L if he has any spare tampons for you to borrow
12) Knock on the door of a full classroom (not where there are exams) and proceed to carol sing for a few verses
13) Call at least two teachers by their first names
14) Link arms with a teacher in the corridor
15) Post a note in one of the teacher's pigeonholes in the staffroom, written as a love letter and signed as from another member of staff, e.g. Rough winds do shake the darling buds of may, but thy eternal summer shall not fade in the manner of Clueless
16) Ask the librarians to be quiet as they are disturbing your work
17) Put up posters around school showing funny drunken photos of yourself, so that everyone in school will remember you personally after you have left.
Of the above tasks, I did all but numbers 9, 14 and 16. Four people completed all 17 tasks, and had to do a tiebreaker in the form of a treasure hunt, then the remaining 2 people had to ask Mr. A (only male teacher in the language dept) for "extra oral practice" in order to claim their prize, which was a stationery set and a box of Guylian chocolate shells. Mmmm...
I am rather tired as I drove into school today to arrive for 7.20am, in order for all the sixth form drivers to drive in, in a long procession and park in the teachers' car park. We arrived to find Mr. M, Mrs. N, Mrs. P and Mr. J-W standing in a line with one of the groundsmen and some traffic cones, blockading the entrance. We parked in the other part of the teachers' car park, and the novelty of seeing that whole space filled with our cars is something quite unparalleled. Usually, it's a 5 minute walk to the car as there's no space for student parking in the school grounds. I am so lazy, methinks. Getting to school for 7.20am meant getting up at 6.10am, however, a time when I am usually dead to the world. Hence the fatigue maintenant.
Twas a fabulous day nonetheless. I am debating over whether to go out tonight. Nothing is happening locally but it seems a shame to stay in. Hmmm...
Sunday (continuing the backwards chronology format here) I had Tae Kwon Do in the evening, fun as usual, if rather tiring. The afternoon was spent having coffee (mmm... Costa Frescato) with Andrea, and doing a spot of underwear shopping. We're thinking of buying each other a negligee as birthday presents but not sure how that would be interpreted by people in general. I bought a stunning new bra and matching thong - pale cream colour, dotted with tiny pale pink flowers... I shall be wearing these (under other clothes of course) to Andrea, Hollie and Simon's school disco themed party ce weekend, to which I am quite looking forward. (Excuse that oddly foreign sounding grammatical mess in the previous sentence please). When my sister saw this new lingerie of mine, she went a tad insane, claiming that she'd lost me forever, as how could I possibly maintain my chaste innocence whilst possessing such scandalous underwear?
Saturday went for a yummy Thai meal in the evening avec mes parents, who had disapproving comments to make about the smeared remains of scribbled writing on the inside of my car windscreen.
Friday night I went to the pub, which was populated almost entirely by year 13 of a local school, who had enjoyed their last day of secondary education and were thus thoroughly inebriated by the time I arrived at 8.30pm, some of them having been at the pub since 6pm! I drove, so was sticking to non-alcoholic beverages. Eternally grateful to the producers of J2O drinks whoever they may be! Despite the fact that the pub is a mere 2 minute drive from chez moi, I was persuaded to give Tom P a lift - that's about 20 mins out of my way. I must be too kind for my own good, or madly in love? as people kept telling me. Such as Pete, for example, who I was going to give a lift to but who didn't want to sit for 20 minutes while I drove out of the way for Tom. He said to me "Oh Tom P? I know him. He's a nice guy. A great debater. Mass debater in fact. Have you pulled him? I think you should. I want to." Methinks Pete may have been a tad pissed. Anyway... Tom fed me jelly babies from my car's sweet stash while I drove, placing them in my mouth accompanied by dirty comments. We chatted for a while in my car when we arrived, causing the windows to steam up, and Tom to scribble things such as "slutmobile" on the front windscreen. Twas fun, playing the "would you rather" game, with both impossibly disgusting and impossibly tempting choices to make... random conversation which somehow involved much fondling of the gearstick of my car - Tom pointed out that it was a nice shape and so on... I tell people all of this and they ask me if the two of us are together.
And now we swerve off time's chronology of backwardness and look to the future: I'm freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!