What an odd feeling waking up on the morning of departure. It didn't feel like I'd ever expected. I think the excitement, anxiety, well any feeling at all, was smothered by the focus to get my stuff packed and actually get ready to leave in time. I'd put it off far far to long. We had to get up oober early to attend assembly that morning, so the packing had to wait. We were invited to give a short speech to the school and I made sure to make eye contact with as many of my students as poss when I thanked them all. Twas amazing to look out at them and actually know them all, some pretty personally- compared to the bewilderement I felt at the assembly I attended on my first day here. All I saw was a mass of faces ahead of me- an overwhelming anxiety towards what lay ahead of me. Now, I felt so proud, thankful, amazed by these kids. As we spoke- they all looked up at us, like they really cared about what we were saying- cause they knew we meant everything we said to them. It gradually began to sink in that we were finally leaving and the thought of leaving all of these familiar faces behind- ones that I've have watched gain confidence, have humoured me, pissed me off at times, but given me some laughs-I knew I was gona miss it all despite the hard times. The principal hugged us both after thanking us, which Aman and I found hillarious since we doubt she even knows our names. She then gave us both a Sabahan gift and invited us for 'tea'. Obviosuly I couldn't decline, but we were due to leave in a couple of hours and I was STILL not packed- PANICK!! 'Tea' was pretty tense as everyone shows the Principal such a high level of respect, we never knew when it was OK to talk, or eat. We waited for her to ask us to begin and just made small talk. We informed her our beds were broken and urgently needed fixed before next years gappers arrive- god help them. Luckily, it was not a drawn out procedure and we were soon back to our room getting the final things packed away. Was crazy finally taking everything down from the walls. We left up the huge map of the UK we put up within 1/2 hour of arrival and wrote a little message to next year's gappers in permanent ink on the wall (better not get caught for that- haha!) Once finally packed and ready to go about 20mins before the taxi was due (to my suprise!), Aman and I took a min to sit in silence and try to gather our crazy thoughts together. We both thought the room looked a lot brighter and more welcoming compared to when we first stepped foot in it (would never go back to that moment!). We don't know if it's because it is now so familiar to us, having been our home for the past 6 months, where as initally it appeared as a foreign uninhabited hovel that had no appeal whatsoever. But to be honest, as we locked the door and walked away from that room, I wasn't entirely thankful (as I always thought I'd be!) to see the back of it. I'll def miss the geckos that's for sure!! When we arrived at the front of the school with our bags, I was greeted by Leslie and some of my students from 4A. The deaf kids then came out and loads of other students from my various classes. The kids lined up and we said goodbye individually to all of them first. They were all really upset but it hadn't really hit me yet. Twas when I finally turned to say goodbye to my girlies that it struck me I was actually going to have to leave them behind. Joyce, Aubry, Meeza and Lennie were lined beside the taxi and I just dreaded having to say bye to them all. I left Joyce till last and didn't let go off her for ages. Twas the first time I ever saw her smiley face become teary. We huddled together and shared a few words before I had to finally get in the taxi. Aman found it really hard parting with the deaf kids- not much was said in the taxi to the airport. Our minds were so boggled with it all that we forgot to give Mr Soo his Thankyou card. Finally got ourselves sorted and checked in. This was it- our final flight out of KK airport.