Sign Out and dolphins at St Nicolas

Sign Out Day was on the 5th of December.
I biked to school (we didn't have to wear uniform anymore.
It's so much nicer than walking !) at 8.30am for Assembly.
Later we all went to the Hall and I got the sign-out sheet from Mrs Guerin. Then we had to find all of our teachers to get a signature from them.
I gave them little farewell presents/drawings and there were maaaaaaaany photos, hugs and almost-tears.

so that's me 

Mrs Renaud almost cried... and said I would be one of her best singing students ever !
Mr Hurley said I could add him on facebook now.
I got told that I got excellence for both my compositions now !!! Mr Petch was really impressed with my progress and I was so happy ! So this was the last time for me to enter Burnside High School, my second home on the other side of the world.
No, it won't be the last time. I WILL come back soon !
In the afternoon I watch Aladdin with Beth and Julia play
"A whole new world" on the piano the whole day, I wrote the last set of postcards to Germany and watched a beautiful sunset from the Ford when the church-homegroup came.Furthermore I introduced the Mitchells to the German St Nicolas tradition and made them clean their boots.
And guess what, St Nicolas really came !
I noticed that when I was woken up early by a screaming Julia running through the house to tell everyone that he had been there. It was so cute !
I had given them coloured ironing beads and lollies.

And I got a present as well ! It was packed in a huuuuuuuuuuuuge box with other boxes and newspaper inside. In the midst of all these layers I found a dream: 3 golden Hobbit coins featuring Thorin, some of the other dwarves, Gandalf and Radagast ! So happy !
Ciara came to pick me up at 8.30am and we bussed to Akaroa to swim with dolphins (we had quite a talented singing bus driver). There we had a look around the beach before we arrived at Black Cat Cruises at 11.30am and got our wetsuits.

 

Our ship started out to sea and suddenly they realised a technical problem. So we had to turn around and head back to shore whilst the other boat was already out there in the water. Why do I always have such a bad luck? I mean, it's my 3rd try to swim with dolphins and...
Anyway, luckily, they found and fixed the problem and we could turn around again. We saw some Hector dolphins and were allowed to go into the water twice, but it was so green and milky that we couldn't really see anything then so our snorkel wasn't too helpful.
Somehow I always breathed in salt water through the mask.
Though the dolphins weren't particularly playful they were still super cute and Ciara and I had a lot of fun singing all Bel Canto/Chorale songs in harmony. A dolphin actually leapt out of water when we started !
Back on shore we spend a little time in a cafe and bussed back so that we arrived at Ciara's early evening. She plaited my hair into a 5-strain-plate and I had dinner with her and her dad.
Yeah, that way my Nicolas day.