Final Ceremony

The last few days in Budapest were a blur.  First we attended the "leaving" ceremony for Jack's 8th graders.  It was held in the evening and just like the opening ceremony in August, the school was an oven.  The classes gathered in their form class which is like a homeroom.  They all wore the formal uniform and many of the girls had had their hair done up.  Most of them (including the boys) had been given multiple bouquets of flowers.  The 5th-7th grade classes were also in their homeroom classes.  Family and friends collected on both sides of the stage, and all along the balcony.  

At the starting hour, the two 8th grade classes formed a single file line behind their form teacher.  These teachers stay with the kids from 5th grade through the 8th, so everyone knows each other very well.  The graduates snaked from classroom to classroom carrying their flowers and serenaded the other classes, weaving their way through the school and then downstairs where they were seated by form class. The principal's husband was standing next to me and he translated for me during the short ceremony commemorating their accomplishments.  After that they were given balloons in the school colors of blue and yellow.  Then in groups with the spectators following, they went outside where they released the balloons with much fanfare.  They have had this big environmental program in tandem with a school in Ireland for a couple of years, so the balloon launch in my mind, did not mesh with that.  It was a sweet salute to the years spent at the school and it seemed to mean a lot to the kids that we had come.