When my students were promoted to second grade they recited a poem.

Hello, Summer! — (A Last Day of School Poem)
by Gregory K.

It begins with the lines

Goodbye, classroom!
Goodbye, Teach!
You can find me at the beach…

(The entire poem can be found here)

I think of this poem today because it was my last day of work. If fact my last day in Kuwait, for the foreseeable future. I have packed my bags and am ready to go. This fall I will stay in Canada rather than teach abroad. I do this to be able to spend time with my family. If things don’t work out at home I can hit the road again but at least for one year I’ll make a go of it.

My summer starts right now. I get in a cab after posting this and I head to Skopje, Macedonia. There I begin 3 weeks of travel around the Balkans before I head to London to meet mom and dad to travel around Ireland and the U.K.