Last Bell

Larissa knocked on my door yesterday evening.
“Tomorrow is the last bell ceremony,” she told me. “It starts at nine o’clock at the sports field by the school.”
“That sports field?” I asked her, pointing to the sports field across the street from our apartment building, and across the street from the school.
“Yes, that sports field,” she replied. “See you tomorrow.”
“Okay, see you tomorrow, nine o’clock, that sports field,” I said, repeating the information to make sure I had my facts straight. Even though Larissa speaks English, we don’t always communicate. That’s something I’ve learned since I’ve been here: two people can be speaking English and you can still have no idea what the other person is talking about.

This morning I woke up and looked out my window. The stadium (ie: “sports field”) was empty. I had expected to see teachers and students bustling around, setting up for the ceremony. Huh, I thought to myself looking at the gray sky, perhaps they’ve moved things inside because of the weather.

A little before nine, I made my way to the school. Students and parents were milling about, talking excitedly about, well, I can’t say exactly. I followed the crowd to the side of the school, to a small area of grass and dirt and a single, all-metal jungle gym. Speakers were set up in front of the jungle gym. A small band of ten students sat off to the side playing music.

“Welcome to our sports field,” Larissa said, coming up behind me. I looked around, chuckling to myself. It wasn’t much of a sports field. It really wasn’t much of a field, it was more a dirt plot, but I didn’t say anything. Anytime Larissa and I have an unable-to-communicate-and-create-shared-meaning-moment, it makes me wonder just how much sense I made to my poor students.

The ceremony got underway. The students stood with their classes and their class teachers in a square formation around the so-called field. The eleventh form filed in and stood in a line along one side. They were dressed in traditional school uniforms. For the boys, this meant sports jackets and ties. For the girls, this meant sexy French maid numbers. Their dresses were dark blue or black and came down to their mid-thigh. Over the dress, was a white, lacey apron. Tell me that doesn’t sound sexy French maid? They wore their hair in pigtails, as is customary, with poofy, white, pom-poms tied in each one. They looked cute in a sexy, uncomfortable for the Calvinist in me kind of way.

The director and other administrators spoke first, as the sky broke open and the rain started to drizzle down. Following the speeches came the changing of the guard. Each year, three students from the eleventh form are chosen to be the flag bearers. The flag bearers wear blue and yellow sashes (at least that’s what I assume they’re suppose to be, though my school’s sashes are more a neon green, blue combo). The flag bearers bring the flag out at the start of ceremonies and then stand in front of it the whole time. When it was time for the changing of the guard, three students from the tenth form came and took the sashes from the eleventh formers. The eleventh formers then kneeled in front of the new flag bearers and then rejoined their classmates. The flag bearers are always two girls and one boy. The girls walk in front of and behind the boy as he carries the flag.

Next, the student president of the school spoke. She invited her administration (ie: her best girlfriends) to join her. Then she gave “the club of power” (as Larissa put it) to next year’s president. There is no election of student government at my school. The president is chosen by the school administration and he or she appoints the rest of the positions.

Following the changing of guard, came the reading of the names of all the “school leavers,” as the eleventh formers are called. Next, the director read the names of all the best students in the school. These students came forward and received a limp, wet certificate. (The drizzle never did let up.) Then all the students in the school gave flowers to their favorite teachers. For about 5 minutes there was total chaos as this took place. I was very to flattered to receive an armful of flowers from various students, a couple who I didn’t think liked me at all, so that was nice.

Following the flowers came the last dance for the eleventh formers. Two students sang a song as the rest of the eleventh formers grabbed a teacher and slow-danced in the middle of the square. After the last dance, two students from the second form did the tango and two students from the third form waltzed, in full costumed. Then someone read a poem. Then the tenth formers gave all the eleventh formers red ribbons with tiny bells. They pinned these on, so it took some time. So much time in fact, that the girl singing as the pinning happened actually sang the same song twice.

Before the last bell was rung, a group of students from the second and third forms performed an odd dance number. They ran out into the square with backpacks and a soccer ball, threw off their backpacks, kicked around the soccer ball and then did a few choreographed dance moves. They then shouted “hooray for the summer,” pretended to get into a fistfight, did a few more dance moves and ran off before the music was over. I didn’t quite get it.

At last, the time came to ring the last bell. A girl from the first form took a hand-held bell from the director and walked around the inside of the square ringing it. She walked until she reached the eleventh formers and handed one of them the bell. She rang it and it was passed down the line so each school leaver could ring it one last time. The ceremony concluded as each student in the eleventh form took the hand of a student in the first form. The pairs walked to the park and put flowers on the monuments to the victims of World War II.

My teachers asked me if we had ceremonies like theirs in America. Not really, I told them. Graduation is much different then the last bell ceremony: there’s no tango and there’s no last dance with teachers because, well, we never have a first dance with teachers. This ceremony wasn’t graduation for the eleventh formers. They have about a month of testing before they’re done with secondary school for good. When their tests are finished, they have another ceremony where, I’m told, they dress very formal, kind of like prom, and party for three days.

That should be interesting.