Staff Banquet

So many end of the year events have taken place in the past couple of weeks. I've put up posts on the 8th grade banquet, High School banquet, and graduation. Scroll down to the next couple of blogs to get updated on them all.

One last banquet for this year- the staff banquet. This year it was held at an Indonesian restaurant and everyone dressed up in Indonesian dress, batik. We enjoyed a slide show of pictures from the past year, especially highlighting the staff members who are leaving. We ate a delicious Indonesian meal. Then after dinner we thanked those who've worked so hard on our building project. We also heard from different people who gave goodbye speeches for those staff members who are leaving. It was an emotional evening of saying farewell to people who have become more than just coworkers or friends, but family here in Indonesia.

After this we headed back to the school auditorium for our after party. We enjoyed yummy desserts made by some of the parents at school. Then we had our own version of American Idol, that we affectionately called BAIS Idol. We had our own Simon, Paula, and Randy for judges along with Ryan Seacrest as the host. We enjoyed performances from many staff members and text messaged in our vote for the winner at the end of the evening. It was a very bitter sweat evening as we cried and laughed together. Enjoy some of the pictures from the night:

My current roommate, Emma, and I

These are the girls that I'll be living with next year. The four of us have already found a house to live in by the new school.

Andy and Beccy are two of our staff members who will be leaving. Here they are with two of our Indonesian office staff.

Joey, our current director, says thank you to those who've worked hard all year on our new campus project.

Those staff members who will be leaving each said a little something to say goodbye to us all.

Here is the group picture we took of our entire staff.

Lindsey, the first grade teacher this year, will be leaving to go back to the States.

BAIS Idol! Here are our judges: Randy, Paula, and Simon.

Jennie sings to her skeleton from the science lab.

Larry sings to his wife, MC, our secondary lead teacher.

Here our Ryan Seacrest encourages everyone to call in their votes for the next BAIS Idol.