Teacher's Day at School!

Today ended up being a holiday for the eleventh grade at school...except me. I was totally OK with this though because today wasn't just any normal school day, it was teacher's day. The whole day is dedicated to celebrating teachers, and the twelfth grade at school is responsible for putting on a show, taking over the classes, and bringing each teacher a card or a rose. All of these festivities were supposed to happen yesterday, but the government called a holiday yesterday because the Chief Minister of State for Andhra Pradesh (the state north of Tamil Nadu) was killed in a helicopter accident. Because the event couldn't take place yesterday, there had to be a few things cut out from the traditions today.
I arrived at school around 8:15 a.m. to a sea of colorful dresses- all of the twelfth grade was supposed to dress up today, and so (for most of the morning) I was admiring all of the beautiful salwaars that all of the girls were wearing!
The morning started out as usual with an assembly where all of the students were in their lines (everyone else BESIDES the eleventh grade had school today to take an exam...), and during today's program all of the twelfth graders were called up in turn to the front where they presented their assigned teacher with a flower and/or card. After the assembly, the twelfth grade is SUPPOSED to take over a class and be the teacher, but because the rest of the school was taking exams, this part of the traditions had to be cut out. All of the girls were so upset about it! They had all been really excited for the chance to be the teacher!
Around 10:00 a.m. there was an announcement that everyone who was not going to participate in the afternoon's show was to go home- that brought devastation. The twelfth grade students were VERY mad that they couldn't stay to watch, and most of them left sullenly on the buses. I was (luckily) allowed to stay and watch the show. I felt bad about all of the other kids having to leave though.
So, Sowbe and I spent the rest of the morning with some of the other girls participating in the show, and when it came time to take our seats, we waited for all of the teachers to be seated before we found two empty seats in the front for ourselves. The show was great! It started off with acts performed by kids from the younger school, and ended with acts from my school. The twelfth grade girls did a dance that was fun to watch, but the REAL entertainment was the finale- the twelfth grade boys dressing up in fancy clothes and wooing a young "maiden" to them with flowers...unfortunately when the "maiden" turned around, it was a guy wearing a dress and makeup!! It was hilarious, and the whole audience was laughing hysterically. The entire event ended with a standing ovation and a HUGE round of applause!
P.S. The photo above is of me and a bunch of the twelfth girls in their outfits!