The school day just ended, and I just ran home to hide from the world. Everything went well today. I had three classes (one more tommorrow, and then "it...is finished"). I showed them a VCD, 101 Dalmatians. I wanted to make it a festive atmosphere, so you know what that means. Yep! I gave them THREE M&M's each. It was great, they loved it. I'm so generous.

I took a few picture of the classes, for posterity. Or maybe a little prosperity. Who can say?

Anyway, the day was rather uneventful. Like I noted yesterday, most of the kids don't really realize what is going on. They know that school is almost over for the year, and that they will get to go home, but they don't realize that when they do come back in September they will have a different foreign English teacher.

Everything was going smoothly and unemotionally until my last class of the day. This little girl, Ai Lei Fei Da, ( I gave her the English name "Freeda", because it sounds like Fei Da ), came up to me after class and kept saying, "Teacher, no."

She was using a whining type voice. I said "You are very happy! You will go home!"

"No and happy. I am very sad."

She stood hugging me for a long time, whining a little. All of the other kids were just bouncing around like usual. She started to cry. Her tears soaked my shirt. She wasn't sobbing, just crying. I didn't want to lose it in front of her. I didn't want to make it worse. I was definately feeling the infamous lump in my throat. I just patted her back and tried to get her to smile. Luckily the teacher for the next period started calling the class to order, so she had to release me and I made a stealthy exit, hoping I wouldn't see anyone else (student or collegue) in the hallway.

Now I am back in my cave, safe and sound. The kids go home Sunday morning. Only three more days of this. I hate these types of goodbyes.

ckb

Thursday, Jun. 05, 2003 at 4:11 PM