beijing kindergarten

Once, occasionally twice, a week I get up at 6am to teach English at a kindergarten. It is an hour away by car; a long and tiresome journey which I find myself regretting every single time until we finally arrive at the reception and I’m greeted happily by my enthusiastic little ones. There is a little bit of a language barrier, but we manage! It is actually incredibly fun and motivating trying coming up with innovative ways to communicate with the children. It is nonetheless a very humbling experience, through which I'm also getting to experience Beijing like a local. Food included; I cannot honestly say that the lunches I'm provided with do not give me 拉肚子...because they definitely do, but, like a trooper, I eat them anyway. I didn't realize how attached to my students I'd become until I found out today, that one of them who I'd named Peter had left. His family couldn't afford the fees anymore. It was very sad. Most of the children there hadn't ever seen a foreigner until they met me, and that initial meeting produced many different reactions. They were all hesitant, but none as much as Peter. He cried, and cried, and cried. He was terrified. It took a long time until he began to trust me, and we were just beginning to 'understand' each other, if you will. Now he's gone. Just like that.