taming the wild beast who turned out to be a beauty

I love Austin. I love walking in to class and hearing from the front of the room “Good morning Teacher Michelle” and when I look up I see a HUGE smile beaming from the little 5 year olds face. He’s darling. Austin has come a long way. I remember the first time I met the little one. It was a frustrating day. Austin didn’t want to listen and if you asked him to do something he’d lie on the ground and be limp as a rag doll. For the first month of teaching I taught pre-language
 so when I was done teaching that I went and helped out in the other classes. I usually stayed in with the youngest children and helped each teacher when them. Austin was in this class. This is how our bonding began. Austin was a little trouble maker. He’d always get kicked out in to the hall and thrown into the “chockey.” I couldn’t watch sometimes when the Chinese teachers would take him out and hit him. It was so sad. Sometimes I’d sneak out and visit Austin in the hallway. We became good friends. I had to let him know that I wasn’t going to hurt him. I treated him with extra kindness and he started doing the same to me. When we’d go back in to class and the teachers would seat him around the table he’d insist that I sat next to him. One day Austin discovered that I had a scar on my knee. He pulled up his left pant leg and showed me that he too had a scar on his knee. Then he went on pointing to many other matching scars we had. He was darling. We communicate by using charades and speaking the little of each others languages we know. After National Holiday when Hannah did not return back to Bengbu to teach with us I took over her class. I got to call eight darling little students MY students! Austin was one of them. Our bond has continued to grow since. Austin always sits in the chair closest to mine at the table. He is so helpful and kind and hardly ever misbehaves now. He is the best little English speaker in our class and does Up on the Housetop absolutely perfect! He is darling. We’re the best little friends. Since the weather has gotten colder here in Bengbu I’ve been freezing! My little students are bundled up in 15 layers and are stifling hot and no matter how many layers I wear I’m still freezing. Sweet little Austin warms my hands each day. And lately he lets me put my freezing hands on the back of his neck to warm them up. Each day at the end of class he makes sure to give me a big hug and says “I’ll see you tomorrow.” I’m sure going to miss this little boy of mine! Wo Ai Ni Austin!