Fondness vs. Sadness

I spent my day in kindergarten knowing full well that there was a little boy named Andrew in that class. He's quite fair skinned (just like our Andrew), too. I knew that I'd be asking him to complete things, etc. That meant I actually had to speak my son's name and hear it come out of my mouth. That's the downfall of selecting a common boy name.

So... I spent the morning saying the name Andrew out loud and having that Andrew react, hear, look, and respond.

= sadness.

In the afternoon class, there's a happy little girl who saw me and immediately said, "Hey, I saw you before. You used to have a fat belly."

Those were such hopeful times and I loved having my fat baby Andrew belly.

= fondness.

I can't wait to experience that same fondness again.

Encounter with Two German Kindergartners

While we’ve been living here, we have had a chance to “run into” lots of scenarios that I never anticipated. Everyday we talk to strangers, so that's obvious. But, when living in another country and just learning the many facets of their language, it’s easy to pull back into your turtle shell (that taken from Because of Winn Dixie-- Opal describing her cowardly father). We’ve both run into scenarios where people continue speaking to us for minutes, literally, without us saying a word back. They generally have no idea we don't speak German fluently. Because, after all, we do look German. Luckily, we have enough of a grasp on the language to understand the overall picture and pick out details we’re more familiar with. Today’s scenario was special to me. I was walking to the parking area on my way to pick up Ray from work, and noticed a little girl standing in front of the car. She was about 5-years old with long blonde hair. There was no parent in sight. This is not abnormal for our street—the street doubles as a playground for children. Here is how the conversation went:

Brandy: Entschuldigung, bitte.

Girl #1: [moves out of the way] Es gibt ein Maus unter das Auto.

Brandy: [sees a cat next to the driver’s side door] Ein Maus?

Girl #1: Ja. Ein Maus.

Brandy: Unter meinem Auto?

Girl #2: [appears—brown hair, same age. Says something really fast in unrecognizable German]

Girl #1: Ja. Unter dein Auto!

Brandy: [walks to the side and ducks under the car to check—no mouse to be seen, gets in car and puts the car into reverse]

Girl #1 & Girl #2: [pointing, smiling as they mouse runs to the other side of the parking area]

*Please excuse my grammar errors. I still suck struggle at that.
**It is absolutely times like these when I love being around children. They were thoroughly excited to share their discovery with someone. Not only was I pleased that they used such simple language with me, the beginner, but I just loved their spirit of inquisition and wonder. It makes me yearn to teach soon even more. As a matter of fact, it's the entire reason I went into teaching. Maybe I can handle kindergarten after all. I only said maybe.