Ai Xin Kindergarten

That's the name of the kindergarten I work at in the Futian district of Shenzhen.

I've worked for three days so far and it's been really fun. I almost feel bad getting paid for it, almost.

I have to be at the school at 7:50am every morning, which is easy since I'm still waking up early thanks to the time difference. I wake up, head out the door to the bus stop and take a 13 minute bus ride to the nearest bus stop to the school. From there, it's less than a 10 minute walk. It's an easy trip to school, which is nice.

I begin the day at the entrance to the school just saying good morning to the kids and the parents as they come in. Class doesn't actually start until 9am, which is when my kids get their breakfast. I'll get more of the real schedule next week when classes technically start. The first three days have been nothing but play time because I have so many kids who this is their first time away from home so they've been crying a lot of the class.

Luckily, there are three Chinese teachers and me, the foreign teacher. The three Chinese have spent most of the time holding the 2 year olds and keeping them from crying. They're the cutest kids but they make me want to cry when I'm watching them cry and saying, "Wo yao wo de mama," which just means "I want my mama!"

I have 25 students right now and they're age range is 2-5, which I've been told by the other teachers is a little strange. My class was just supposed to be 2-3 but because of some overflow from the others, I've taken on some older kids. Anyways, I'll update this next week and let you know what the real work schedule's like.