Missing them already

I'm surprised at how sad I am to be leaving my students. Like, I think I'll wind up crying in a lot of my classes. I've thought about it, and it's natural to grow attached to kids I've been teaching for 2 years. And I'll really never see most of them again, unlike friends and family in the US, whom I certainly will.

My last day at Hess is Nov. 30 and I was going to wait until closer to that time to tell them but I think I'm just going to do it next week and get it over with. Kids are kind of dumb, though- like when I went home for a visit last year, a bunch of them were like, Good-bye forever! I was like, I'll be back in a month, kids. But still, a lot of them were surprised to see me again. Also they don't have much of a concept of time, and I don't want them to be like "Teacher, you're still here!" every time I teach them. My plan is to show them a calendar and be like, "Look, 3 more times I teach you, then Lesson 14, you have a new teacher." We'll see.

I keep telling myself: you would say goodbye to them eventually; some of them just don't sign up for the next level so you never see some of them again anyways; do I like these kids better than, say, life in America or the friends I'll get to spend time with when I have a better schedule? No, but still I'm sad.