A day with Chen Lin

I have been tutoring Chen Lin since last year, when he came in as a fourth grader with no knowledge of English. It was a rough start, but he is extremely smart and determined to learn. He picked up English in no time and is doing really well in school. I still tutor him three times a week in English, and he is a very interesting character. At some point I will share with you all of my favorite Chen Lin quotes that I have collected, but for now, let me just share a day with Chen Lin. 

This particular day happened to be the last day of school in our old rented school building. I don't know if this made it an extra emotional day for Chen Lin or what, but he was pretty dramatic. 

We started off with him wanting to help me pack the classroom. I allowed him to pack one box of books for me before we started talking about homework. He decided he wanted a little bit more homework, so I took him down the copy machine with me to copy some more homework. He had never used the copy machine before, and was pretty intrigued with it. I let him push the buttons, and he asked me "Can I copy my hand?" 

"Sure, you could, but we are not going too," I replied. 

"COOL!!! Then I would have three hands!!" exclaimed Chen Lin. 

"No, Chen Lin, it would just be a piece of paper with a picture of your hand on it."

"Oh" (slightly sad face)

Next he pulls the paper out of the printing tray and starts pressing it against his face.

"This is hot!! Why is this hot!!!"

"That's just the way it is after coming out of the copier."

"But why is it hot??"

We go back upstairs, and the entire time he is following me singing some song about flying.

Back in the classroom I proceed to go over the homework with him.

"Ms. Fessel, will you stay here forever?"

"Probably not forever"

"When will you leave?"

"I don't know. When God tells me too."

"Will you stay here forever until you get married?"

"I really don't know, Chen Lin."

After this little interlude we continued class until it was time for him to go. As he exited the classroom, the door handle fell out. This has been happening all week, but we haven't fixed it since we are moving to the new school. I instruct him to pick up the handle and push it back on the door so I can get out of the room.

"Ms. Fessel, I would be so sad if I made you to be locked in your classroom so you couldn't get out. The would fire me from the school and I would have to go to prison and they would kill me!"

"No, Chen Lin, none of that would happen." I call out after him, but he is already on his way down the stairs. 

And that is a pretty typical day with Chen Lin.