So far I have taught four students piano. They are all so sweet.

The first day in the early afternoon I taught Li Qin, the oldest student here. She speaks English better than the rest and has basic knowledge of piano--scales, chords, and other technical terms. She has not really learned to play any songs, so I am trying to teach her Amazing Grace. She got the melody right away, since the children sing it quite often. It was great that she has good listening skills. She is learning the bass chords for Amazing Grace.

My second student on Monday was Li Ying, another teenage girl. She is more talkative than Li Qin, very polite and outgoing. She is also learning Amazing Grace. At English corner at night, she is kind of shy with her English, but laughs a lot and makes a good effort.

My first student yesterday, Tuesday, was Wen Jun. She is pretty outgoing and is really eager to learn and show off. I taught her an exercise from book 2 of the Dozen a Day series, which I loathed as a child, but she liked it. Out of nowhere in the middle of the lesson she said "xiexie laoshi!" which means "thank you teacher!"

My second student yesterday was Xiao Hua. We didn't play much piano. She just talked about Adrian (last year's China Care volunteer) a lot. She kept saying she missed him and talked about all the cool stuff he did for the kids. Her English is also very good. She showed up at English corner and talked with Teresa a lot. She is really adorable and has a cute laugh.

I realize these children never forget the people who care about them, even if they're volunteering for only a month. They miss people like Adrian and always ask when they're coming back. It's hard to answer; I just say "I don't know." A lot of people go in and out of their lives except for Guillaume, Delphine, and the nannies. The overseas volunteers are only here for a few weeks. I'm here for two months, but that's still a short amount of time. The summer must be their favorite time of year since every day they have so many activities to do (arts and crafts, English class, social skills class, anatomy class, music, sports, etc.).

I also realize the value of music to these kids. Although I like to play piano, I don't appreciate listening to long concerts or CDs of classical music. I can easily fall asleep during a concert or daydream instead of paying attention. Yesterday I played a few songs for the kids, and before the first one I was afraid they would be distracted and bored, but instead they paid close attention and were very quiet. They broke out into applause at the end of the song because they really liked it. I have taken music for granted, but they don't. Most of them like to sing and hear songs. They know a lot of hymns. Yesterday morning the Bethel choir performed with Guillaume playing piano and Delphine singing.

There is one song called "Jing Bai Ni, Yesu" which means "worship you, Jesus," and it is going to be on Stephen Curtis Chapman's next CD as sung by the Bethel choir. It is such a beautiful song, composed by Guillaume and some of the girls. I tried to sing along but there some parts where I was choked up so I couldn't.

We are getting wireless in the living quarters soon, so hopefully I can blog more often before I go to sleep. For now, we have to be in the office to use the Internet, and the office closes at 5.

On the weekend I will go to Beijing and visit my relatives. The following Friday, Angela and her family will be here; it should be really exciting to see her. Other friends are in Beijing--Michelle Yang, Erin Baggott, Cici, and some Chinese teachers from the Mandarin program I was in last summer.