==CHINA==

Once allowed into the college, I found my weekends vacant and decided to get a part-time job, which would be, for me, a kind of part-work and part-study. As a matter of chance, I was lucky enough to find work as an English teacher for a primary school. In the course of teaching there, I have found a loving, pure and sincere world, a perfect world!
How well I can recall becoming acquainted with my lovely pupils! A little nervous, but less than excited, I was led by the headmaster into a small classroom, where an unbearable noise accordingly disappeared all of a sudden as we entered the room. This absolute silence gave me the sense that I, now, was a full-fledged teacher, not only existing in name. Also my heart was delighted with this magnificent silence which came about, I was sure, by my very presence. But, I was sheerly wrong. Just when the headmaster stepped out of the door, the extreme noise duly came back to life, and I was able to put it down only after great effort involving both authority and sweet words; and the only thing I could feel then was streams of sweat!
So pretty soon, I fully knew the class of twelve children, aged from six to thirteen, was full of naughtiness, but never lacking cleverness. Very often, I could find myself not knowing whether to laugh or to kiss their lovable faces, when they uttered innocent words and behaved unsophis- ticatedly.
Chen Gang, a ten-year-old boy, while amusing himself by scribbling my English name, Mystperl, on the blackboard, ran up and asked me, "Miss, why mu must you put 'st' between the long-legged 'y' and 'p'. It would be better to set 'st' free. Don't you think so?" With my smiling permission, the mischievous one jumped away, quickly making my newly-born name, "My- perl", popular among the little kids.
Another younger boy, Yangyang, was quite known for his creative mind. In a class I asked my students, "What do you want to be in the future? Briskly, Yangyang stood up retorting, "A President like Clinton." "Oh, but why?" I inquired interestedly. With his little head raised, Yangyang answered confidently and satisfactorily, "A President can fly freely around the world!" I could understand his idea but I told the bold boy that "President" does not mean the same thing in all countries and that all Presidents may not be able to enjoy that freedom.
During the happy days I spent with my little ones, every time looking at their lovely faces, I would have an impulse to embrace them, no so because they were attractive, but because they gave me a sensation of warmth and love. There, flowed a tender stream of loving and caring.
My hands were always making me suffer a lot in the wintertime. Seri- ous frostbite never failed to make both of my hands swell up. One after- noon, I surprisedly found a small packet lying on my desk. I unwrapped it, finding some hot peppers in a bottle filled with alcohol. Upon seeing this, I understood why I had received it, but I still asked the class, "Who sent this to me?" No answer, but everyone was smiling. Quickly I under- stood that it was a conspiracy of silence. So I began pretending to be confused, shaking my head, as if saying to myself, "What shall I do with it?" "My grandma told me you can..." Anxiously, the lovely girl Nannan recited grandma's instructions. "Ha--Ha!" the class burst out laughing. Just at that moment Nannan realized she had disclosed all of her seriously made plot. However, as for me, I really felt choked up with emotion.
I didn't know where the time had gone, but finally I had reluctantly had to part with my lovable students, to part with the profoundly pure world in which I had experienced my childhood once more, the world which I have long been seeking for--seeking the priceless things: purity, earnest, love, and caring--the things that many people in society nowadays are short of.