French Class Drama and a Classroom Revelation

Hi Folks,

Here's a quick update on my goings-on.

I overslept on Monday and didn't go to my French class. I got the homework assignment from another student in the class, so I could have it prepared for today (the professor says students should not ask her for the assignment, they are responsible for asking each other before the class).

Anyway, this morning it was really cold, and my bed was so warm, I just wanted to stay in and sleep. However, I managed to schlep myself to school. That was a good decision. Why? Surprise test! Oh dear...

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The other day I was waiting for my grade 3s to arrive before the start of class. I was then informed that they went on a field trip that day, so there would be no grade 3 students in attendance. That's okay, my co-teacher and I needed to prepare some materials for a project our classes are working on (they're creating their own island for a story). So we were cutting and gluing and printing, etc. while some of the grade 6s were hanging out with us. One of the grade 6 girls was talking to me (I have the highest hopes for her in terms of future success and language ability), and I mentioned to her that I needed to wake up early to choose my new university classes because of the time zone difference. We talked about my age for a little bit, and about university, and then she asked when I would be going to university. I said January, after English camp.
Then she asked me a question that brought me to a sudden realization, like children sometimes ask.

"Teacher, when will come back?" She asked.

Oh. Well...... n-never. I sort of stammered.

I guess I hadn't really envisioned this conversation in my head, I kind of assumed my students wouldn't notice I was gone since they're pretty occupied with other things. Anyway, I felt pretty bad about giving that answer, but I didn't know what else to say. I mean, at this point in time, I don't have plans to come back to Korea other than maybe travel or something. It just felt kind of awful to say it out loud. I genuinely like my students, and I hope they choose to be fine, upstanding people--maybe I didn't think I'd miss them.