Perhaps I exaggerate. Most of her classmates know me. I’ve hosted her birthday parties, and have probably taken a few to the toilets and cleaned up their puke/poo when they were babies. So you know, we are on good terms. I was just so awed by the fact that a 2nd graders class room felt so prehistoric. Something out of a dusty book in my memory.  

First there is the chit-chatting. Most of the kids had no attention-span. With the teacher listening one kid talk, the other side of the class room has started chatting away. There is procedure of “raising the hand” whenever a thought strikes your head, may it be a question, a remark, a funny story. There are always hands in the air. The best part is the random irrelevancy. Once, the teacher went “QUIET!” and yelled like teachers do (exactly same as in my memory, even I went still and quiet). All the kids went quiet, and the teacher was going to continue, when one girl raised up her hand.

-Yes Louise?
-I’m going to go horse-riding today! Hihi
-Oh… Good. Good.

Little children are emersed in their own world. It’s beautiful. It’s especially noticeable on the wall where each of them got to draw a picture of their teacher. They all looked very different and unique, some made him small like a peanut with huge hearts and flowers around. Some made him fat, some thin. Some with a RED face. But still, always the round egg-shaped head and glasses. Very characteristic. Is it possible to force-draw in a childish way?

I was indeed sort of popular. At one point they were making nice name cards for their tables. A girl asked if I could write her name in Chinese. Then, the girl beside her wanted one as well. Suddenly everyone wanted their name in Chinese. A few now only have Chinese characters on their tables, so nobody will be able to read them. Not even me, because I might have made a few up due to the early morning and my bad memory.  

I joined them on their break, when they chilled around in the school yard. What should we play now? They were going to make a play on Romeo and Julia. Mimmi was to be Julia’s mom, but I think there was some arguments about the role-casting. And their self-proclaimed “director” was one little bossy girl. I’ve heard of stories of myself being bossy in my younger years. Now I really hope I wasn’t like her.

The most interesting conversation was probably with a boy name Hannes who was the smartest one in the class. “He knows everything” according to Mimmi. Well, more like all the girls agree with everything he says. This boy did know a lot about dinosaurs, egyptians, Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Which he seem to love sharing with people. I love the way how children explain things as if they are the most evident things in the world. “Well Hannes, we aren’t really sure why the dinosaurs are extinct. Why do you think so? Hannes goes “Of course we know, It’s because of this meteor that hit the earth and then everything was covered in a… what is it called… phosphorus gas, yes definetly that. Paleontologists found this out.” Of course Hannes does this in a Hannes way, like a eight year old waving their arms, opening their eyes wide with excitement which almost makes you curious as well. Every sentence was started with “Visste du att…” (Did you know…)

It is good to be young sometimes. If only for a day. I have just finished reading “A Journey to the Centre of the Earth” by Jules Verne. I remembered that I wanted to be archeologist as well. But then, I wasn’t too fond of getting mud in my nails.