No Chocolates. But, what an awesome gift!!!

A couple of days ago, I wrote

Doesn't matter anymore if nobody brings me chocolates; I am full already with those sweet words.

Tomorrow will be my last day on campus, after which I will be at home grading the final exams and preparing for the spring term.  But, I don't have any urge to look forward to any gift anymore.

For the rest of the academic year.

Because, I got the most awesome gift ever earlier this morning.

"T," a student from China, respectfully walked into my office and politely sat on the chair.

With her right hand half in her handbag, she said "I really like you as a professor."

I wondered if it was a preface to a gift. A chocolate bar in the handbag that she was reaching for, maybe?

"Will you be ok if I give you a gift?" she asked.

"I will be delighted" I replied.

And she took this out of her bag:

I was simply blown away.

It was no ordinary chocolate. The package looked way too grand.

"It is tea" she said.  "My mother told me to take two gifts. To give to professors if I like them."

So, this means I am one of the two professors who made a big impression on her?

I am not surprised, though, that she liked my teaching style--she already made such remarks in the classroom. She told the class that in China she had never had a class anywhere near how my class is.  Because, back there, it was all about students taking notes as the teacher lectured, and then memorizing those notes and repeating them in exams.  In my class, there is very little lecturing, and a whole lot of reading and writing and discussing that students have to do.

The strangest thing is this: given the language issues, "T" was forced to work double-overtime. Yet, she openly commented, with a smiling face, how much she liked my class.

But, I wasn't mentally prepared for a gift from her.

"It is so beautiful" I said as I opened the box:

Small, single-serve packages of tea, vaccuum-packed.

"This is my father's favorite tea" she remarked.

I thanked her again. And again.

What a glorious ending to the term!