A Day of Gifts

This morning, Mrs. Funn came to the Foreign Teacher's Lounge with some farewell gifts for Greg and for me. She is the regular English teacher of the students we have worked with and also the woman who invited us to her home for dinner. She gave me a lovely bag filled with special Chinese paper cuts and a beautiful bookmark as a thank you for teaching her classes.



She also had one of my students in tow... His name is Cui Yu Tao and his parents own a restaurant near the school. They have invited the foreign teachers to have dinner in the restaurant tonight,.. I'll write more about what happened later...

After lunch Tracy gave me a bag filled with gifts... a small traditional pillow, a mirror and comb, and some New Year decorations. The sincere generosity is overwhelming. Tracy has been an outstanding TA.. I really lucked out... I wish I had had more to give her.. a Twins Baseball cap and a bracelet, an UNO card game... and a Minnesota T-Shirt!

I was most touched with Mr.Tao. As I mentioned earlier, he is the man who serves as dean of students for the summer enrichment program. From the beginning, I have been so impressed with the way he interacts with others and his gentle spirit. This morning, during a quiet moment in the foreign teacher's lounge, he presented me with a Chinese chop that he carved himself in 1996. The meaning of the characters was difficult to translate, but I know the gesture was significant!







Mr. Tao asked me if I planned to come back next year.. I indicated that maybe I am getting too old... and he said (through Tracy) that people much older than me have taught here!! So, I think it's probably a bit like delivering a baby,... don't ask me to do it again until I've had time to recover!

Wan an!
Joan



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Location:Yuyao Experimental School (August 5, 2012)