Today was my last teaching day before the holidays and I was so pleased that one student brought me a chocolate St. Nick and another handed me a small box wrapped with shiny green paper and a nice gold bow on top. The wrapping job wasn't so great, but it was from an older guy so I figured his wife does the wrapping at home and he probably doesn't get much practice. :-)
I must take a minute to tell you that all of my students are VERY different from one another. Some are quiet, others are boisterous. Some are technical, others are artsy. Some are very serious, others are class clowns! Well, the wrapped gift came from one of my jokester students, so before I opened it, I asked, "Is anything going to pop out at me?" He laughed and then said, "no" as if I was accusing him of not being genuine in his gift-giving motive.
So I slowly took off the bow and untaped the gift wrap on the sides to unveil a small cardboard box about 6 inches on each side. There was a lid on top taped shut, so I carefully pulled back the tape to peak inside...and IMMEDIATELY closed the box and taped it shut again! My heart was pounding, after I discovered a live mouse starring back at me with his two beady little eyes!! All I could think was, "Thank goodness I didn't drop the box when I saw him!"
Another girl in class asked what was in the box, so I slid it to her and said, "open it carefully." She had no idea what was in it, but opened the box and wasn't frightened at all. She started talking to the little guy saying how cute he was!
I never forget that the culture here is different from home, so while I assumed the gift was a joke, I couldn't be too sure! The student who gave the mouse to me then told me he had found the mouse this morning, so he decided to catch it and give it to me as a gift (only as a joke I had finally figured out). He asked if I wanted to take the little guy home or if he should let the mouse go outside. I opted for the latter, but took one more look at the little guy before we parted ways.
Oh, how I love my students!!!
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