Teaching in an international setting is always interesting, and you often learn new things. I expected that when I took this job. But there are simply some things I had not anticipated.

When I first introduced the qal stem of the verb in Hebrew, all of my students started laughing. It turns out that qal is the Russian word for ‘poop’. This prompted one of my students to mention the experience that all of them had in grade school. At the beginning of each year, students were required to bring in a sample of their poop in a matchbox. They would bring it up to the teacher’s desk, who would give it to the school nurse to be checked for indications of health problems. Ah, life in the Soviet period!

Today is the final day of classes at LCC. When I walked into the Intro to Bible II class this morning, there on my desk were thirty matchboxes. Each was filled with a piece of poop chocolate. I now have one of them displayed in my office in the collection of memorabilia I keep on my desk. (Other items in the collection include a picture of my dog, my son’s little league baseball card, a chunk of salt from the salt mines in Krakow, a model of the Rosetta Stone, and a hand-made Christmas card made to look like a pocket New Testament given to me by an Old Testament student.) The chocolate was delicious, by the way.

This is easily the weirdest - and most appreciated - end of the year gift I have ever received from students.

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