Chrysanthemum Tea, et al.

When walking to the school today, I was called over by this man, climbing in his backyard tree, for the last persimmon of the year. While I have seen his wife frequently, this was my first encounter with him. What a charming gesture to drop the fruit to me!
I don't remember persimmons in Kansas or Illinois much, but seems they are much bigger in Korea, and much more orange.

In walking further, it suddenly dawned on me that this has been quite the last two weeks for "goodies" from my students. Below is a picture of everything I have brought home, including the orange persimmon from today, complete with attached branch. Candy says that this persimmon needs to ripen before I can try to eat it.

This second picture also shows two Chrysanthemum items (a box of tea and a key chain), a giant pear (got 3 of those), three packets of spiced tea, and the icing on the cake: a small pink, black and white cow pen and cute blue with lamb (whose eyes move) tiny spiral notebook. I think I have mentioned that the children receive stickers for various
tasks and are able to exchange them for school related items when they have a full "sticker sheet". The pen and notebook were a most precious gift.

Many people are going to the countryside these days for Chrysanthemum festivals and to see the Fall colors. The tea and key chain are from those trips.

I can't tell you how much these gestures mean. When I had my cold, they were nice surprises!