Gifts and appreciation

I like my co-op students. I have three of them for this workterm, which is a record number for me.

On Monday, I met with them and gave them small gifts from my Shanghai travels. I tried to get a couple of items that were made or from China. We joke fairly often that most materialistic items come from this country. However, I truly was looking for items that they would like from China.

I got them each a bag of loose leaf jasmine tea. From China? Check. It's fragrant and helps reduce stress, among other things.

My other gift sounds odd. I found the Hershey's Store in Shanghai. I got milk chocolate in the shape of small balls. They were housed in a beautiful Hello Kitty tin with no English on it. You had a mountain behind Hello Kitty with Chinese characters on the tin. Perfect!

On Thursday, they mentioned how yummy the chocolate was and how much they appreciated the gifts that I had given them. They didn't see it coming, which is the best type of gift that I enjoy dishing out.