Greg: NO! YES

Greg. Ah, Greg. Where do I even begin? Some of you have probably been looking forward to this post. If you recognize the title, you have probably already heard a lot about Greg.  This may sound a bit shallow, but one of the most notable things about Greg was his shirt.

He wore this shirt every single day for about two weeks, and it was my favorite! NO! YES. How great is that? Pretty great. And I’m not the only one who thought that.

Another cool thing about Greg was quite a fun surprise.  Our class was out in the garden taking class pictures one day, and obviously I couldn’t take all of them, because I had to be in some.  Some of my students tried taking pictures, but its a digital SLR, so sometimes it’s not the most user-friendly, and their pictures came out pretty stinky.  However, Greg took the camera from me, and was suddenly snapping pictures left and right. He was getting down on one knee, and had the perfect photographer stance!

He positioned Brianna and I among the plants in the garden and snapped this photo. I think it turned out beautifully.

Perhaps the most memorable thing for me was the relationship I was able to develop with Greg.  Out of all my students, he was one of the few who really took risks in trying to practice his English with me, because he trusted me and felt safe.  He started sitting at the front of the classroom so that he could erase the chalkboard for me in between activities.  Once, he told me in front of the entire class that I was very beautiful.

Greg even felt comfortable telling me about his troubles with his friend, asking me for advice.  He later wrote me a very touching letter about how glad he was that he met me and how I made him feel better even with his friendship troubles.

Don’t get the idea, however, that Greg was all sentimentality and no fun.  I have many funny Greg stories up my sleeve, and I’m having a hard time figuring out which to share with you. I think I’ll go with the potato one.

So, one time, I was talking with Greg and Brianna about their families’ farms, and what they grow.  Our conversation went something like this:
Brianna: We grow a lot of potatoes.
Me: Oh, do you like potatoes?
Brianna: No, not really.
Me: That’s ok. I like potatoes.
Greg (butting into the conversation): Oh Miss Jane, I like potatoes!

Obviously, we have something important in common.

So, I’ll leave you with one of my favorite pictures from the trip. For a photo scavenger hunt, my students were asked to point to a country on the map that we had learned about during English camp. Greg was the only one who didn’t point to China.

Thanks for reading!