The best things...

I'm thinking of the best things of being a teacher. And I'm not even thinking about the vacations, which are nice and long, but do you know how much English my students forget?!

But very seriously, one of my favorite things is meeting up with former students. Once wandering with a friend in downtown Jerusalem, suddenly a gangly young man leapt over to us so excited to say hello to me. She guessed immediately that he was a former student.

This summer in the Old City, I noticed a group of soldiers, suddenly the officer left his charges and came over to talk to me, of course, a former student.

A couple of years after I was removed as girls gym teacher, I had to go into the school for something, and suddenly I was surrounded by little girls asking me why I wasn't teaching them any more.

One morning during women's hours at the pool, a young mother told me how much it meant to her to be swimming with her "gym teacher."

On a bus not long ago, suddenly I saw a familiar face; the young woman ran over. "Do you remember me?" "Of course, I was the substitute teacher for four months." Then I heard her ask her friend. "Do you remember? She was our teacher."

I "tremp" or hitch hike, where I live it's normal. Many times I've gotten rides with former students, and they are so proud to be driving the teacher.

This is so strange for me, because I don't remember ever seeing or knowing any of my teachers outside the classrooms. None of my teachers ever saw me grown.