A memorable last Human Physiology Class

Today was our last day of classes, which was super exciting!! My human physiology professor is an older gentleman who has lots of ailments (his words) but he suffered through a lot of pain this semester so that he could teach us. He was diagnosed with shingles this week among other things. A few days ago our class got an email from a fellow classmate that they were going to do something special for this professor (Dr. Rhees). Then last night we got the details. Dr. Rhees lectures without shoes on because of his pain, and so the first part of the plan was that, a few minutes before class started (after Dr. Rhees had taken his shoes off), one of the students (who was actually recently diagnosed with Lymphoma) was going to take her shoes off and place them with his. This was our cue that we were to take our shoes off and put them with his as well. So we did. And this was the result.

Our pile of shoes =]

Dr. Rhees then went on to finish up the last of our material, and then he gave his "Last Class" lecture. Sadly, the projector kept breaking, but luckily he was able to finish it. Background: There are these cookies called Granny B cookies. They are big sugar cookies with pink frosting, and Dr. Rhees loves them!! Anyway. The plan was that we were to write thank you notes to Dr. Rhees, and on our way into class, we picked up one of these pink cookies. Once Dr. Rhees had finished his presentation, one student stood up, walked to the front, placed the cookie and note on the front table and shook his hand. This was our cue. I was prepared with my camera, so I had a friend take my cookie and note up, but we all went up to show our appreciation to Dr. Rhees. He shook everyone's hand, and was so amazed that we had done this for him. Another neat thing was that his wife was able to come to witness this.

Receiving cookies and shaking hands.

Dr. Rhees and his sweet wife.

This is my classmate who had organized this all. He was in Dr. Rhees' class 10 years ago (He then went off to med school, but something happened and now he has to retake classes again..hence he is in Dr. Rhees' class again). If you notice, in his left hand, he has an apple. 10 years ago Dr. Rhees had a thing for apples, and this man had organized a similar thing, but with apples. When we all started to bring up the cookies, he immediately called out "Steve, did you do this?!". Dr. Rhees had remembered what Steve had done 10 years ago, and that showed us what an impact something like this means to him.

The end result. A mass amount of cookies and thank you notes. Dr. Rhees vowed his grandchildren will not be allowed one cookie. He will be eating them all =]

Our fantastic class (well, a good part of them). They wanted a group picture. The awesome thing was I didn't even have to organize people!! They organized themselves into rows and everything. That was neat =]

So that was my fantastic day! We also had a work party today, but I'll save that event for tomorrow's blog post =]

Hope everyone has a great day!

-andrea