On February 20th Ran and I met at CIES for our fourth conversation partner meeting! We talked about the stereotypes Americans make towards Asian culture and especially, food. She thought it was funny that Chinese and Thai restaraunts here sell sushi... that is a Japanese food!!! She has recognized that in America many parts of Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, etc. culture and traditions are just put into one basket and are all considered the same thing, Asian. A misconception she has noticed the students at CIES have, as well! We then talked about different Chinese films that I have been wanting to see and what her favorite films are. We also talked about the different apps they use in China and how they differ from those Americans use, social media and online banking. We then talked with other students in the CIES program about the cultures in Saudi Arabia vs. Kuwait vs.China.
My third conversation partner meeting was with Josue, my conversation partner from Paris, France. He suggested that we go to a restaurant for this meeting, and recommended the Colombian restaurant on Tennessee St. called "Super Perros". I had never been to this restaurant before, so it was interesting to not only converse with someone from outside of my culture but also at a cultural restaurant with an atmosphere and menu different than what I am used to. Most of the menu was in Spanish, so we were able to bond over trying to figure out what the menu was saying, and ended up sharing a lot of laughs over it. During our meeting, we caught up on how he was doing at CIES, what he's involved in in Tallahasee, and discussed deeper topics such as the current political affairs going on in France. This led to a grander discussion about American politics, and it turned out we had similar views. It was interesting to connect our ideas across border lines, realizing we all want the ...
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