FSU TEFL Certificate Course Spring 2019

On Jan. 18th, my conversation partner, Sulaiman, and I met for the first time at the Paper Fox Café on Pensacola. Sulaiman is from Saudi Arabia, and while his English was not bad, there were a few times when we were not quite able to understand one another and had to take out Google Translate, and even then we would still get confused. We talked about pop culture, food, historical celebrities in our countries, such as the USA’s most famous presidents and Saudi Arabia’s most famous royal leaders, and hobbies. There was more than one moment where we were each talking about something while the other thought it was about something else, but we were able to understand one another in the end. So far, Sulaiman likes his classes and Tallahassee, and plans to be in town for a while. I am excited to see how he will grow and his English skills will improve!

Today I met with Nathaly at Gilchrest. Her teacher asked me again to work with her on the vocabulary for the coming up week. I started by introducing it to her and I tried to use all of the words in context as well as with the definitions. Then we made flash cards but this time I had her make half of them and I made the other half (in the past I made all of them, which I now realize I should have been having her make them). After we finished the flashcards, we studied them and I noticed that she remembered better the ones that she wrote herself. I'm beginning to realize that Nathaly is a kinesthetic learner and I think she would do really well with a Frayer model template. I want to find a more creative way to present this to her but for the next tutoring session, I think I will bring with me a few of them so we can use those to study the vocabulary.

For this session, Anibal and I had a little more time so we decided to do more practice with the independent writing and to integrated writing practice. I found another independent writing prompt and repeated our activity from the last tutoring session. I scored it and told Anibal why I gave him the score he received. We then took a small break and I found a YouTube video that had a small passage and a lecture specifically for integrated writing practice. I had him read the passage and listen to the lecture. Then he had 20 minutes to write the essay. Again, I scored it based on the TOEFL rubric. In all cases of the writing from this session and last, he has made high scores. Although, I think the practice is good for him because the pressure from the actual TOEFL course may be lessened by his comfortability with being timed and under this pressure.   

Anibal and I decided to switch things up today and use this session to practice the independent writing portion of the TOEFL. In the last tutoring session we had, he responded very well to start off with a look at the speaking rubric so I thought we’d do the same for the writing rubric I got in the TEFL class. We read through the rubric together so that Anibal knew what could get him each score. I found a practice prompt online and gave Anibal 30 minutes to write a response to the prompt. I then used the TOEFL rubric to score the response and explained my scoring with Anibal. I think that explaining the scoring with him was helpful because he was able to understand why he got the score, what he can continue to do well, and what he can improve for next time.  

For this tutoring session, Anibal and I used another timed speaking practice. I had been thinking back to some of our other practice while looking at the TOEFL speaking rubric and realized that even though Anibal’s answers are getting better in terms of grammar and structure, he doesn’t always answer the questions on the topic. I explained to him that the TOEFL grading also focuses on content and I read over the rubric with him. I think this was important because he was able to see what was expected of him when he goes to take the exam. This time, I was also able to utilize some of the handouts that I have from observing Mr. Ryan’s speaking class. I demonstrated to Anibal that for the advice questions, he should write down his plan in order to stay on topic. I think that this also helped him answer the questions better.  

For this tutoring session, Nathaly’s teacher gave me a new set of vocabulary to work on with Nathaly. I decided to make simple flash cards with Nathaly in hopes that she could use them to study. I figured the matching game that we did last time may have been fun but in terms of studying might have been difficult for her. So, I showed her how to make the cards by writing the vocabulary on the front and the definition on the back and demonstrated that she could look at the word and say out loud the definition, then turn the card over to check to see if she was correct. I have found that it is helpful to Nathaly if we first explain the vocabulary in Spanish and then translate it into English. At first, I was wary that this is helping her learn English, but after discussing it with my mom, she told me that I am helping Nathaly stay on top of her content in class, and this should help her motivation by not being behind. Anyway, I was very surprised and pleased when Nathaly explain...

Today we did another recorded speaking practice like the past ones. This session we focused a lot on the questions that give three options and ask the respondee to choose one. I think that this was a pretty easy topic for Anibal. After 5 times of recorded speaking and revision, I explained that his responses have improved a lot and I played back for him some of his responses from our first session. I think it was really good for him to see his improvement because it seemed to motivate him more and make him feel proud of the progress he has made with his speaking responses.  I think that his improvement is going to be very helpful when he sits down to take the actual test because he should feel a lot more comfortable with all of this practice under his belt.

Today, Anibal and I started the tutoring session with a quick review of verb tenses. I wrote down all twelve of them and had Anibal tell me an example of each and when to use it. He was able to explain most of them and I helped him fill in the blanks. With this activity, we created sort of a study sheet. After this, we did another speaking activity with practice questions and recorded answers. This time, Anibal did a lot better in terms of verb tense usage. The few mistakes he did make, he picked up immediately with the review and we marked them for him to individually study later on. I think that he is getting used to this timed response and feeling less pressure than the first time we did this.  I mentioned that maybe it would be okay to move onto another TOEFL skill at this point but Anibal said that since he has so much time until he takes the exam, he would feel comfortable working on this skill a few more times. 

Today I went to Gilchrest to work with Nathaly again. I have asked her teacher, Mrs. Thomas to give me the vocabulary they are studying for the next week so Nathaly can have a head start on it. This week the vocabulary was based on transportation and was very difficult because of the similarities with the words. Together, Nathaly and I created a matching game that was fun and helpful for Nathaly to study the words. On index cards, we wrote the vocabulary words and the definitions on the back of individual cards (so that each card had either a vocabulary word or a definition and a blank side). Then we placed all of the cards on the table face-down so we could only see their blank side. We then took turns flipping one card over, reading either the vocabulary word or the definition and choosing another card to flip over and read. If the cards matched, we got a "point." Each time, I asked Nathaly if the word matched the definition and I let her "win" the game to promote...

Again today, Anibal and I worked on TOEFL speaking skills. We repeated the activity from last time where we recorded his speaking and both listened to it. I am noticing the patterns that he makes with the speaking exercises. He typically has trouble using verb tenses. For example, he uses a present continuous verb when he should use a simple present or even simple past. I think this gives us something to work on before we start the speaking exercises for the next tutoring session. As for the speaking exercises for today, we used the same method from last time, this time I feel like Anibal was able to pick up on even more of his mistakes after listening to his recording. I think that listening to his speaking is very helpful for him.

Today I worked with Anibal on his speaking skills. Anibal is a post-grad student who wishes to take the TOEFL in order to apply for graduate school in the US. I would categorize him in the advanced level in speaking and listening. He has been in the US for about a year but has studied English as a foreign language in his home country. For speaking practice, I found some sample TOEFL questions online and asked Anibal the questions in the TOEFL format: I asked the question, gave him 15 seconds to think about the question, then gave him 45 seconds to answer the question. I thought it would be productive for Anibal and I to both listen to his responses so he could try to find his errors. We played back his recording and we both wrote down grammar, pronunciation, and structural errors we found. Surprisingly enough, I had Anibal describe to me the errors he found first, and he had written down all of the errors I had. With the exception of a few, he had noticed all of his mistakes. This show...

I went to see Nathaly again at Gilchrist. This time we used reading material that was entirely in English. I had her use the same method we had been using of reading the book in English then translating it so she can find the meaning. She was so proud to have read an entire book in English. During this tutoring session and others, I found that she has a hard time focusing on the book we read. I thought that maybe for the next session I will plan a game for us to do together that may make it more interesting for her. Since our first meeting, I have been concerned about if I am qualified enough to help Nathaly. She has only been in the US for six months and does not know much English at all. I have been hoping that I have been a good enough tutor for her so far. At the end of this session, however, her teacher told me that since we began meeting Nataly’s confidence in class has skyrocketed. She said that Nathaly participates in class more and that she is more engaged. This real...

I went to Gilchrest again to meet with Nathaly. During this session, I asked her more about her family as well as told her about mine. I’m hoping to build rapport with her so that she feels more comfortable speaking English with me. I mentioned today that I know she won’t think badly of me if I make a mistake speaking Spanish and I feel the same with her speaking English. Hopefully, after more sessions, she will be more comfortable with me and we can start speaking with each other more in English.  After having a small conversation, we went back to the library to find a Spanish and English bilingual book. I'm hoping that with enough repetition of this, she will begin to do that on her own. Maybe this will make her enjoy her reading more and will make the transition into books in only English much easier. 

I met Andrea again in the kitchen of CIES. We began by talking about the book I gave her last week. She told me she really enjoyed it and it was a good level for her. I was a little worried it would be too difficult so this news made me feel happy. She told me at first, she was stopping at every word she didn’t know in order to translate it. But then learned it was better to read and only write down the words she didn’t know but continue and come back later to translate. She told me this allowed her to understand the overall meaning better. She also made comprehension notes about the book. After we went over the questions she had, I had her read a text and summarize it for me. I chose a more difficult text than I did last time because I think the first text was too easy.   Afterward, we talked about the text and she answered some of the compression questions I had.  

For my third tutoring session, I met Nathaly for the first time at Gilchrist elementary. Nathaly is a third grader who has been in the US for 6 months. Her teacher, Mrs. Thomas told me that she does not speak and class and has trouble understanding. When I met Nathaly, I learned that she was very shy. When I spoke with her in English, she blankly looked at me and did not respond. I realized that to build confidence with her, I should speak to her in Spanish. When I started speaking in Spanish, she began to open up and seemed more comfortable. I explained to her, in Spanish, the fun and importance of knowing two languages. I told her we could help each other with both English and Spanish. I then asked her about what she likes to do and what her favorite subjects are. She showed me one of her drawings. I can tell that our first few sessions will need to be focused on her being comfortable with me. She is very reserved and is incredibly shy when speaking English. I asked her if...

This conversation with Sulaiman was fantastic! I feel like his fluency is greatly increasing. He did not use google to translate a single time. He was able to get his point across with very little effort on my part. We began by talking about law and how he could go about studying law in the US. Then I asked him about how women just gained their right to drive in Saudi Arabia. It is very interesting to talk with him about Saudi Arabia because his stories really challenge the stereotypes we have of Arab people in the US. He was telling me that everyone was so happy that women have finally gained this right. Also, he was telling me that paid maternity leave was expected in Saudi Arabia. I told him that in the US, it is not a law to ensure paid leave for women. He was so shocked to hear this which only reinforced my changing ideas of Arabic culture. We also discussed health care and how it is so much cheaper in Saudi Arabia than here. We both realized Americans should just take v...

For this conversation, Sulaiman and I met in the classroom of CIES. He told me that he was preparing for a project in the future tense about where he will go after CIES. I told him that it may be productive then for us to talk about our future plans for our conversation. He told me that he wishes to go to Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Everest because he enjoys climbing mountains. Additionally, he told me he wishes to go on a cruise with some friends and go scuba diving while on his vacation. I thought his ideas were very interesting and through our conversation, we developed different types of ways to use them in his presentation. I told him that I was planning on going to Colombia after I graduate from college and teach English there.  Through this conversation, we were able to use a little bit of what he needed to focus on for his class project. It was almost like a conversation meeting with a little tutoring session. I think this was very helpful for him because it allow...

On February 20th I saw Ngoc Han after her sister Bao in the CIES study room. Similarly to her sister, we worked on writing skills, except Ngoc wrote about the New Year's celebration in Vietnam and the different customs and traditions they engage in there. I found her main errors were in spelling of certain vocabulary words she used to describe the dish her mom cooks during this time, as well as, transition words, and misspelling of words that sound similar to others, like minimal pairs. We also covered reduced forms, such as gunna, wanna, shoulda, etc.

On February 20th, I met with Bao Han at the CIES study rooms to work on writing and some grammar questions she had. I had her write about whatever she wanted to, using the past tense. After she wrote a paragraph or two, I graded it by telling her what was incorrect and allowing her to                   figure it out on her own. Her main mistakes were omitting key transition words or missing articles and making certain objects plural when they needed to be singular. She seemed to struggle most with past perfect continuous so I explained that further and we did examples from her book.

I had what hopefully won't be my last tutoring session with Manal. We chatted about how far she's come with her English skills, but again how much farther she still wants to go. We went over more composition assignments and she seemed to have a more positive attitude compared to the last tutoring session. Her composition mistakes were mostly made up of errors pertaining to subject verb agreement, as well as not her lack of including articles when needed to. I found these errors somewhat hard to explain to her, but she seemed to understand how to fix them. We ended the session with me asking her if she'd like to be apart of my Visual Rhetoric project where I interview Saudi Arabian CIES students about their experience in America so far. This led to a grander discussion about the misconceptions that the media brings about different cultures, and I could tell she was happy with me trying to break these existing stereotypes. Manal was one of my favorite CIES students and I hope...

On march 5th, I met with Bao Han and we also worked on our listening skills and grammar, because those were the two parts of english she struggles with. We first went over the grammar, the difference between a gerund and an infinitive and when to use either one. She showed me a worksheet she filled out in class and I went over it with her and explained to her why the ones she got wrong were wrong. After that explanation, we did a listening exercise and I told her about my day and she wrote down what she heard me say. I then told her to read it back to me and gave her an opportunity to correct herself, when she got stuck I would explain to her why she got it wrong:)

On March 5th I met with Ngoc Han and we primarily worked on listening skills, because that is the area she said she struggles with the most. We practiced how to hear the distinction between words and the correct pronunciation of a few words she had trouble with, such as restaurant, private, etc. I then told her about my weekend and had her write down what she heard me say. After I said all the things I did this past weekend, we went over what she wrote down together. I had her read it back to me and then ask her what she thought was wrong and had her try and correct it first. If she got stuck on any one part I would help her correct it and explain to her why it was that way. We had troubles with helping words, plural, past tense, gerunds, and some longer vocabulary words.

On February 27th I met with Bao Han in the CIES computer room. It was also a conversational tutoring session, as I met with both Ngoc and Bao. We were together for a couple of hours talking about Vietnamese/Thai customs, religion/spirituality, geography, and where we hope to travel in the future. They were open to talking about their religious view and told me that they believe in some type of higher power but that they are not religious. We all got to talk to another CIES student from Saudi Arabia, who shared with us his Muslim beliefs, and what spirituality meant to him. It was eye opening hearing about how integral religion is to his daily life and his identity. I got to also hear her opinions and uncertainty on the matter of God or religion and encouraged her to express herself and use a wider range of vocabulary. As she gave her opinions on these matters I worked at correcting her grammar mistakes and helping her sound out words she had troubles pronouncing, such as the b and p so...

I met with Ngoc in the CIES computer lab and we had a conversational tutoring session where we discussed different superstitions and religious beliefs of Vietnam, Thailand, the Middle East, U.S., etc. She was explaining to me a custom that is popular in Thailand and has bled over to Vietnam as well. This custom is unlike I've ever heard of before and I was quite confused by it when she began to explain it. We problem-solved together and I helped her with her pronunciation and vocabulary and corrected any grammar errors while she spoke. After a few times of her explaining the custom to me in different ways, we finally reached a consensus. There are these dolls that people put their dead children's soul's into, so to speak, and the people believe that the soul of the child lives within the doll and that by having this doll you will gain prosperity and good fortune. She explained to me that people will buy food and drinks for the doll, feed it and buy it nice things so that it...

This tutoring session was with Manal. She had been feeling unmotivated last time we met, but seemed to be feeling more positive this time. She is in her second session of classes at CIES and said the composition class is harder this time than it was last time. She said she does okay when writing paragraphs, but has been having problems when it comes to writing essays overall. She showed me a homework assignment that had been graded and asked for help with revision. We walked through the composition assignment together line by line and I asked her what she thinks would be the correct revision before fixing it directly for her. She usually picked up on her mistakes pretty quickly, but sometimes I would have to just tell her the answer. I found this tutoring session to be challenging for me because a lot of her mistakes were not simple errors, they were rather "advanced level" errors that even native speakers mess up on. I found this to be good practice in explaining english gra...

I had another tutoring session with Turki this week. Last time we focused on speaking skills in preparation for the IELTS exam. This time he wanted to work on reading comprehension again instead. We did the usual read through, where I read a passage and then he read the next. Afterwards, we went through the questions and answers together. He struggled with this and I believe it was due to the difficult level of the passage. Sometimes Turki aims too high for his own good. I could sense the frustration, that soon became counter productive, so I offered that we take a break and just talk for  a second. We ended up chatting about the differences in culture between the US and Saudi Arabia, specifically focusing on music. He told me all about some Arabic music that he likes and why he finds it hard to listen to popular music here in the US. He said he thinks it is frustrating how American songs will have happy beats with sad lyrics, and vice versa. I thought this was humorous and somethi...

This tutoring session was with Turki. He, as previously mentioned, has so much more free time due to his lack of CIES classes and always comes prepared with study materials. We once again worked on skills he thinks are pertinent for doing well on the IELTS exam coming up in May. He wanted to specifically focus on speaking again, for we had done it once before, and he said he got a lot out of it. He pulled up a website that has a lot of good practice examples/questions pertaining to the speaking portion and we did four different examples together. I would read the prompt, give him a minute to plan his thoughts/take notes, then give him two minutes to answer the question. I saw huge improvements this time versus the last time we worked together. I don't know if it is because he is more comfortable with me as his tutor, or if he is genuinely improving planning his thoughts and executing his ideas under the pressure of time. Either way he did a great job and was clear to understand whi...

This tutoring session was spent with Manal at CIES. We spent some time talking about how she spent her week off without having classes and how she was doing adjusting back to the busy school week. She seemed very tired and vented to me about her frustration of feeling like she was plateauing in her English. She said she wishes she had more opportunities to practice speaking with native speakers, for she said she thinks that's the only way she's ever going to improve. I told her about the Arabic Student Union on campus and hope that she will make more of an effort to go to their meetings and maybe get more of a chance to practice her English with them. We then worked on a composition homework assignment together until it was time for her to return to her classes again.

This tutoring session was again at The Sweet Shop, making up for the lost tutoring time we spent chatting about the struggles of life abroad. Today Turki was more focused, not being affected by the emotional turmoil he was dealing with last time, and we were able to get right to it. He brought in a reading exercise that he found online from some kind of IELTS practice exam that was specifically targeting comprehension questions. Most of the questions we worked on were True/False questions based off of a three-page passage. I found these questions to be very tricky for someone who doesn't have a vast English vocabulary. A lot of the questions were formed using synonyms for sentences in the passage, and unless the reader knew such multiple words representing the same meaning, they wouldn't be able to successfully complete the exercise. Turki asked how he could prepare for such questions, and I told him multiple times to read and gain as much new vocabulary as he can. He learned t...

Today I met with Turki at the Sweet Shop where we originally planned to have a normal tutoring session like the usual. We were going to practice more speaking skills in preparation for his IELTS test; however, when he came into the Sweet Shop I could tell something was wrong. He opened up and vented to me about a miscarriage that his brother's wife just had back home in Saudi Arabia. He started getting tears in his eyes and I realized this was no time for teaching or studying. Rather than being there as his tutor, I was there as his friend. He vented to me about how he wished he was home to be there with his brother and family, and how moments like these made him question what it was he was doing in the US. We talked a lot about the trials and tribulations that come along with traveling and it made me think about how I will one day be in the same position that he is in, dealing with these kinds of thoughts and questions. Although we didn't get too much work done, it was nice to...

For this session, I once again met up with Turki. Most of my tutoring hours went into helping him for he is such a determined student and wanted all the help that he could get. We met at the Argo Tea on campus and started with a chat about life. I actually asked him if he'd be willing to help me with a class project I have for my visual rhetoric class. I have to make a short documentary and want to focus on the differences between how lot of Americans depict Saudi Arabian culture and people to be versus what it really is and how they are really just people similar to me and you. I found becoming friends with students from the Middle East to be one of my favorite parts of the TEFL experience and look forward to creating this mini film with his and other CIES student's help. When it came to tutoring, he asked if we could focus on the speaking portion of the IELTS exam. Since he has stopped taking courses at CIES, he wants to focus heavily on this specific exam and all of its comp...

My next tutoring session was with Turki. We met at the Starbucks on Tennessee Street, the usual spot, and started the session with a causal conversation about life and his short term English goals. Turki decided he didn't want to continue with the second session of CIES classes, and that he wanted to rather focus solely on passing the IELTS exam. He said he found the CIES classes to be helpful, but also distracting. He said he thinks he's gotten the most out of his classes and that it would be more productive for him to study on his own. Where I don't completely agree with his logic, it is his life and I trust his decision making. For this session he brought his own material that he wanted to focus on. This time it was a reading passage that I even found to be quite difficult, and I was once again impressed by his far reach in practice and ability. The reading passage was accompanied by a set of numerous comprehension questions that we reviewed and answered together. The qu...

This tutoring session was with Manal. She invited me to her home for it was during the weekend and she didn't want to ask her husband for a ride anywhere. I was happy to commute to her apartment and was even happier when she met me at the door with Arabic coffee and dessert in hand. She was a very accommodating host and gave me a warm welcome that I didn't expect. I was also taken aback at first, for she wasn't wearing her hijab. It took me a second to adjust for I had never seen her before without it, and enjoyed talking and teaching her without it covering her face and mouth the entire time. After chatting over dates, arabic coffee, and a home made dessert, we went over some of her previous homework assignments together, again focusing on her biggest weakness: grammar. Her daughter was at the house as well so that became a bit distracting, but also made the tutoring session more fun. Her daughter is learning English as well, so we went back and forth between intense gramm...

My next tutoring session was with Turki where we met at his house again, due to the perks of working in a quiet setting. This time he offered me chocolate chip cookies and Arabic coffee, and of course I couldn't refuse. This was my first time drinking Arabic coffee and I found it to have an interesting taste. I personally think it tastes more like a tea, regardless it was delicious. We picked up from last time, reviewing some of his previous homework assignments talking again about prepositions of place and how to discern the multiple meanings of the same word. After reviewing quickly, he decided he wanted to instead work on writing techniques. His request for help was unique. He said, "I don't want to focus on grammar or vocabulary, I want to focus on organization and how to make my writing powerful." Once again Turki was aiming big and striving for more than the average student. In order to reach his goals, I suggested we start by focusing on the pre-wrting stage. I...

My next tutoring session was with Manal. Manal is from Saudi Arabia and is very serious about CIES (a common trait I found amongst my tutees from Saudi Arabia). She has two daughters, a husband, and is working towards getting her PhD. Manal is very smart and does well with reading and speaking, her biggest issues lie in the realms of grammar and listening. I always find tutoring Manal to be a challenge, for she asks intelligent questions that always put my English grammar knowledge to the test. During this tutoring session we went over a couple of homework assignments that she had gotten back for a grade. She did well on the assignments over all; however, when there was a section of the homework she didn't understand, she got the entire section wrong. There were clear gaps in her grammar knowledge, which allowed me to specifically focus on certain topics versus going over grammar more broadly as a whole. One of the topics she struggled with was personal pronouns. She could understa...

This tutoring session was with Turki from Saudi Arabia. Turki is older than most of the CIES students I have met and is more serious about his work. He never fails to come without a list of topics  that he wants to work on. At first I found these requests kind of intimidating as a tutor, but now I appreciate them for they allow me to prepare with materials and to do research on the certain lessons that he wants to focus on before hand. During this session we met at his apartment complex, something I was also a bit intimidated about at first; however, it was a very safe and comfortable environment and actually worked better due to the low level of noise. During this session we focused on prepositions of place as well as practiced using context clues to determine the meaning of a word. Although he likes idioms and funny sayings, he says in certain texts they can be difficult to understand. We worked through a number of different examples as well as with his homework assignment that h...

For this conversation partner meeting, I met with Turki. Normally I tutor Turki, for he is a very serious and studious student, but today we decided to just chat rather than work on English assignments. We met at Starbucks, our usual spot, and dove into a pretty deep conversation pretty fast. Turki has a pretty advanced level of conversational English and kept up with the advanced topics of conversation well. We talked a lot about the trials and tribulations that come with living abroad, as well as the benefits of it. He said he has travelled to a number of different places before coming to the US and felt his numerous experiences have helped open his mind beyond the cultural norms that exist in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is obviously known for its conservative culture, and Turki said he sometimes struggles to agree with those around him when it comes to the enforcement of such conservative laws. He believes he is more Western-minded than even his mom, as well as other family members a...

This conversation partner meeting was with Bao Han from Vietnam. Our first couple of meetings were held on campus, but this time we thought it would be more fun to branch out and go out to eat somewhere off campus. I decided to take her to the restaurant called Good Berry. It is a popular local restaurant known for its yummy acaii bowls, a new and trending American treat. She said they didn't have these kinds of food creations in Vietnam and was excited to try something new. When it came to ordering food, I found it interesting how I got about 4 toppings and she only got one. I know they say American's like to indulge, and in comparison to Bao Han I really felt like I was living up to the American reputation... Anyways, when we were eating we talked about a number of different topics. The Vietnamese New Year had just past and she was venting to me about how it made her miss her family back home, how she celebrated it here in the US, and when she plans on seeing her family again...

This conversation partner meeting was my third time meeting with Josue from France. We met at the Sweet Shop, one of my favorite locations in Tallahassee. We were supposed to meet at 5, but unfortunately due to the awful parking situation on campus, Josue couldn't find a spot close by and only ended up coming in to Sweet Shop around 5:20. When he finally arrived we talked for a long time about the awful parking situation on campus, I told him about a couple of my secret spots on campus I've discovered over the years, and compared the transportation situation here to that in France. Apparently its easier to get around in Paris...no surprise there. When we met it was right after the Superbowl. This was Josue's first time experiencing the Superbowl and similar to me, he said he had no clue what was going on the whole time. He said he payed more attention to the wings and cupcakes provided at the party he went to, again something we had in common. I had to leave around 6 to mak...