CP6

 On Thursday, Jan 24th, I met up with Mubarak at Jimmy John's near his apartment. I got a sandwich and we headed to our friend Mahdi's apartment off Pensacola St. We had discussed going bowling, but instead we just decided to hang out at Mahdi's and talk. Mahdi had set out some delicious chocolates and other desserts, as well as cashews and pistachios, and prepared for us the traditional tea of his country, flavored strongly with cardamom (هال in Arabic). We watched some documentaries about jaguars and other wildlife in the jungles of South America such as caimans and capybaras, and discussed the IELTS and TOEFL (Mubarak says he is not allowed back to Kuwait until he scores at least a 5.5 on the IELTS as they are here on a government grant).

 We talked about a few other things such as differences between what is polite or expected behavior for someone from the U.S. versus someone from Kuwait; for instance, when asked whether or not they desire more tea, someone from the U.S. usually will not hesitate to say yes or no, but people from Kuwait will say no thank you even if they really do want more.

 I think it's important to have discussions about cultural expectations, to raise awareness about international manners and hopefully help avoid unnecessary conflict due to such differences. Just yesterday when I was eating at Far East Cuisine with my girlfriend, she told me that in Japan (she lived there for some time) and likely other Eastern cultures, it is considered rude to leave your chopsticks sticking out of your food and instead should be placed together sideways to indicate that you are finished. [Just looked this up and chopsticks sticking straight up from a bowl of rice indicates an offering for the dead. More chopstick etiquette: http://www.neiu.edu/~sdundis/examples/cook/chopsticks.htm]

 After taking some goofy instagram pictures and chatting for a bit more Mubarak subtly hinted that he was ready to go home, so I gave him a ride back to Grand Marc. I am looking forward to spending more time with these great guys and helping them to pass the IELTS so that they can return to their home country victorious in their quest to learn the language and culture of the United States.

CP5

 On Monday, Jan 21st, I met up with Mubarak, as well as his friends Mahdi and Mohammed, at FSU's student union to go bowling at Crenshaw Lanes. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that the bowling alley would be closed as it was a holiday (even though Chili's was open), so instead we decided to play pool at Zingale's, stopping at Starbucks on the way. We all crammed into my girlfriend's tiny VW Beetle for the ride. I found out that, like Mubarak and Anwar, Mahdi and Mohammed are also planning on studying engineering; Kuwait has a high demand for engineers to develop technology for the oil business.

 After Mahdi graciously bought Hayley and I some hot chocolate, we sat outside Starbucks talking for a while and then walked to Zingale's. We played 4 games of pool, rotating players through teams so everyone got a chance to play on a team with everyone else. I ran into a friend that I used to work with playing pool next to us, and found out my girlfriend knew him and his buddies from high school - small town! After our fourth game, our Kuwaiti friends decided it was time for them to head home. Though I offered to give them a ride, they chose to walk. I think the brisk January air would be more pleasant than a stuffy and cramped backseat car ride. I had an awesome time making new friends with Mahdi and Mohammed - they are incredibly nice - and I'm excited to show them more fun things to do in Tally! Hopefully I will be meeting up with the 3 M's again this weekend; perhaps I will take them to a nice park such as the Miccosukee or Pedrick Greenway or Wakulla Springs.

CP4

On Sunday, January 13 I met my new conversation partner, Mubarak, at Starbucks on Tennessee. He was late, but he told me it was because he had been at the hospital getting flu shots with his roommate. I learned that he knows Anwar from CIES. Mubarak told me a little bit about himself: he wants to study chemical engineering at one of several universities, he has some 30-odd camels back in Kuwait, and he wants me to introduce him to American girls. Cool guy! He likes sports, especially European soccer leagues, but also likes to bowl and play ping pong. I may try to get him to branch out and play ultimate and do some cycling or swimming, but perhaps hiking would be the best place to start. We were showing each other pictures on our phones and I installed the Arabic keyboard, which incidentally changed the language of my entire phone to Arabic. Thankfully Mubarak switched it back right away. We talked a bit about potential future activities, such as bowling or billiards, and then called it a night. I gave him a ride back to Grand Marc from Starbucks. People from Kuwait seem very friendly, I'm excited to have new friends from foreign lands!