TP10

 On Sunday, Feb. 24th, I met Mahdi at his apartment to help him prepare for taking the IELTS again (he took it in Tampa the previous weekend but jokingly suggested his score was probably a 2; while in reality it may be closer to 4 or 5, he needs a 5.5 to satisfy the requirements of his scholarship from Kuwait, so it seems he has some progress to make). We studied for quite a while from an IELTS prep book that he bought online, mostly covering how to devise information from graphs and put it into words. Some of these questions seemed tough even for a native speaker, but after a while I began to understand the kind of information they are trying to get English learners to extrapolate from such graphs.

 After working hard for what seemed like 2 hours but was probably closer to 45 minutes of actual English practice, we decided to call it a day. I hung out with him and his friends for more than an hour after we were done, in another apartment at Plantation belonging to a Kuwaiti CIES student. They are incredibly gracious hosts, and it was rad getting destroyed in FIFA '13 by some guys I could only communicate with in gestures, grunts and facial expressions. Next time I'm bringing my A-game and I will show them the true soccer prowess of America!!! (joke)

TP9

Today I met John and his family at the public library as usual. Unusually, however, they were a few minutes late - this gave me the opportunity to wonder about what John and I might talk about for conversation practice, as well as run into Hayley's friend Megan that I had just been hanging out with last night at Hayley's "birthday" party. Incidentally, she was tutoring Jason and Sally's cousin! What a small town Tallahassee is.

I was thinking about asking John about his research with FSU, and that was exactly what he wanted to discuss. He is finalizing a research paper to summarize the efforts of his study, and wanted my help editing and revising it for grammar and clarity. It was a bit much to jump right into it, so I talked to him for a few minutes first about the kind of experiments he was conducting, and then did some quick browsing of a few science-y articles on Wikipedia, which he helped to explain in further detail. Once I had a grasp of what he was trying to learn and the methods he used to obtain his data, we began to look at his paper and I made suggestions on how to make it more concise and readable. The focus of his research is to find the best method for extracting the beneficial antioxidants (phenolic compounds and flavonoids), by using different ratios of water/ethanol/methanol and organic solvents. He had innumerable references in his paper and I was  impressed with completeness of the study. Before I left I told him that if he wanted more help, he could e-mail me his paper or just send me sentences that he was unsure about and I would respond with my suggestions.

I'm looking forward to helping John make his research paper more accessible in English, and hopefully will have more opportunities to work with his kids on their English skills as well.

CP8

After our Valentine's Day beer and billiards date this Thursday, Hayley and I picked up Mubarak and Mohammed from Grand Marc and went to Mahdi's apartment off Pensacola St. When we arrived, we met their friend Jarrah, and Mahdi was just finishing his prayers in the traditional white kuwaiti dishdasha. After the introductions we just hung out in the apartment, snacking on dates and chips and watching clips on youTube. At first we just watched a clip of George W. Bush dancing with a sword in one hand and the other arm around the president of Bahrain, an island nation in the Arab Gulf between Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Then Mahdi showed us videos of the largest fountain show in the world, at the tallest tower in the world - the Dubai Fountain in UAE.

We talked a bit about their experiences with the IELTS, both recent and fast approaching. Mahdi told us he was traveling to Tampa over the weekend to take the test, and Mohammed said he had just taken it and his score was a 4.6 (or 4.9?) and their government grant program requires them to pass with at least a 5.5 before they can return to Kuwait to continue in university. After more conversation and youTube videos, I had to use the bathroom; when I returned I asked Mahdi if the strange attachment on his toilet that looked and functioned exactly like a sink hose for washing dishes was a bidet. Everyone in the living room heard him exclaim all-too-enthusiastically from the bathroom, "Yes, you can use it!" and uproarious laughter ensued. It was getting late, so Hayley and I offered to take Mubarak and Mohammed back to Grand Marc but they declined, saying they would stay and hang at Mahdi's some more. I can't wait to see these guys again, their fast friendship and sincere, generous hospitality is very welcome and refreshing. Best of luck to Mahdi with the IELTS!

TP8

 On Sunday, February 10th, I met John and his family at the library. It had been several weeks since I had seen them last, with the exception of a few short meetings with just John for some conversation practice. I asked Jason and Sally how they were doing and how they liked Disney World. Jason read aloud from Annie and Snowball and the Dress-up Birthday by Cynthia Rylant, author of the Henry and Mudge series that Jason loves. 

 As he was looking for another book I realized something incredible: there was jazz music floating in through a secret side room in the library that I had never seen before! It turned out to be an FSU jazz ensemble giving a performance in a banquet room. 

 I tried to explain to Jason what was going on as we peeked through the door's thin window, but I'm not sure he understood. After reading another Henry and Mudge book and answering some of my questions to see what he was comprehending, I was delighted to see that he had chosen Dr. Seuss's One Fish Two Fish to read. The rhyme scheme really helped him to sound out the correct pronunciation of many words, and as he was slowly but surely making his way through the tongue-twister of a children's book, I realized that he has made significant progress since I began working with him. After talking a bit more, we agreed to meet later in the week. I can't wait to talk with them again!

CP7

On Friday, February 1st, Mubarak and Mahdi came to my house for venison chili. I cooked the meat separately from the rest of the chili, because one of my roommates is vegetarian and some of our friends do not eat meat either. I made some bacon separately as well, since Mahdi and Mubarak do not eat pork. Mubarak helped by preparing rice in the traditional Kuwaiti fashion, to the best of what limited spices and cookware my kitchen could provide. My roommates and I had several other friends over as well, since we usually have a Friday night jam session, and my Kuwaiti friends were delighted to discover that my friend Orion who plays flute with us (and studied with a flute master in India) knows some Arabic. They instantly asked for his phone number since they very rarely encounter people here who have studied their language at all.

The chili was a big hit, and the jams were groovy, although I gave Mubarak and Mahdi a ride to go bowling with their friends at Crenshaw and came home before they really started pumping. I really enjoyed showing them my home and how we spend our leisure time, and as always, I am looking forward to our next meeting.