Unexpected Visitors (uncontrollable laughter)

My favorite part of fall semester by far is football season. Even though the Frogs are not doing so hot this year, I still love going out to the games. However, I really do believe that the early morning games (yes 11am is early for me) do crazy things to people. Don’t believe me? Please continue to read the following story. It was an eleven o’clock morning game and I was not thrilled to wake up early, but I knew that it would be fine once I got up and went to tailgate. After decking out in purple my friends and I headed over to a few different tailgates before the game. I have to say that tailgating is such a great idea. I don’t know whom to thank for inventing the concept but I am grateful for it. After stuffing my friends and I were done eating a socializing with friends we decided to head over to the game. Again I love my frogs but it has not been easy to watch them play this season.

            About half way through the game I could tell that my roommates were getting tired and we all decided that it was time to leave. Of course we were hungry so we ordered a pizza and headed back to our apartment. When we got back we feasted and all passed out on the couch (with the game on of course). After about a few hours we all kind of woke up but still were sprawled out in various locations of the living room. I decided it would be the decent thing to do to get up and possibly get ready for going out later in the evening, so I got up and walked towards my room. After walking to my room I realized I left my phone on the couch so I went to walk back into the living room when I hear the front door open. I knew that everyone was home so I walked over to see who could be walking in. To my surprise they were not familiar faces.

            The people who walked in looked like they were a couple, a confused couple. I looked at my friend Cat and asked her if they were her friends. She looked at me with confusion and said no who are they. Then, it happened. They started speaking and we had no idea what they were saying. It was clear that they were in the wrong place but we didn’t know what to say. Finally one of them muttered a room number and I explained to them that they were looking for a room that was down the hall. In my head I thought that they would head on their way but they just stood there (rather intoxicated looking) and starred at me. I started showing them to the door when the guy turned around and asked, “How did I get here?” I remember thinking “How am I supposed to tell you that? You just walked in my apartment and awkwardly starred at me for two minutes and now you decide to ask me a question?” I told him that I had no idea how he got here and he asked me again how he had gotten here, and followed that up with I’m so sorry, I’m so lost. I told him that room 204 was down the hallway. They set off down the hall and I shut the door behind them. I turned to my roommates and we all busted out laughing. This had to be the strangest encounter we had ever had in our apartment. But wait… there’s more!

            There is a famous saying, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. Well shame on me for not locking the door after the first encounter because 20 minutes later we heard the door open, and once again there they were. Standing starring at us. This time the guy was quick to say, “I’m so sorry, can you tell me where I am?” Getting a little freaked out my roommates and I pointed to 204 (which is the room they walked into when they left) and explained to them again, that they were in the wrong room. After telling them all of this, they still stood there and starred. My roommates and I all looked and each other and I guess I got voted to be the brave one because I again had to escort them out of our apartment. This time I locked the door behind me. Here is the part that would seemingly be the conclusion to my story, but unfortunately there’s more. My roommate and I went to go grab some food to eat and as we opened the door we see the couple standing there as if they were trying to get in. They quickly walked away an as we headed toward the elevator I ran back to the door and locked it. When we got back to our apartment we told our other roommates and could not stop laughing. This had to be the weirdest but most entertaining encounter we had ever had.

Third Meeting With Joe. An English Learning Experience!

My third meeting with Joe proved to be quite interesting. We started off our conversation by catching up on what had happened to both of us during the last week or so. Joe was very intrigued by all the people he saw in Halloween costumes over the weekend. I asked him if he was familiar with Halloween and while he did know what it was, he said it was not something celebrated in Japan like we do here. He told me how he was at a friend’s house during Halloween and found it interesting and funny to see all the kids dressed in costumes come to the door and ask for candy. I guess I kind of figured everyone one participated in Halloween, but obviously that is kind of a narrow-minded thought. I do believe that one of the best things about this conversational partner project is being able to think outside of my American bubble and really see how someone else lives, and also how they experience our country. Life in Japan seems far different than life in the United States but it seems like Joe is doing a great job adjusting to American culture!

At this meeting in particular Joe and I discussed in depth about academics and classes. I went through what a normal week is like for me and how I feel about my classes and Joe did the same.  While both of us are at TCU taking classes, our lives could not be more different. For instance, our schedules during the day are quite the opposite. Because Joe is in IEP he has all of his classes during a blocked schedule time, whereas I feel like I am bouncing all over campus each say of the week. Joe starts around nine and ends at about one, which is when we meet every week. Not only are the times between our classes different but also his classes are all based around learning English. Joe explained to me that after this meeting he had to go take a test over English grammar. I was fascinated to see what he was learning so I asked him to show me what his quiz was going to be over. Joe pulled out his English grammar workbook and flipped to the topic that he was learning about. Since I am so used to looking at Spanish workbooks when it comes to learning a language, it was quite interesting to see what it looks like to learn English. I guess from flipping through Joe’s workbook I came to the conclusion that English cannot be an easy language to learn. Even though I knew everything that was being taught in the book, trying to explain why certain aspects of language are the way they are is a hard concept to grasp. Joe was working on the use of the English “to be” When I was looking at the exercises in his book I could fill in the blanks with the correct answer but when trying to explain it to Joe I found myself stumbling at my words. It is a very difficult task to try and explain how to learn language when you acquired the language so long ago. I found myself coming the realization that what Joe and all the other IEP students are doing is extremely difficult, but it must be so rewarding to accomplish learning a new language. I wish I could say the same about my Spanish speaking and writing abilities.

            A particularly funny event occurred when Joe and I were discussing aspects of language during our meeting. We were talking about the concept of using “good” vs. “well” You would think that by now I would have this part of language mastered but I’m sad to say that I do not. However, I do see a lot of other people my age and older struggle with the same thing. The other day in one of my classes I made an error in using good instead of well and I felt so silly for making the mistake aloud. It baffles me how everything sounds good in my head but when I go to speak it all falls apart. I was explaining to Joe how I had this dilemma in one of my classes and then I tried to explain the idea between the two words. It was really funny trying to explain and come up with examples for Joe, I’m sure people passing by us at Union Grounds thought we were crazy.

            This Third meeting with Joe proved to be quite the learning experience for both of us in terms of understanding the English language. I guess the idea that we never stop learning is fairly accurate, especially after today!

My Second Meeting with Joe- What is a Sorority?

After breaking the ice during our first meeting, Joe and I found ourselves a week later at Union Grounds having another conversation. It was really nice to talk with Joe again and catch up after the long fall break. Joe and I discussed what each of us did during the break, which created a lot of different conversational tangents. One of the first things we talked about was the weather difference between Texas and Chicago as well as Texas and Japan. I just figured everyone knew it was colder in Chicago but honestly, I understand the confusion. I couldn’t tell you for the life of me what the weather is like in Japan right now so it was very funny for both of us to come to the realization that we both know very little about each others cultures.

            Joe is just becoming immersed in TCU culture so he had a lot of fun experiences to share with me from his fall break. So far he has done a lot of fun and awesome things with the IEP program. Joe pulled out his phone and showed me pictures of inside an elite part of the football stadium where the IEP students got to have lunch and listen to a speaker. How awesome is that?! I will probably never get the chance to go in there unless I decide to donate at LEAST $50,000 a year (shouldn’t my tuition count?!)

            I think perhaps the funniest thing that occurred during our meeting was when Joe asked me to describe what a sorority is. Let me tell you that may seem like an easy answer but its way more complicated than you think. First of all, sororities, fraternities, and similar types of associations are very unique to westernized cultures, especially in the United States. I never really contemplated what it would be like to describe what a sorority actually is. I sat on the couch in Union Grounds watching a million girls wearing rain jackets, hairbands, t-shirts, sweatshirts, jewelry, and whatever else can be decked in letters, pass me by, yet I was still fumbling for words of how to describe what it actually is. Personally I do know what a sorority is and as a current member of one at TCU, I can say I love being associated with one. It is a great way to be involved and make new friends (enough of my preaching). However, regardless of my fondness for sororities I still found myself confused on how to describe it. This became an even more challenging task when Joe told me how he saw a bunch of girls and guys wearing crazy costumes walking in the greek last weekend. I don’t know about you other fellow greekers, but the first thing I say about a sorority is not going to be “Well we have a lot of fun mixers!”  While all those things are good and dandy, it’s really not what being in one of those organizations is truly about. So I bypassed the question and first started explaining the many things that a sorority does. I told him about philanthropies, chapter meetings, even down to how we go through recruitment. Joe was very interested in hearing about all these aspects and he seemed very surprised and amused by some of them. Of course I did get back to him about how fun it is to dress up and go to mixers with all your best friends, but I wanted to make sure I didn’t give a superficial interpretation of what its like to be in a great organization.

            This Second meeting with Joe was a really entertaining experience. It really opened up my eyes to some of the differences between our cultures that I would never even think about contemplating. Besides just being an interesting conversation it proved to be quite humorous for both of us. I am looking forward to my next meeting with Joe. I can’t wait to see what entertaining conversations we have in store!

First Meeting with Yusuke "Joe"

After a lot of confusion and trouble shooting I finally had the opportunity to be assigned a partner for the conversational partner project! My partner’s name is Yusuke but he told me to call him “Joe” for convenience. Joe just arrived in Fort Worth about two weeks ago from Japan and started taking IEP classes at TCU shortly after. I can’t even imagine what it must be like switching gears and coming all the way to Texas! I learned a lot about Joe and his background from our first meeting and I can already tell that this will be an enriching experience.

During our meeting Joe explained to me how beneficial this partnering project is to him in order to help him gain experience talking with a native English speaker. I came into this assignment thinking that I was the only one getting educational benefits from it, but it turns out that this is not the case at all. Joe was enthusiastic and open when he was talking with me and it made our conversations flow easily. I found it funny how little both of us knew about where each is from. I thought I had a better idea about Japan, but I was sadly mistaken. I think the only thing I could relate to was the location of Tokyo and a love of sushi. At the same time though, Joe did not know as much about the United States as I would have thought. In reality it all makes sense but as humans we are very self-driven and it sometimes is a challenge to think about how other people experience life. Joe and I talked for a while on what we find funny. He showed me a few videos from a Japanese television show, which I obviously did not understand in terms of language. I still found some humor in the video because it was apparent through the actions of the different characters. It kind of reminded me of we discussed silent films in class, and how the physical actions of the characters create humor. While I couldn’t understand what was being said, I could pick up on the humor based on what I saw.      

Joe and I talked a lot about classes and school and how different both of our experiences are here at TCU. Even though we share similar surroundings the things we do here at TCU are completely different. There is more structure to the IEP classes and they go from 9- 1pm. I feel like with my classes I’m all over campus at all hours of the day doing so many different things. I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to learn a new language and all of its components while being simultaneously immersed in the culture. Even though its challenging Joe said he really is enjoying himself at TCU so far, I mean who wouldn’t?!

One thing that Joe and I had in common that I found particularly interesting is that we both have the experience of coming to TCU from a place that’s not like Texas at all. I know Chicago doesn’t seem far but it is a completely different world up there than it is down here (at least from my experiences). I can say that I love both Chicago and Fort Worth in their own ways and I’ve been so lucky to have the opportunity to expand my education away from where I grew up. I think that is how Joe feels and I’m sure a lot of the IEP students. It is such a wonderful and enriching opportunity to learn about a new place, and even more so a new language and culture. I am really looking forward to getting to know more about Joe within our next meetings. I can already tell this is going to be a great experience!   

And the Learning Continues..

So it’s October 14^th and we are almost if not already at that halfway point of the semester. I think I have gotten a lot better at managing my time since I last blogged. It is so hard to stay on top of everything I have to do because not every class and activity goes together. I feel like my life is a constant balancing act and sometimes I really getting thrown off. When I was in high school I never really appreciated how nice it was that teachers planned tests and assignments together that way students wouldn’t get overloaded with work. Ha, only if college were the same way. Sometimes I look at my schedule for the week and think to myself, not one professor has mercy on me. After pointing the finger and blaming others for my stressful week ahead of me, I suck it up and start preparing for the 5 million tests and assignments I have due. I wish I could say that this only happens during midterms and finals but that would be a huge lie. Every week that passes by I am bombarded with assignments and tests. It NEVER ends. This semester in particular I feel like the wheels keep turning and I’m running to catch up.

I guess this feeling is quite normal for college students. Staying organized and planning ahead is essential for success. I cannot imagine where my grades would be if I treated everything like I did when I was in high school. This semester in particular I am in 18 hours and boy do I feel the burden of those hours. I’ve come to realize its not the actual time spent in class that causes me to be stressed, it’s that everything piles up outside of class and there is no such thing as sacrificing one priority for the other. I know a lot of people would tend to disagree with me on that statement but I have definitely tried to skim through some things and dedicate a lot to others, and that adds to the imbalance and in the long run causes bigger problems. This semester I have been focusing on how to keep balanced amongst my world of chaos.

The first thing I have learned is to separate everything into categories. Major, minor, core classes etc.   I focus on what is important about each of the classes that fall under those categories and the tackle the work from there. As a Speech Pathology major I spend a lot of time at the Speech and Hearing Clinic and that is the time and place where I get all of my work for my major done. I prep and make decisions about what I am going to do in my therapy sessions at the clinic, I take most if not all of my speech path classes in the clinic, and I turn all my reports and lesson plans to the clinic. I really have learned that the clinic is my friend and I need to know everything about it in order to stay successful within the major. As far as my psychology minor goes, I am in two psych classes this semester, which are actually going very well for me. I find both of the classes extremely interesting. Thankfully my Case Studies in Child Development class is one night a week, so I get that night to fully focus on that class and am actually learning a lot from it. My other class is Personality of Psychology, which is also a course that I really enjoy. I find myself constantly analyzing my own personality now and the personalities of others and a lot of traits and quirks about people make a lot more sense.  For my core class I am in Biology, and let me take a second to thank my high school self for taking AP Biology. I honestly believe my success in that class can be attributed to my past knowledge on the subject.

Overall one of the biggest things I have learned from this semester throughout all my classes is to be observant of what I learn and apply it to my everyday life. For example, this class has made me look at humor more than I ever had before. When I hear or watch something funny I stop and think why it is funny. Am I laughing because I am experiencing a cognitive shift? Is the humor self-deprecating? Terms and concepts I never thought of before now come full force during humorous experiences. In my speech path classes I am constantly taking what I am learning and applying it my therapy sessions and my professional writing documents. As far as biology is concerned, I guess that’s just the facts of life and I use the knowledge from that class unconsciously everyday, every hour, every second. I look forward to what’s in store in terms of learning experiences the rest of this semester.