IEP Photo Shoot!

            Earlier this week, I met with Tatiana for her IEP photo shoot she was hosting.  When I showed up, Tatiana was very busy and already had all of her fancy camerawork assembled.  Her major is digital artwork, so this event went along perfectly with what she had been learning in class and enabled her to show the rest of the students all that she had been learning.

            The photo shoot was focusing on the topic of beauty.  All of the female IEP students wore traditional clothes from their home countries, and there were so many different cultures represented.

            Because my conversation partner was basically the star of the show and did not have much time to sit down and talk with me individually, I was able to get to know the other IEP students.  I learned about what their cultures are like, and why they chose to come to TCU.  All of the students I talked to had come to TCU without knowing a single soul here, which I find to be a very brave and courageous act considering it would be hard to adjust to a new culture without having family or friends to help you.  Many of the students also told me that they did not even visit TCU before deciding to come here, and the first time they had been to America was when they arrived on campus.  They said that it was initially very difficult because their English was not great, so they struggled to communicate with people.  But they also said that this was a great experience because it forced them to really focus on improving their English.

            All of the students were extremely welcoming to me, and loved telling me their stories of what brought them to TCU and what their cultures back home are like.  You can tell that they have a lot of pride for their home countries.  I especially enjoyed learning about the different cultures, considering my hometown basically consists of one nationality of people and I wasn’t exposed to many foreign cultures. 

            One of the cultures I was most fascinated by was the Saudi Arabian culture.  Britt, one of the IEP directors, was telling me that Saudi women wear modest clothes and turbans when they are around men, but when there aren’t any men around, they take their turbans off and are much more relaxed.  When I was there, the Saudi women were teaching us how to do Saudi Arabian dances and showing us some of the traditional outfits they wear in their country.  However, the minute a man walked into the classroom, they stopped what they were doing and put back on their turbans and very modest clothing.  This is very different from the way a typical American women would act, so it was interesting to learn about the Saudi culture.

            It was exceptionally entertaining to see people from so many different cultures getting along and having a great time together.  The whole time I was there, people were smiling, laughing, and sharing about their cultures.  At one point, all the girls started exchanging their traditional clothes and taking pictures with each other in their different clothes.  A Saudi Arabian girl named Zainab was even nice enough to give me a traditional scarf and show me how to wrap a turban around my head!

            Near the end of the photo shoot, I talked a little bit more with my conversation partner, Tatiana.  Tatiana was so grateful that I came, and I expressed my gratitude to her for inviting me to the event.  Tatiana was very proud of all the pictures she had taken, and told me that she also loved seeing what other cultures traditionally wore.

            Ultimately, this was an experience I will never forget, and I am so thankful that I have the opportunity to learn not only more about my conversation partner’s culture, but many of the other IEP students’ cultures.

Trinity River Reflection 1

          A few days ago, I spent an hour and a half sitting by the Trinity.   I turned off my phone for the entire duration and just spent time relaxing by the water.  I normally find water to be so beautiful and humbling, but that was not the case with the Trinity.  Never have I seen a greener or more disgusting body of water.  It was a cloudy and somewhat gloomy day so that definitely did not help to bring out the Trinity’s natural beauty, but the closer I got to the river the more repulsed I was by it.  You couldn’t pay me to jump in that water, because I’m pretty sure if I did immerse myself in it I would get some type of sickness or be attacked by an evil animal (side note- I have spotted multiple snakes in the part of the river near Woodshed, which further scares me away from the Trinity). 

            During this time, I started thinking about how sad it is that this river has gotten so dirty.  On the sides of the river there were piles of trash that had washed up, including large objects such as chairs and clothes.  I think that people probably don’t realize the huge affect they have on nature when they are careless and just throw their trash wherever’s convenient for them and pollute the environment.  This carelessness accumulates and results in the deteriorating of our environment, which is awfully sad, because I want future generations to be able to enjoy the environment and see the same beautiful sights that my generation has been able to see. 

            Aside from the fact that the river’s dirtiness saddened me, I was able to use my time near the Trinity de-stressing and enjoying the nature surrounding me.  I watched the clouds float above me, and observed the beautiful leaves from the trees rustling behind me. 

Turning off my phone helped me to better notice my surroundings and appreciate the earth’s beauty.  It also helped me to actually relax.  When I have my phone with me, I constantly check and respond to emails and texts I receive, and get very stressed about all the tasks people ask me to do and meetings people tell me I have to attend.  Avoiding my phone was a great way to relieve my stress and realize I need to stop getting caught up in all the unimportant hassles in life.

While near the river, I also observed the people and animals that passed me.  There was a man biking at a very fast speed that passed me, and I admire him for his motivation to exercise.  There was also a babysitter that passed me with a group of four kids she was watching, ranging from the ages of about three to about nine.  There was a small park really close to where I was sitting, and the kids were playing a game of “tag” in it.  They were so full of energy and appeared to be having a great time even though tag is such a simple game, and this reminded me that I should try to always find fun in every situation, and again, not get caught up in the small stressors that life throws at me.  There were quite a few birds that came close to me looking for worms and crumbs.  In the river, I noticed two small turtles sitting atop a rock poking out from the water.  During the full hour and a half that I was at the Trinity, these turtles had not jumped off of the rock.  They constantly turned their necks, as if looking for somewhere to go, but they appeared to be stuck and too frightened to jump into the murky water (I don’t blame them). 

Overall, I enjoyed my time observing the Trinity and avoiding my phone and the rest of the stress of life.  I am looking forward to returning to the river and doing my next river reflection!   

Conversation 1 with Tatiana

            Yesterday I met my conversation partner!  Her name is Tatiana Bicalho, and she is from Brazil.  Tatiana invited me to the Saudi Arabia day the IEP hosted.  It was an amazing experience!  I was extremely impressed with all of the presenters.  They did a great job putting everything together and speaking about their country’s culture.  I would have been terrified to give a presentation in any language other than English, especially because English is the only language that I actually know well, so I was impressed with the presenters’ courage and skill with speaking in a language they weren’t as comfortable with.  I learned many interesting facts about Saudi Arabia, including that it is home to the largest national women’s college and women are not allowed to drive in Saudi Arabia.  The students also sang us their national anthem.  After the presentation, we ate authentic Saudi Arabian food and socialized with the IEP students.

            Once the event was finished, I was able to sit down and talk to Tatiana.  Tatiana is very excited to be able to practice her English with me, and I am eager to get to know more about her life and her culture.  Tatiana is an art major who enjoys photography and traveling.  She has travelled all over the world, and plans to show me all the pictures she has taken of both her country and the countries she’s been to so that I can learn more about the world’s cultures.  Tatiana is somewhat embarrassed by the fact that she is unable to speak English fluently, but I kept reminding her that I am only able to speak one language, and the fact that she fluently speaks two languages (Spanish and Portuguese) and is almost fluent in English is so impressive.  She came to America and TCU for the main reason of improving her English.  Her life is very fascinating, as she has literally been all over the world and has experienced so much already.  She is a very driven and motivated person.  Currently, Tatiana lives on a ranch that is about an hour and a half away from TCU.  With traffic, she spends about 5-6 hours on the road everyday just to get to and from school.  I emphasized to Tatiana how much I respect her for going to such great lengths to learn another language and further her education.  I could never imagine leaving my family and deciding to live in a foreign country without knowing a soul living there, and I admire Tatiana’s courage and ambition.

            While speaking with Tatiana, I realized that there is still a lot more I have to learn about the English language, and I am not as much of an expert as I thought I was.  While I would obviously consider myself to be fluent in English and I am fairly good with grammar, I do not always understand the reason behind certain English grammar rules or why there are so many exceptions to the rules that exist.  I came to this realization as Tatiana kept asking me which word would be more appropriate to use, and why it is more correct to say one particular word/phrase over another.  I have always been told that the English language is by far the hardest to learn, but I had never really understood why this is the case until I spoke with Tatiana.  Tatiana noted that Spanish and Portuguese are very similar to each other so it was easier to become fluent in both of these languages, but English is vastly different from every other language out there. 

During high school, I studied French for four years, but did not learn much at all.  Some of the only words I still remember how to say in French are “hello” and “goodbye,” and I don’t know nearly enough to be able to go to France and speak fluently to a French person.  Students at my high school, including me, were very ignorant about the importance of learning other languages, because we knew that many people around the world speak English, so even if we go abroad we will most likely be able to find other people who speak our language.  After getting to know Tatiana, I realized how unfair this is.  We shouldn’t expect other people to take such great strides to learn English, and we need to start taking foreign language studies seriously so we can communicate with and understand other cultures.

            I am so excited to further get to know Tatiana and learn more about different cultures and the English language as a result!

Fort Worth Water Gardens

          I was initially really disappointed when I found out I would not be able to go on the Trinity River canoe trip because I had class on Tuesday and Thursday.  However, I was still able to take time to interact with water by visiting the Fort Worth Water Gardens.  I had never been to the Water Gardens before, and I had no idea how beautiful this location would be.  For those who have not been to the Water Gardens yet, it is basically a large funnel-shaped area of concrete where there are many mini waterfalls and all the water comes surging together at the center of it.  There are also many steps within the Water Gardens where you can climb around and find a good place to sit.  I love the sound of rushing water, so spending a couple hours at the Water Gardens was such a calming and soothing experience. I had just finished a busy week of school filled with many tests, meetings, and networking events, so it was great to be able to clear my mind and just take in the gorgeous sights and sounds in front of me.  This experience taught me that I need to take better advantage of all the beautiful local water sources surrounding me, as it is a great way to relieve stress and become one with nature. 

My Learning Experiences: September 16, 2014

         Throughout the past three weeks, I have learned many new things in both my classes and outside of class.  As an accounting major, I am taking many math and business related classes.  In these classes, I have learned a lot more about the corporate world and how to actually become an accountant.  One class I have really enjoyed so far is called Introduction to Financial Management.  In this class, I have learned a great deal about financial ratios and leverage, and I have learned how to take the information accounting gives us and utilize it to analyze a company’s financial position and help a company become more profitable.  I am also in an Introduction to Marketing class, which I find to be very fascinating.  Over the summer, I was a marketing intern for AT&T, so it has been very interesting to learn more about Marketing and why it is important to businesses.  Through this class, I have learned that in order for any type of good or service to be profitable, it must have a great marketing method.  No matter how great a good/service is, without a decent marketing plan, it will not be successful.  I am in two accounting classes, one being Introduction to Federal Taxation and the other being Financial Reporting One.  I was initially dreading my tax class, considering I have heard terrible things about tax accounting and was told that it is tremendously boring.  However, it’s not nearly as bad as I expected it to be.  My teacher does a good job of making the class as fun as it can be, and I have learned some interesting facts about taxation through reading my book.  One noteworthy piece of information I learned is that there are five states that don’t charge sales tax- Alaska, Delaware, Montana, New Hampshire, and Oregon.  I had no idea that there were some states out there that didn’t charge sales tax, so I found this fact to be intriguing.  In my Financial Reporting One class, we have gone over journal entries and how to create the various financial statements (balance sheet, income statement, statement of cash flows, etc.).  Taking this class has helped me solidify what I would like my future career to be.  I am planning on becoming an auditor for a public accounting firm, and I have really enjoyed this class so far, which has affirmed my future career plans.     

            In Literature and Civilization II, I enjoyed reading Huckleberry Finn much more than I thought I would.  I read this book my freshman year of high school and did not enjoy it in the least.  Since then, I had forgotten much about it other than that I did not like it very much.  After reading it a second time through, I can honestly say that I somewhat like the book.  Sure, it was initially hard to get used to the language the characters used and the way they spoke, but once I was used to that I found the story to be exciting and insightful.  The way African Americans were treated during this time period is absolutely appalling, and Huck Finn is a reminder of this atrociousness and encourages people to never act in such a prejudiced way ever again.  I believe that everyone should read this book, because it shows that all people should be treated equally, no matter their race, age, sexual orientation, nationality, etc.  While I think our world has come a long way and is not nearly as prejudiced as it used to be, I think there are still many improvements that have to be made in order for us to believe that everyone is treated equally and fairly, and reading Huck Finn is a great way to show everyone the importance of equality.  Through reading Huck Finn, I also learned many more vocabulary words, such as the word “injun.”  On page 55, Huck says, “Honest injun I will,” and this word simply means “American Indian.”  This phrase used to be used to emphasize the truth of something.

            Outside of class, I have learned more about time management and how to manage my schedule for this semester.  I have learned how to stay more organized and keep my room cleaner, and I have also gotten adjusted to the new semester and all the new classes I am taking.