Sam - CP -1

Yesterday, I met my conversation partner, Hasan B. from Turkey, for the first time. Well, for the first time in person. The night before, he had added me on Facebook, where we chatted for a while until finally he said, "We should stop chatting, or we'll have nothing to talk about tomorrow!" Luckily, when we met for teatime at CIES, we still found things to talk about. Actually, we found PLENTY to talk about-- I almost missed TEFL class, we were so busy talking!

What did we talk about? Well, first Hasan told me a little about Turkey. He was amazed to find that although I aim to teach English there, I know little about the country and came to be interested in it through mysterious means, still unknown to me. "You woke up one morning and said, 'I must go to Turkey'?" Hasan asked. "Pretty much!" I said. We both laughed. He's been all over Turkey and even drew me a small map, pointing out the different climates and historic sites as he led me on a paper tour of his homeland. Hasan came to the United States on a scholarship from his government and will study genetics at Penn State this January. He told me about the work he's doing (fascinating... he's working on an alternative to chemotherapy using genetically modified microorganisms). I also found out that we both like to play music and sing, and we share a similar disappointment in the fact that clubs in Tallahassee close at 2 a.m. (in Turkey, as in Miami, where I'm from, the clubs stay open 'til dawn... Did I mention I want to live in Turkey?).

Hasan has been studying English for a few years and he is an excellent speaker; he makes few mistakes and is easy to understand. He wants to experience American culture and asked that I show him some of the things I get up to around Tallahassee. I think I might invite him and Nihan, a funny and sweet Turkish girl who joined our conversation, to come to the First Friday art walk and Grand Opening of Bread & Roses, a food co-op I'm involved with. Both of them are so friendly that I think we all felt at ease right away.

All in all, it was a great first meeting and I look forward to seeing Hasan (and Nihan!) again. On Tuesday I'll be meeting my tutoring partner for the first time. I arranged the meeting through Karen Gotti and my learner is a Turkish woman. It's going to be a very Turkish semester for me, and I am so excited!