Brittany CP 4

For my fourth conversation meeting, I met with a new partner, Ali, from Saudi Arabia. Ali is an unusual student at CIES, since he was actually born in Tallahassee Memorial Hospital and has duel-citizenship. We mostly spent the hour exchanging information and getting to know each other. I found out Ali's mother is Kuwaiti and after his father, whose Saudi, finished grad school at FSU, they all went to Kuwaiti for several years until finally settling in Saudi Arabia. Though Ali adheres to the expectations of his own culture, for instance he doesn't drink alcohol, one of the first things he told me, with confidence, was, "I am very familiar with American culture, and I like it here a lot." Just from walking around the center with him for a few minutes, I saw how popular Ali is with the students and faculty there, and I found out it's not only because of his charming smile and personality, but also because he is about to complete his 3rd session at CIES. His English is nearly perfect at this point, to which he credits to a lot of personal study time, and having passed the TOEFL, he is waiting to hear back from universities he applied to. Ali explained that several universities also want him to take the SAT, but he's hoping to get into one that won't require that.

After hearing several students, including Ali, mention seeing each other at Cafe Sheesha, we made a plan to meet there next time. I'm excited because I haven't been there in almost 4 years- and I get to go now with a new Saudi friend!