Jordan-CP1

As soon as I slapped a name tag onto my shirt, Hamad al-Hammadi walked over to greet me. Then he gave a hurried apology and disappeared to put "the quarters in the bucket" -- he had to feed his parking meter. While waiting for him, I went into a classroom with Suzanne, Jaime and Francis, and Hassan, Muhammad and Abdulla. The three partners are Saudi and already friends (and were chattering away in Arabic before we paired off).

When Hamad returned we asked about each others backgrounds. He is from Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates. He worked in the oil fields for four years, did something else, and hes since become a police officer. It is his work with the police that sends him to America: he is here to study cyber crime. Originally he was in Arizona, but he drove to Tallahassee for FSU's CIES program, and to continue his study here. He keeps a tent and stove in his car, because he loves to go camping, and wants to be able to stop anywhere he thinks is beautiful to make camp.

His English is great, and his conversational skills appear very fluid. He struggles with some vocabulary and sometimes gets stuck in trying to express himself, but he recovers quickly. I think we will focus on widening his vocabulary and maybe cover some more colloquial English, which I think would benefit him.

I asked him what his favorite part of living in the US was. He says it is being able to go to the beach, go to the mountains, go skiing, visit place like Las Vegas, all in one country. In the Middle East, he says everything looks the same, and you can never escape the heat (He loves the rain in Tallahassee). On asking what he likes the least, his answer was very quick: "Why do you pay taxes on everything? We never pay taxes in UAE!" Perhaps we'll spend a session discussing hydrocarbon windfall profits... I'm looking forward to meeting up again soon!