Camille-CP6

On Saturday night, I hosted an International cookout at my house which was EXTREMELY fun! Alot of the CIES and TEFL students were there along with whoever anyone wanted to bring. The party ended up having a huge turnout and was a success. Many of my friends, who had never interacted with such an assortment of people, were educated and amazed by the various CIES students. Some were from China while a large group of the Arabic students attended. For dinner, we decided to have an "American-style" cookout with hotdogs, hamburgers, deviled eggs, (thank you Katie!) homemade mac and cheese, fruit salad, Doritos Salad and other various Americanized choices. I have a chalkboard wall in my house, so many of the attendees learned how to the write their names in either Chinese or Arabic. Also I noticed that nobody segregated themselves and many people were learning about other lifestyles and cultures. My conversation partner, Abdullah did not eat any food which was very upsetting to me because the cookout was at my house and he is my designated partner :[ But everyone else seemed to enjoy the food. After dinner, Hassan set up the rather large hookah that he owns and more than 15 people joined around the hookah to converse. After the hookah, Hassan made Saudi Arabian coffee for anyone who wanted it. I learned that the coffee was only consumed in small portions after I requested a large cup because I was so exhausted from cooking/cleaning all day. As the party dwindled down, I found Carlos, Abdullah and Rashid (sp?) out on the front porch playing guitar. I was so excited to finally hear Abdullah play the guitar because I knew that he played but he had always been too shy to play in front of me. I was thrilled to see that Carlos was able to connect with him on a musical level. Also, Abdullah gave me a cd of Arabic songs I had requested since the first week we met. I was so happy to see that he had remembered and the cd is absolutely wondering. I will post pictures of this awesome night at a later date!