Afterwards, my friend dropped us off at my house where Xin proceeded to meet my zoo of animals. I think it was a little overwhelming for her at first, but we taught her the ropes of how to handle over friendly animals. She got to meet my family and be in an American home with an American family for the first time. When I think about that it really has this hard to explain emotional impact. I am so glad to have been able to offer her this experience. My friend said that most foreigners don't get to visit an American home and I was floored by that. Anyway, our day consisted of talking, making jewelry, going for a walk at the Greenway, and playing Wii. We talked about teas and raided my mom's tea cabinet to send all kinds of different teas home with her. We must have spent 10-11 hours together and neither of us was tired of the other! It was great. We talked about the future a little bit, like how she wants me to go home with her and see her country. I am extremely excited about that. We also discussed her current living arrangements which segues into this week's meeting.
Since I took her home Friday night I now know where she lives. And since we gave her so many different teas to try and welcome her into our home I guess she wanted to reciprocate because she contacted me via Facebook and asked what time I would be at CIES today. She had teas for my mom, my friend and I. As it turned out the timing didn't work so I told her I would go over to her place after class. We did a lot of talking about a lot of things. We're really building a friendship and trust. She started to open up to me about the hardships she's dealing with and her feelings. She's struggling with loneliness, helplessness, disappointment, etc. She got her TOEFL scores back and she didn't get what she needed. This is hard on her, but she says she took it calmly. Her lowest scoring was in listening and I've offered to help her because I want to see her succeed. I know this means a lot to her and therefore it has become meaningful to me too. Her living situation is currently in upheaval as well. Her roommate just moved out and she needs to be out of the apartment next Thursday. She hasn't found a place to live yet and this is all on top of spending as much time studying as possible since she's retaking the TOEFL on the 13th. She has a place to stay for the first couple nights with friends who will drive her to the testing center, but after that she hadn't made any arrangements yet.
Our time hanging out tonight evolved into a tutoring session via discussion of the TOEFL. The best one I have had so far! Can that count for this week's tutoring blog? (If so I'll write it up.) Working with Xin was easier than with Chomy. I don't really know why. Xin has trouble with word order and some grammatical stuff. We worked on that. If she said a sentence wrong I would write down what she said and we worked on figuring out how to fix it. She would also ask me about things she didn't understand and we'd work on those. I've had a hard time bringing myself to correct her a whole lot even though she's asked because I don't want to mess with the fluency of her speaking. She does a great job of communicating her ideas, at least I understand her well and my friend and family did too. Her mistakes aren't huge, but still need to be weeded out. So this really gave me the opportunity to take her at her word and fulfill this request. At one point she was like, but I never get to speak! Because we'd stop to work on the last sentence she said, and I told her that was why I hadn't been correcting her all the time. On Friday we got pronunciation instead of pronounce down, and I'm happy to say she's been using it well ever since! We must've spent an hour or better doing this, but then it was back to chatting.
We talked more about living arrangements and future plans. As of right now I'm slated to spend the night at her place Thursday and then she'll be spending Saturday night with me because she wants to go to church with me on Sunday. From what she's told me I gather that one of her early experiences in this country was going to a church where she was given a Bible. She wants to try going to church again to get a better understanding this time around. I think she's really getting some great cultural experiences here. We also talked about trying to go to Disney World next month!! And a little more about my going to China with her. Its all so very exciting and things I had never dreamed of!
I suppose I shouldn't be, but I am amazed because I never dreamed I'd really walk away from the CP experience with a new friend. We can really talk and have fun and understand each other even with a language barrier. There is so much that transcends language, which I knew, but am relearning again through this experience. I feel like doors have been opened and may continue to open that I wasn't looking for, which is exciting. Xin even suggested I teach in China. She thinks I'm good at it. (I think she's crazy for thinking so. lol) Actually, she explained to me that I could do a speaking class, that that is what they really use native speakers for. The thought intrigues me. We decided that I would just visit the country with her first and see what I thought before actually seeking employment there. She's really a bright and thoughtful woman. I am extremely appreciative of the opportunity to make friends with her and have my life enriched so.
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