Today I met again with Eugene for tea in the lounge. I asked him if he was at all worried about mid-terms. Although a few of my other conversation partners and tutees have mentioned being stressed out, Eugene said he wasn't at all. He admitted that his grades in his courses don't really matter; he's here at CIES to improve his English, not necessarily to get good grades. He mentioned being busy with a paper and talked more about why writing is difficult for him. They're not only difficult because of the difference in essay structure, but also because he feels like he doesn't know what examples to use to prove his point (in Korean, he uses proverbs and other traditional stories as examples, but here, that wouldn't be appropriate). I mentioned that I will be moving once my TEFL course is over, and we talked about that. I described the apartment I will be living in, and Eugene wanted to more about student housing in general. I explained how dorms work (two students sleeping usually in the same room, kitchen and bathroom on the floor), and what kinds of apartments students live in off campus. I talked about apartments I've lived in and ones that my friends rent. He seemed surprised to hear that I do not live with my parents (they don't even live in the same city as me). Lastly, Eugene mentioned some trip he made with his wife and daughter recently (they travel a lot within Florida, it seems like). I tried to give ideas of other places he could go. I mentioned MOZI and the Ringling Museum and several other places (mostly near my hometown) that I enjoyed visiting as a kid.
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