Lucy CP-8

Tayana and I attended Kader's party together, but had one-on-one time afterwards at IHOP. The waitresses are beginning to recognize me...

My boyfriend at the time, Jon, met us, and we all talked about the party and how funny Kader was.

Tayana has a kind-of boyfriend in CIES who I got to hang out with more at the party. He is from Kuwait and the cultural differences between an Arab-Muslim and a North American are just as significant as between an Arab-Muslim and a South American. Though he says he is not a strict Muslim, it seems that his family is and that maybe he doesn't know how strict he really is. Women in his country don't drive, or offer to pay for things on dates. he gave Tayana a 'talking-to' about that one. Tayana has enjoyed getting to know him, but I think she feels like they are too different and will be leaving the program to go back to their separate countries in just a few weeks, anyway. It is sad to watch, but I think I would feel like she does.
She and I talked about other people from the party and the CIES world, in general.

 We also talked idioms and the lesson we're preparing to teach. We talked about what we wanted students to gain from the lesson and common idioms that translate. A lot of bird idioms...'A bird in the hand beats two in the bush', 'don't count your chickens before they hatch', this sort of thing. I told her how 'don't look a gift-horse in the mouth' always sounded like absolute gibberish to me until I realized gift-horse was hyphenated...an actual object with a story behind it.

When we left IHOP, Tayana wanted pictures so we took a few in the parking lot. I took her home to tunes of Taylor Swift. She and I both love Taylor Swift. She has such earnestness in her voice. That was our night.