Rock climbing

Did you know that UNT has a great rock wall in the Pohl Recreation Center? I reserved the rock wall for IELI students last Sunday afternoon, and 20 students came out for a fun afternoon of climbing. Here’s a story one IELI student wrote about her experience:

“My Adventure in Rock Climbing”

By Maysaa, Level 3 Writing

People in today’s world lack a sense of adventure. It seems that a person’s life should have a little adventure in it, or it wouldn’t be very enjoyable. Adventure in my opinion, is one of the necessities of life. However, people are very cautious about jumping into something new and adventurous. One of my favorite memories is from when I ventured last weekend to climb the rock mountain in the recreation center of the University of North Texas. Well,  I will tell the story about this exciting adventure in my life.

Last weekend, my friend and I went to one of the IELI activities. The activity was about rock climbing in the recreation center. The good thing is that IELI students could climb for free. Normally, if we want to climb we have to pay $5. My friends and I went to the recreation center at 12 in the afternoon. We were excited, but also we were a little bit scared.

We arrived there and the worker who worker there gave me the special shoes for climbing and another equipment like a belt. After that I was ready to climb the rock. I was really frightened and at the same time I was really excited to start after I saw my friends climb. Then, one of the workers there helped me to start climbing. After that, I climbed half of the rock mountain. I got really tired so I decided not to complete climbing. In addition, my arms and legs started to have pain. Then, all my friends started to motivate me to finish climbing to the top. After that, I told them that I won’t want to finish climbing and that I wanted to go down. They kept cheering and motivated me to climb. Therefore, I completed the climb until I reached the peak. Finally, I got comfortable. I finished climbing, so I went down. It was really fun for me and for my IELI friends. After I finished the first climb, I decided to climb another side of the rock, which is more hard than the first side. In the second climb, I felt it is more easy because I got used to it. My friends took many pictures for me when I was climbing. I really enjoyed my time there.

Finally, rock climbing is one of the most interesting activities for me in IELI. I learned many good information after I joined this activity, and I made many new friends. I will not forget my nice and remarkable memories in the recreation center. I hope I will join the other nice activities and adventures in IELI with my IELI friends.

 

Climbing hard

 

The students told me on Tuesday that their arms were still sore from the climbing. Oops! I forgot to warn them about that!

International Education Week

Next week is International Education Week, celebrated by universities across the United States. UNT-International is participating in this special week by offering a wide range of special activities for students and the community. Here’s our schedule of events. My favorite event? The annual American Thanksgiving Dinner, hosted by Global Interact, UNT and TWU.

International Education Week is an opportunity to celebrate the benefits of international education and exchange worldwide. This joint initiative of the U.S. Department of State and the U.S. Department of Education is part of our efforts to promote programs that prepare Americans for a global environment and attract future leaders from abroad to study, learn, and exchange experiences in the United States.

More Halloween Photos

As promised, here are some more photos from the Halloween party last week. Enjoy!

Scary

A rocker and a milk maid

Texas Chainsaw Massacre

A nurse, a Scotsman, and a cow

70s man

Our costume category judges

Making masks

Costume judging

Pumpkin Carving and Halloween

This last month was really busy for me at work, so I haven’t been doing a very good job with blogging. I am going to try to do better!

Last week, I arranged a pumpkin carving party for IELI students. We had about 50 students show up, eager to participate in this American fall tradition.

Pumpkin Carving

The finished product.

Also last week was the IELI Halloween Welcome Party. It’s always one of our best welcome parties every year. Most students tell me that they don’t celebrate Halloween in their home country, so they are excited about the party but also a little nervous about dressing up. They are afraid that no one else will dress up and they will be the only ones in a costume. Fortunately, lots of students came in costume and participated in our costume contest.

I think one of the students’ favorite parts of the Halloween Party is seeing their teachers dressed in costumes.

Winner of the “Teacher” Costume Contest

 I don’t have many photos from the party yet, but when I do, I will try to post more. That’s it for now!

IELI in the Homecoming Parade

Last Saturday was a BEAUTIFUL day, and the students and I had a great time representing IELI in the UNT Homecoming Parade. The students showed up early on Saturday to help put our float together. It turned out pretty good! Check out the photos:

Crazy group shot before the parade

IELI students with UNT President, Dr. Bataille

Side view of the IELI float

The parade went around the Denton Square

Student representing Taiwan

Unfortunately, UNT lost the football game that afternoon, but it was still a fun weekend for IELI students to experience the American tradition of Homecoming.

We are welcoming new students for the Fall 2 term this week. There is always something going on in IELI!

UNT Homecoming

This week is a busy one for IELI students. The Fall 1 term is wrapping up, so our students have exams this week. The good news is that they have a vacation next week before the Fall 2 starts again. This weekend is also UNT Homecoming! Homecoming is one of my favorite university traditions. IELI, led by members of the Student Activities Council (the student leadership team), is putting together a float for the Homecoming parade this year. It’s been about 8 years since IELI has been in the parade, and we are coming back bigger and better than ever this year. I’ll be sure to post pictures from the parade next week. Until then, enjoy the photos from UNT’s Homecoming last year.

Go Mean Green!

Fall 1 Funny Photos

Back by popular demand, here are some of the funniest class photos for Fall 1. This term we had a few classes bring out props for their photos, which I thought was pretty cool. The winner for “craziest” class photo gets their picture printed in IELI’s Weekly Memo, a newsletter that goes out to all students and teachers every Monday. Here are some of my favorite photos this term:

Honorable Mention - Barbara's Class

 

Winner for best "Crazy" Photo

 

Co-winner for Crazy Class Photo

Tracy's Class

Pat's class

What do you think? Did the funniest class win? 

WorldFest on the Square

UNT-International, with groups from the Denton community, put together the first ever WorldFest on the Square last Saturday. Check out the article that the Denton Record-Chronicle wrote about WorldFest. The weather was perfect, the food was great, and the students who performed dances and musical numbers were tremendous. WorldFest was a fun way for UNT students and staff to mix with the Denton community and celebrate the many cultures present in our small city. I look forward to the next one!

Parade of Nations led by the African Drum Ensemble

Eid Celebration

Our Muslim students brought treats for an Eid celebration in the IELI Student Lounge yesterday. Thanks for sharing all the great food with us!

Conversation Partners

Last week, IELI launched its Conversation Partners Program for Fall 2009. This semester, I have 74 volunteers and 170 students participating in the program. That’s the most volunteers I have ever had at the beginning of a term! More and more people are finding out about IELI and want to get involved with the program, which is really exciting! I think our webpage helped out a lot with this, as did advertisements with the UNT Volunteer Center, Multicultural Center, International studies department, and word of mouth from my wonderful past volunteers.

I put together a pizza party so that the volunteers and IELI students to meet each other for the first time. Unfortunately, the pizza ran out, but it was so fun for me to walk past all the rooms of students and hear the conversations taking place. I hope everyone likes their conversation groups and that some good friendships can be built through the program.