Last Regularly Scheduled Meeting TONIGHT

Sadly, we have reached that time in the academic year. Exams are upon us, and students will soon be going home for the summer. Thus, we will have our last regularly scheduled meeting tonight at 19:00 in Sweet Surrender coffee shop.

For those who are staying in Poznań during the summer, email Liz if you'd like to be on a summer mailing list. Otherwise, hope you all have a wonderful summer holiday. I'll keep posting things here that may be interesting, so keep an eye out.

Good luck with exams!

Meetings

Great news! Our friends at Sweet Surrender coffee shop have reserved us a room for every Wednesday night. So, rather than meeting in a stuffy classroom in Novum, we will now meet there from now on.

Directions: Go to the Most Teatralny tram stop. Walk north on ul. Roosevelta in the direction AWAY from Rondo Kaponeira and stay on the left side of the street. Keep walking straight, about 100m from the corner at Most Teatralny, and look for the yellow Sweet Surrender sign. It will be at the first small street, Krasińskiego 1.

See you tomorrow at 19:00 at Sweet Surrender (NOT at Novum)!

The USA: Making fun of itself

Today we'll be talking about stereotypes in the U.S. about other parts of the U.S. Such as why people in the rest of the country love to joke that everyone in my state, New Jersey, looks/thinks/acts like these people:



I promise, we don't. Most of the Jersey Shore cast members aren't even from New Jersey!!

Anyhow, for kicks, here's a few fun links about other stereotypes:

The United States, according to the United States
An endless list of Stuff White People Like
Mapping stereotypes around the world

Cleveland humorous tourism video


And then there's the second one.

Portland: stuck in the 90s

Wednesday: NOT in Novum!

I won't be at our meeting on Wednesday (April 6), so we will NOT meet at Collegium Novum. Instead you'll meet (without me) at Sweet Surrender coffee shop at Most Teatralny. Here's the address and directions.

Aaron and Anna will reserve a room for us beginning at 18:30, so come whenever you can. There will be games and the opportunity to just relax and talk in English. I will try to stop by later in the evening.

First Annual UAM Spelling Bee

TOMORROW in Collegium Novum, 212b Bloc B at 19:00 sharp:

First Annual UAM Spelling Bee!

A spelling bee is a contest to correctly spell as many words as possible. We will follow the rules of the Scripps National Spelling Bee in the U.S. Every participant will have the opportunity to spell at least one word; however, once a participant misspells a word, he/she will be out of the running. There will be prizes!

There's even a Broadway musical about a spelling bee, let alone a number of movies.

To practice, check out the Merriam-Webster list of sample words. May the best speller win!

Wednesday meeting

Apologies for not being to post a reminder last week. I was away (with little internet access), so there was no meeting.

However, this week we WILL be meeting. In fact, because some people have a conflict later in the evening, we will start earlier this week only. For Wednesday, March 23 ONLY, we will start at 18:45 and end earlier. 212b as always.


Also, for those of you who are interested in studying in the USA, check out the Fulbright program. This exchange program (my program!) offers scholarships for Polish students and graduates to study in the US. It's recognized as very prestigious in the US, and the scholarship funds almost all of the costs of travel, living, and research expenses. The only catch is that you do need to apply about a year-and-a-half before you want to go. For example, for the 2012-2013 academic year (arriving in the US and beginning around Aug/Sept 2012), the application deadline is April 29, 2011.

If this is something that you are interested in, let me know! There's a Fulbright info session next Monday in Collegium Minus at 13:00. If you cannot make it, email me if you have questions. I'll bring extra materials to our meeting in a week.

See you Wednesday!

Meeting tomorrow!

Next meeting is tomorrow (Wed), again at 19:00 in 212b. We'll have some extra American students visiting (otherwise known as Liz drafting her friends to help), so we'll talk about the differences between university life in the U.S. and in Poland.

Also, if you haven't found our Facebook group yet, you should join.

The Line-Up

Here's a tentative plan for the next couple weeks. As always, the goal is just to get discussions flowing, so these topics are just starters.

This week (March 2): Diversity, multiethnicity, the so-called "American Melting Pot", and other fun things. Such as why Americans like pieorgies (yes, we add an -s ending in English) and names not to call someone.

Next week (March 9): American universities and the differences with Polish universities. And even better, we'll have at least two more native speakers present-- current 4th year university students from New York who are visiting me in Poznań for their spring break!

March 16: NO MEETING (unless you guys want to); I'll be at a conference, sorry.

March 23 (and onward): Meeting again as normal