Evan CP#5

Jihye and I had another nice conversation today. I asked her about the "critical incident" and we had some trouble here. She was not sure what I meant, like she understood cultural boundaries, but I don't think she understood how important the "critical" was. She gave me some small examples, like bowing heads, which I could understand, but I did not consider critical. She said she did not have many troubles, and was overly aware of how she was acting in America. To get her to better understand, I used Mrs Kim's example of the water in the restaurant. She seemed to understand more, but was still unsure if anything like that had happened. I told her it would seem like she would not be doing anything wrong. She told me a story about how she was caught brushing her teeth in a public bathroom, how some of her peers found it strange. I think that qualified perfectly, because no one here does that, how we think its strange. There are people who brush three times a day, but not really in public, and she seemed rather embarrassed telling the story, though not that she needed to be. 


We spent the rest of the session discussing our weekend plans. She did not have much going on, some social events, errands, chores. I intended to go home that weekend and spend a night with my parents. We were discussing what it was like being students, and how it was visiting parents. I was informed that most students remain with their parents during college, attending in their home town. I told her it was common to leave for college in America, she seemed aware though. We ended up on the topic of my cats, and we spent much of the time oohing and aahing over pictures of my cats, which was not much for discussion. On the upside she really did like them, they are adorable.

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