TLExpress 2006

I still remember Rudy's face when he listened to me for the first time.

I arrived from Spain after Christmas vacation on January, 26th. After calling home to say that I had arrived safely, I checked my e-mail box. There was one titled "Pals and Partners" offering all students at Carthage the opportunity to spend one and a half hours of their Thursday afternoons with a kid from one of the schools in Kenosha. I really love children and have been teaching English and Spanish to kids in Spain for several years and so I thought that it would be a great opportunity...

The first meeting was on February 23rd. Each Carthage student was matched with one of the kids. I was a little bit nervous, because first, I did not know any of my student partners, and second, I was wondering what the child's reaction would be to my foreign accent. All the children were really shy, but at the same time, they came in with so much enthusiasm that it made me even more nervous. Finally, I met Rudy. Rudy was a six-year-old boy, from Lincoln elementary school. He was wearing a big, red coat (because it was really, really cold that day). I still remember when I said: "Hi! How are you?". He looked at me from top to bottom, and looked down again. I was trying to get some information from him and I asked him questions like: "how are you?, how was school today?, do you have any brothers or sisters?," but he did not answer any. We usually give kids a snack when they arrive and, then, I asked him if he wanted something to eat. He finally answered "yes." So we went for the snack and sat down at a table. "Do you think I speak weird?," I asked him. He nodded, yes.. Then, I explained to him that I was not born here and I came from a different country, where people speak Spanish. I drew some pictures for him, and suddenly, his face changed. By the end of the afternoon, I could not make him quiet. He was talking all the time, telling me stories about school and his teacher. We had so much fun playing that day.

Every Thursday, when we meet, he first works on his homework, he has his snack, and then, we go out (when the weather is fine... and, in Kenosha, that is "once in a blue moon") to play. Thanks to him, I know how to play baseball, football and hopscotch. I have even learned the "cool" things to say in English like "give me five" or "that's awesome." I do not think Rudy will remember me (he had so much trouble learning my name, Loli) because he is too young, and for him, I am just somebody to have fun with on Thursday afternoons. However, I like what I feel when he gives me a hug when he leaves. Far away, in Spain, I will always remember Rudy.

Loli Santiago(Spain)

They are not freshmen, sophomores, juniors or seniors. Actually, they are between around 7 and 10 , but they have been also part of my Carthage experience.

I have met these four kids every Wednesday since last October to teach them Spanish. I must confess that before meeting them, I was hesitating. I had a lot of work to do and I was not sure about the idea of extra-work, but these doubts disappeared in the very first session.

Very soon these kids became a good excuse for me to disconnect from my daily routine. It is so easy to work with them. In fact, the classes were about the same topics that I used in my Spanish 101 course, but the methodology was very different. We sang songs to deal with the days of the week, we danced salsa to learn the prepositions and we had fun with Spongebob and friends to learn greetings. I had to prepare lots of activities for every session, so they would not get bored. It was also really helpful for me that they are enthusiastic, easy going, unpredictable and grateful. They enjoyed every single activity we did and I enjoyed all the time that we spent together. They learnt from my classes and I learnt from them. These kids reminded me every Wednesday of the reasons why I want to devote my career to elementary school teaching in Spain.

Before coming to Carthage I had some experience teaching kids, but I will never forget this time that I spent with my little friends Carson, Grant, Maya and Delson.

Jesùs Molina (Spain)

For all of us, there are special people-you meet them and your life is different. These people also lead to others, just as special. The ex-TLEs from Colombia have contributed to making my experiences at Carthage wonderful. You will need to remember some names because they reappear: Bony, Letty, Jessica, Bibiana, Sandra. I met some of them in Bogotá, and coincidentally, we ended up together in Kenosha. Let's start with my friend Bony and her family. We went to high school together in Bogotá, but we did not know each other until I came to Kenosha where I met her sister Letty, who was a TLE at Carthage some years ago. What a coincidence! Since then, she and her family become a very important part of my life. Then there is my friend Jessica, another former TLE, also from Bogotá who invited me to Arizona for Christmas. Then, last summer, she introduced me to Sandra, an ex-TLE from France, who had come back to visit. When they were at Carthage, Sandra was the roommate of Bibiana, another friend from Colombia. Then, for Christmas, Jessica and I decided to visit Sandra in France. It was awesome! Sandra's family is so nice, and I had a really great time!

My thesis was the source of another nice coincidence. I designed a unit for my thesis about Cumbia, a traditional dance from Colombia. One day, Bibiana told me about some Colombian friends who needed help performing a dance at their school. She asked me if I could help them, and of course I said yes. And guess what, the dance that we had to practice was Cumbia! It matched the theme of my thesis perfectly. So we practiced a lot and had so much fun. In the end I had the opportunity to use the video for my thesis. It was awesome! and again, I felt a familiar Colombian connection!

All the TLEs we have common interests which help us to get along with each other and to be the support and strength that we sometimes need far away from home. The present TLEs and Colombian ex-TLEs have become a family to me. This special connection has grown over the past two years. Now I have another route to take, away from Carthage, but I'm sure that we will keep in touch and will keep this friendship forever!! xoxo.

Kely Paez (Colombia)

When I arrived for the first time in the United States, I had planned to get a driver license as soon as possible because I am always thinking about the possibility of getting or driving a car. Since, at home in Colombia, I have been driving for more than ten years, I thought for that reason any practical exam was going to be a piece of cake. And I was wrong about that. It took me more than six months to finally get my license!

I had to take the exam three times and I can't believe I have to say THREE times. All my "experience" didn't help at all. There are a lot of small details a driver needs to take into account when they are taking the practical exam. I am from another country where you start to learn how to drive by sitting on your father's lap at any age and watching him drive.

The expression "blind spot" was completely new to me. I learned about that only when I was reading the book I got in the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) about all the different rules. I failed two exams, basically because of the blind spot (and maybe I need to add: speeding, a wrong turn, and in one moment driving too slow).

Not all of my driver's test was negative and it wasn't all my fault. I remember when I did the parallel park and it was perfect, the best parallel park I've ever done (It is not completely true. I just learned how to do it a long time ago) and the guy said: you didn't put the hand break on and you didn't check your blind spot. So he marked me down. Another time, I was backing up and this time he said I was driving too fast. TOO FAST? It was impossible. It was the second exam and I was driving better than the first time. But at the end I lost points for that.

Finally the third time I passed my practical test and I almost couldn't believe it. I was going to have a driver's license in United States, one of the most important documents a person needs in this country. I was so happy. (three times for a guy? It was too many times for me and my ego was thinking the same, because I thought I was a good driver and I could pass any exam or test ).

At the beginning, after all that failure, I was afraid to drive but now I am feeling more secure about it. Now I can drive a Carthage van to help other TLEs. Sadly in the spring, we go to O'Hare, where I drop off the TLEs that are leaving because their time at Carthage is over and they are going back home.

John Cabanillas (Colombia)

For the past two years in the United States, my TLE friends and even some of my students have remarked: "You are not typical Japanese!" This was quite surprising to me because I spent my entire life before I came to the United States in Tokyo, Japan. So, how can I not be a typical Japanese? Well, I do not take many pictures, I am very outgoing and talkative, I am disorganized at my office desk, I am terrible at technology, and also I am not very punctual... BUT, I am sure that I am 100% Japanese and I always had a lot of fun teaching Japanese at Carthage College.

I have found it interesting to see how my TLE friends from around the world imagine the typical Japanese person. My Senegalese housemate believed that I must be either European or American and my Spanish housemate believed that I must be from Tahiti, not from Japan. So I am probably a little different from what they imagine Japanese people to be. But anyway, it was fun to learn from my friends and think of myself as not being typical Japanese!

Sachie Saito (Japan)

I have a great mom at home in Japan. She always understands me and helps me a lot. After I came to America, we could not have contact as often as we did before, but still, she sends me a lot of letters, emails (she was not good at using a computer, but she learned how to use it after I came to America!), and sometimes she calls me and we talk a lot. These contacts support my life in a foreign country. Especially her inspiring letters cheer me up when I feel homesick. She always thinks about me and supports me even though she is not with me. So, I already have a great mom in my country, but fortunately, I have another great mom here in America. She is my host mother in Kenosha.

When I came to Carthage, I was told that each of us had a host family as a part of the TLE program. I did not expect that, so I did not prepare anything, but my host family, the Ziarko family, welcomed me very warmly. Since it was the second day of my Carthage life, my English was not very good. Because of that, I could not have good conversations with them. I really thought "I wish I could!" However, they were always so nice, and listened carefully to me every time. As I got used to American life and English, I became able to have good communication with them. Now I have a very good relationship with them. They help me and support my American life a lot, especially my host mother, Gloria. She always helps and supports me. She takes care of me as her real daughter. When I was sick, she took me to the hospital even if it was very late at night. At that time, she also supported me mentally. Although I was really sick, I felt relieved because she stayed with me all the time.

When we meet, we talk a lot. We talk about our family, friends, jobs, studies...many topics! Since she is teaching French as a high school teacher, we talk about our jobs often, and give advice to each other. She is my host mother for my American life, but she is like my real mom. She is my mother, my friend, and my good colleague as a foreign language teacher.

I feel very lucky to have such great moms in two countries!

Ai Sukegawa (Japan)

This year at Carthage College has been full of discoveries. For me, one of them was theater. I hadn't planned on being involved with a show, but one day, it was raining (or snowing maybe), so I decided to walk back to my house through the buildings to avoid the bad weather. When I walked past the theater, there were people in there; they were holding auditions... I didn't really know what was going on, so I went in and found some people that I had previously seen in the hall rehearsing their parts. I was intrigued. Then, to my great surprise, the director asked me if I wanted to give it a shot... I was very excited about this, but the problem was that I hadn't learnt anything by heart to perform on stage. She said there was no problem, that I could go to the library, pick a book, come back, and perfom a short monologue on stage... So I did. Next came the time for all the participants to play a scene with one another, and this was my very first experience on stage... It was pretty cool!!! I loved it!!! So I was really excited when I found out I was part of the cast!!! This was the beginning of a great experience called A Midsummer Night's Dream, by William Shakespeare. I got a small role (Snug), but it was the fun part of the play. It feels so good to make an audience laugh.

In a way, this play was like a microcosm of this year at Carthage... I mean, all the good things I've experienced in the U.S., I experienced over again in the play, with a slightly different approach. People, feelings, culture. In the same way as the worst part of theater was closing the curtains of the last show, the worst part of Carthage College is saying goodbye.

Special thanks to all the TLEs, Marian, Lisa, and God.

Max (France)

Coming to Kenosha and getting to know so many people from all around our planet is one thing. Getting along with them is another thing, and then sharing a common hobby is again a different thing. If you've read the title of this article, you won't be surprised to learn that this hobby was soccer among us TLEs 05/06 - at least among the guys.

It started in Fall '05 with 4 guys. But where can you play soccer in winter since the Carthage gym doesn't have indoor goals? As a matter of fact, the raquetball courts turned out to be the perfect place for many, many soccer games. Being told not to be too noisy, we had to take care not to shoot too hard, which was not always easy. Soon all six male TLEs joined the soccer games twice a week. Finally, perhaps because of the noise, and maybe other things, we were banned from the raquetball court. Fortunately by that time, the weather was better and we could play outside. By word of mouth people different people learned about the TLE-soccer-thing and suddenly more and more friends and also people we never met before joined the soccer games and it was always lots of fun.

With just three male TLEs next year it will be hard to keep the games going (unless the women want to play), but I will always think back with joy about the whole thing and I can only recommend that the next TLEs do something like that!

Andi Nebelung (Germany)