A Conversation with Daisy: Potbelly.. Again?

Another week, another trip to Potbelly. Daisy is starting to get more comfortable with speaking to me and actually made one of her first jokes about me. She poked fun about how I always request we meet at Potbelly, "You don't like BLUU food do you?" she asked while smiling. This was definitely a true statement, for earlier this semester I suffered from food poisoning and since then I have been weary to eating anything other than breakfast at the BLUU.

We sat down and talked a little bit more about what we do with academics. Daisy told me about the difficulty of the TOFU test and how it compares to the SAT test. Daisy's instructors told her that the TOFU test is quite difficult, so difficult that most American citizens would have a difficult time completing it. The test is long and dull and lasts over four hours. The subject matter she reads about is college level courses such as history and biology. As Daisy puts it "quite boring".

Putting myself in Daisy's shoes I realized how much of a challenge this test must have been for her. Any test that takes four hours is a difficult assessment, let alone one that is in a foreign language. On top of that she has to read about some of the dullest topics I've heard of!

The best equivalent I could come up with to compare is the SAT. But when I brought it up I only realized how much more simple my test was. She told me she was familiar with the SAT and how it only has three sections at a much shorter duration. I remember how only a few years ago I was slaving over that test trying to get good scores for potential colleges. Compared to the TOFU test, the SAT is a walk in the park!

I told Daisy about my courses and about my most challenging one, BIS. When she learned about my 30 page group report I had due at the end of the semester, Daisy flipped! She was shocked that I would be assigned such a difficult task. I had to explain to her the concept of group reports of course and suddenly the challenge was not as scary.

Conversations have become extremely fluid and it is great to see improvement from Daisy every single day!

Funny pictures

My first college all-nighter (Learning Experience)

We are all familiar with the concept of pulling an all-nighter. As a college student, we honor such an ambitious activity as a right of passage. Having said that, I had yet to experience the caffeine-fueled adventure that so many brag about. When I hear the phrase "Yeah I'm a little tired, I'll pulled an all-nighter last night", two things run through my mind:
1)You're definitely just bragging about this to sound like a badass.
2)You probably have awful time management skills.

Well, now I finally know what the experience is all about.

This semester in Business Information Systems, we were assigned a group project at the beginning of the year and were given until the last week of class to complete the project. The written report was expected to be over 30 pages in length with perfect grammar and spelling. Our five person group made sure to plan ahead and meet specific deadlines to avoid a build up of work. Procrastination was not a recommended strategy for taking on such a large and challenging project.

We decided it would be fair to trust each other and hold ourselves accountable. We were college students after all! So there was a schedule that mapped out our progress and each member had to cover an equal share of work. The schedule was pretty simple, starting at just basic research, then developing into a rough draft, and finally becoming a polished final deliverable that would be handed in to the teacher. From my personal perspective, this was an awesome idea! No one had to feel the pressure of others policing them and if one member wanted help, they would merely just have to ask.

Fast forward to about a week before the project was due. I had finished my writings and took the liberty of editing everyone else's portion. We figured it would be smart to have one central voice. The task seemed pretty simple and I anticipated maybe one sunday afternoon of work in order to sew these carefully crafted masterpieces together into our A+ worthy project.

Complications began to arise when one of our team members suddenly stopped showing up at meetings and responding to text messages. We were pretty concerned. Things got worse when we realized that this person never submitted their writing portion! We all took turns trying to contact said person and told them they needed to turn in their written portion ASAP!

The moment finally came when the partner submitted their report to me. Sure it seemed a little clunky here and there, but I figured we could work it out. Well it turns out that this 'report' was nothing other than a bunch of copy and pasted articles that filled up about 6 pages. It was 1 AM two nights before the project when I came to this realization. At this moment I faced two choices; to try and track down my partner and hope he sent the wrong document or to start from scratch and finish it all myself. I decided that it was too late to leave the library and go on a journey to find him.

I knew that slumber would be a temptress who would constantly try to lure me away from my quest. I stocked up on Starbucks Double Expresso shots, cliff bars, and just about every energy related product that a college student could buy at the library cafe. With my line up of chemically enhanced supercharged products in front of me, I took on the challenge.

I anticipated a loss of energy but not the loss of sanity. Things that should be menial and boring started becoming really funny. The mundane business report had me in stitches at one point. "Enterprise Resourse Systems are crucial for ensuring synergy within the workplace" - A phrase like this even brought a chuckle. I persevered though and finished the entire 30 page report at about 8:00 A.M.

I left the library and headed back to my dorm. I ran into my roommate who was a seasoned expert when it came to caffeine consumption and sleep deprivation. He told me to make sure that I don't take a nap until I am done with my day. He explained to me that once your body sees what it is missing, it will resist waking up. So I had no choice but to chug another expresso and wait it out until my 11:00 A.M. class.

When BIS came, I felt amazing. I had accomplished so much in 24 hours and was so proud of the fact that I pulled the all-nighter. I even found myself partially bragging about it! I was on point when answering the teacher's questions and felt like I have never been such a engaging student in my whole college career.

This all changed when I walked into my 12:30 religion class. As I walked through the door, I could tell that I hit 'the wall'. Much like marathon runners who make it 23 miles but have a mental breakdown which prevents them from completing their race, my body was telling me that I was done. I plopped down in my seat and tried my hardest to pay attention to what was going on in class. The air felt like blankets and my thick bible had never seemed so comfortable and soft before. I unintentionally started settling myself in like a dog that circles over his sleeping matt. This was when weird stuff started happening. Almost instantly I would dose off and have a realistic dream regarding the topic then wake up. From the outside I'm sure that looked like I was possessed by demons, which is kind of funny because that was what the topic was about that day.

I made it out of class and walked to my dorm. I was beyond thrilled for the slumber that awaited. I tucked myself in my bed and fell asleep. Almost instantly I awoke and looked at my clock. 8 hours had passed! There was another alert on my phone. It was a text message from the partner "Sorry I didn't tell you, I uploaded my reference for my written report instead of the real document!". Apparently the real document was prepared all along...

A Conversation with Daisy: A new challenge

This week's outing took place at potbelly (my personal favorite among the frog bucks accepting restaurants). There, I ran into a slightly less jovial Daisy. Daisy explained to me that she did not get the necessary grade for her to advance among her studies. With optimism in her voice, Daisy explained that she still gets one more chance to retake the test. If, however, Daisy doesn't succeed she may have to look towards a different path. When expressing that those were the possibilities, Daisy seemed optimistic towards both ways. This really made me realize how Daisy consistently faces obstacles every day and, like everyone else, faces the occasional loss. Daisy hardly seemed discouraged by this and instead used this to fuel her ambitious attitude towards following her dream.

I'd like to take a moment and just say that we can all learn from her actions. I sometimes encounter stumbles in life and don't react as positively. I may throw a fit, project blame onto someone other than me, and curse the obstacle that stands in my way. If I accepted the outcome and moved forward like daisy, I would probably save a lot of time and energy from my immature internal quarrels. 

The subject changed as we recapped on Spring Break. I talked about the luxurious wonders of feeling the sand in my toes and the friends who shared the beach house with me. Daisy asked about the weather and unfortunately I had to inform Daisy about the cold temperatures. We both grimaced about the unfortunate situation and shared our appreciation for warmer climates and sun rays. I asked Daisy if she would be prepared for the summer temperatures of Texas. Daisy said that she wasn't too nervous and welcomes the warmth. 

This was one of the short meets due to a busy schedule on my part. But it was great to see Daisy's optimistic demeanor shine through her regardless of the obstacles that stand in her way. This was definitely a wake up call for myself.

A Conversation with Daisy: Google Maps

This session with Daisy was a little bit less conventional than the rest. It didn't consist of me trying to learn more about her home country or explain the concepts certain American trends or phrases. Instead Daisy needed help on planning for her English test. You see, this was not a typical English test. This was the test to end all tests.

Earlier in our meetings, we discussed the importance of learning English to Daisy's major. Last time Daisy met with her professor, the professor stated that Daisy's conducting talents were ready for the next step but her weakness in understanding spoken English was holding Daisy back. Daisy's new task was to take her advanced English comprehension test at a certified testing facility before a specific date (March 31st I believe). If Daisy scored an 80 or higher she would move one step closer to her dream of becoming a choral conductor.

This is where Daisy explained to me that she had to overcome an unexpected obstacle: transportation to these facilities. As someone who has a car and has grown up in the DFW metroplex my whole life, I didn't see much of a challenge in traveling 45 minutes to Dallas. I'd simply input the location on my phone, drive over, and take the test. This task proved to be much more complicated for Daisy: She had to coordinate with a friend to take her to Hulen Mall, call a taxi to deliver her to the destination, and finally find the actual testing center which was sandwiched in the middle of UNT's campus. The strict timeline for the events to take place (to check in with the test center by 8:00 A.M.) added even more fuel to the fire.

I opened up my laptop and used Google Maps to show daisy which routes were the closest and which would have the least traffic. This is where Daisy made an peculiar observation. Daisy's Chinese computer showed a greatly different version of Google Maps that lacked many of the features that Americans enjoy. I screen shotted maps of different routes Daisy could take and emailed them to her.

While this lunch was different from our typical conversational meet, I still got to gain further insight on the challenges Daisy faces every day. Something that would be simple for me is quite difficult for Daisy.