Welcome to Fall 2010

Welcome to the Fall 2010 Quarter at EWU. What we want to know from you here at the blog, is what do you do to prepare for the colder weather?

Spokane Area Restaurants

Hi, this is Neal. Remember when we were talking about restaurants on Wednesday afternoon? I did a search for Thai Restaurants, and found a few in the South Hill area. I was wondering, Sarah, if you were thinking of "Picabo?" It is on 901 W 14th Ave. Is that right? Or was it Bangkok Thai? Anyway, there are more Thai restaurants than I expected.
I hope we can plan a time and place to eat in the future. But what kind of food? Thai? Sushi? American (even though it is boring)? Whatever everybody wants the most will be the winning food choice.

Bon Apetit,

POTLUCK!!!

We would like to host a Potluck on Saturday, February 28th, 2009. A Potluck is a dinner party where each person brings some kind of food or drink for all the guests. If you are interested, we would like you to make some food from your home country that everybody can try.
If we get enough people interested, we will set a time and give directions to the house. It will be a time to relax and have fun with other people from class. Please let us Hope to see you there!

Introduce Yourself

When I ask students the question "what is something interesting about you" they think it is difficult to give an answer. Maybe the reason is that everybody thinks of themselves as just a normal person. Every ELI student has had the experience of traveling to another country to study. This is interesting. Anyone who has experienced two cultures has had something interesting happen to them.
I want to know more about each of you. If you can't think of anything, just write about what you do during the day.
For example:

Monday through Friday, I wake up at 6:00 AM and ride the bus into Spokane. While I am on the bus, I listen to my iTouch. I work at Spokane Community College in the morning. In the afternoon, I ride the bus back to Cheney and work at the Writers' Center until evening. I have some dinner, and I read and write at night. On the weekends, I like to sleep and visit with my family and friends.
The cold weather makes everything more difficult. There is no sunlight when I wake up or finish work. I have been sick twice this quarter, and that also makes things harder to do.

Now I want to read about each of you. Leave me a comment. Feel free to talk about anything.

Poker

Just like a casino, we ran a couple tables of card games. The first, and easiest (in my opinion) was blackjack or "21." The difficult part, I'm guessing, is learning all the jargon (or specific vocabulary) to play the game. If I want a card, it would be a "hit," if I just want one more card and to double my bet, it's "double down." If I have pairs and want to play two hands, it's a "split." And if I'm happy with my cards, I just want to "stay." Each particular occupation or group has very specific language, even if it is just a simple card game.
More complex, was Texas Hold 'Em. Knowing what "hands" (or group of cards) beat what other hands was the most difficult part of that game. Also, I think we all saw that luck plays a big part into how the game turns out. No matter how much you understand a game, or how much effort you put in, luck often determines the winner.
At one of the tables was five card draw. Again, the difficulty is knowing what hand beats what other hand. I think the order goes like this:
High card
1 pair
2 pair
3 of a kind
Straight
Flush
Full House (2 of a kind, 3 of a kind)
Four of a Kind
Straight Flush (with Royal Flush being the highest)
Because I received no responses to the last blog entry, and we are still talking about games, I still want to know what kinds of games do you play. What specific language (or jargon) goes with those games? Do you play with family or friends? Do you have any special rules (also known as "house rules"). Let me know anything about any games.

Spoons

Spoons is played with a standard deck (or decks) of cards and a number of spoons. The spoons are placed in the center of the playing area, so that all players can reach for a spoon. The total number of spoons is one less than the number of players.
Each player is dealt four cards with the object of drawing and discarding cards one at a time until a four-of-a-kind is acheived. After the initial deal, the dealer takes a card from the top of the deck, either replaces one of his/her cards in hand or passes the card to the player at the right. If the dealer does replace a card, the card that was previously in their hand is passed to the right. The dealer repeats this as fast as possible, and soon all players should be picking up and discarding cards. The player to the dealer's left creates a discard pile to be used in case the deck runs out.
The player first achieving a four-of-a-kind may then grab a spoon. When this happens, all the other players, regardless of cards in hand have to also grab a spoon. The player left without a spoon is eliminated.
An alternative rule rewards letters to the losing player (like a game of HORSE in basketball). If a player doesn't get a spoon, they get a letter, starting with "S" and are eliminated when they spell S-P-O-O-N-S.
Players can also "bluff" and reach for a spoon, trying to get another player to touch a spoon. If you touch a spoon without having four-of-a-kind or another player having four-of-a-kind, you will get a letter or be eliminated.
For those of you who played this game, what did you think of it? What other card games do you play? Do you play card games (or any other games) with your families and friends? What is your favorite? Let me know your thoughts on games.

Body Language

Not only what we say, but how we say it and what we are doing when we say it say a lot. Does that make sense? What I am trying to say (actually, write) is body language and facial expressions are used a lot in communication.
Going back to the silent movie film clips we watched, we could understand the humor through what the people were doing. Even Mickey Mouse as Steamboat Willie used facial expressions. Even the whistles on the steamboat in Steamboat Willie had facial expressions. This is all part of body language.
When Buster Keaton falls through the hole in the roof and the woman in the bathtub yells at him to get out, we understand the emotion and expression even though no one is talking. This was before sound...even before color.
Body Language is also called Non-verbal communication and comedians, to give one professional example, need to master it. The little things we do are called cues (or visual cues) that let others know what we are thinking, expressing, trying to communicate, even if we ourselves are unaware of what we might be doing. Sometimes we exaggerate to make something seem funny. We cue a friend or audience to let them know they should laugh.
What I would like to know this time is...what visual cues, non-verbal communication, facial expressions, or body language do you use to express or say more (than just with words)? Is there any body language that is specific to your culture? What examples did you see in the clips we watched - or - what examples have you seen in other shows or movies? Just a few things I was wondering.