Week 1: Speed-friending

Welcome back! We hope everyone had a pleasant winter break!

This week's meeting was today, Tuesday, instead of the usual Wednesday, so many of our regular members couldn't make it. But we did see a lot of new faces!

We started off by going around the room briefly introducing ourselves, and then we lined up desks and did speed-friending in roughly 5-minute intervals.

Our meetings for the rest of the quarter may or may not be moved to Wednesday nights. Please let us know the best days and times for you to come out via the Doodle link on Facebook.

Also, if anyone is interested in purchasing an LXP t-shirt, we still have a couple left! :]

Week 10: Music and Food

Tonight's event was supposed to be karaoke, but we weren't able to get a room at the Student Center, nor did we get microphones... So we just played music videos (and some people sang along)! :]
We had pizza and apple drinks and just talked among ourselves~

It was nice seeing some people for the first time in a while!
Thanks to everyone who came out this quarter! Good luck on finals, and see you next year!

Week 9: Randomness

Originally today's event was supposed to be telling stories with wacky, random pictures, but we decided to let it go... Hahaha!

Instead, we spent some time making a list of simple, useful/slangy phrases in various languages: Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, German, and Italian!

The rest of the time was kind of an open conversation, but most of us were gathered around one member who was learning the Korean alphabet.

We also talked about some cultural differences in going out and paying. Like, when a group of friends go out to dinner for someone's birthday, who pays the bill? Do the friends pay for the birthday person's meal? Or does the birthday person treat all his/her friends? Or does everyone just pay for his/her own share? Of course, this also led to the question about who pays when a couple goes on a date.
We learned that for weddings in China, the groom's parents generally pay for everything!

Week 7: Early Turkey Feast

...without the turkey. But we did have a lot of other yummy food at the potluck tonight! Homemade pumpkin pie, pad thai, mashed potatoes, fruit, "healthful" cookies, etc.~

We ate and talked, talked, and ate some more. Although there were probably enough seats for everybody to sit (despite having to use several as tables for the food), everyone mostly stood in groups and chatted.

We had a guest from the International Peer Group program come check us out tonight, so maybe we'll see more international students at our future meetings!

Thanks for coming out tonight!
There will be no meeting next week due to the Thanksgiving break. See you week 9!

Week 6: Game Night

After we all gathered around and doted on Michael's cute kitten, people started breaking into their own conversation groups. One by one, the groups broke out the games. We had a table in the corner for bright pink mahjong. Jenga moved from one group to another, and the other main game being played was Uno!

Hope everyone had fun tonight! Maybe you learned something new too?

Week 5: Half and Half

Happy Halloween!
We forgot to send out an email for this week, sorry!

Because of midterms, today's meeting was basically just an open conversation night again. We had movies playing in the background if anyone wanted to watch, but it seemed like most people were simply catching up with each other or meeting new people.

Towards the end though, everyone stopped conversing and started watching The Man from Nowhere together. Gotta go back and watch the beginning some time!

Week 4: Open Convo

Most people are probably having upcoming midterms, so tonight was just an open conversation night. After a short reminder about Queen Mary, everyone pretty much just talked among themselves and enjoyed the snacks (maple cookies!). Conversation night certainly may be the simplest activity LXP can set up, but it's also probably the best way to get to know the people you've met so far and learn about languages and/or cultural differences.

Thanks to those who stopped by! Good luck on all your midterms~