Winter 16 Blog Post 1

 My first two cafe chat groups have been going pretty smoothly. Originally, when people signed up for my group, there was one guy who was not Asian. Out of the 6 ELI/Chat Cafe groups I have facilitated, I have only had one guy who was not Asian, so I was a little nervous but also excited about the challenge. However, the guy dropped my group before the first session. In our first session, I had them fill out an “All about Me Robot,” share with their partner, and then share as a group. Then, I taught them a hand game and we played Never Have I Ever. Surprisingly, someone in my group has already played Never Have I Ever, and they did not have a lot of trouble saying “Never Have I Ever.”

In our second chat cafe, I started the rose/thorn tradition I do in every group. Then, I bought a pack of cards for us to play with. I taught them how to play the game of spoons, and they seemed to enjoy it. I realized that this group goes through and gets bored of activities very fast, and they began to look tired so I tried to energize them by making them get up and play human knot. When I played this game with my friends back home, it took a lot of time a team work and was very challenging. However, every time I played it with a chat cafe, we have solved it really fast. I thought they were getting bored with me, but at the end, none of them wanted to leave even after I thought I made clear that wishes was the closing activity.

All in all, I think I have a really great group. I’m excited to get to know them better as the semester goes on and the weather gets warmer.