Blog Post #2 My First Chat Cafe Meeting

Last week I had my first chat cafe and it went well. I have a total of 7 participants, but three of them e-mailed me before hand and told me they couldn't make it for the first week. Four of the participants showed up and we met at the Angell Hall stairs outside. We started off with introducing ourselves and doing a "rose and thorn" of the week which left us with multiple things to branch off from and talk about. All of my participants were from different areas in China, so most of them enjoyed talking about where they were from and what similarities they had in their environments back home.

I think that most of my members were shy so it was hard to get everyone to speak equally or respond to prompts, but overall everyone contributed a good amount. I could tell that some of them were much more comfortable speaking English than the others. Our chat ended up being us discussing 3-4 different questions and each of us asked questions about each others responses. One thing that really dominated our conversation was how big UMich is and how hard it can be to get accustomed to everything here. Each person shared difficulties that they encountered/ are currently encountering. To lighten up the mood, we then talked about why we all came to Ann Arbor and what we love about the city.

I think our chat ended up being less of a conversation and more of a shared discussion on similar topics, but for the most part I think all of us were okay with this format. Everyone seemed to be engaged the whole time. At the end, we all talked about where we could meet and what kinds of fun things we can do over the semester. They mostly suggested places to drink and eat and different activities that we could all do together. I noticed that they all left together and continued talking, which made me grateful that they could get along and become friends. When I got home, I noticed that two of my participants had added me on Facebook and Instagram (which is a good thing!)

I hope that my participants enjoyed the chat and will continue to enjoy future ones! Our next chat is at a bubble tea place since many of them agreed that they would love to do that. Hopefully the rest of them go smoothly and we have more to talk about as the weeks go on!