My EFA Experiences

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My Teachers and my clasmates

Finally today is the end of semester for English for All Program (EFA) at Ohio University. For many people, today is the end of semester, but for me, today is the day that I will celebrate farewell party. I'm not a student. I just came to Athens for several months. At the end, it is difficult for me to say goodbye to Athens, friends, and my teachers.

I joined English for All Program since September 2012. It means that I already finish two semesters in this program. Since the first time I came here, I met new friends and new teachers. Last semester, I might not really close to all my classmates. We just met in class and did little conversation. We still keep contact on Facebook until now, even just comments a status or like a page. I also make a friendship with my teacher on Facebook, even though we never did lot conversations. Fortunately, I’m close with Jessica, one of my teachers. Once, she asked me to be her informant for her paper assignment. After that, we always say hello every time we met.

My second semester was started since January. The students from last semester took the same class with me, but there were many new students who just joined the program. If you compared to another class that had only 2 or 3 students every day, our class always crowded. I met new friends such as Ina, Tatiana, Gawlasyan, Helen, and Tugba. Among them, Helen and Tugba became my best friends.

Helen is a Chinese woman. Her full name is Helen Pang. She's very friendly. Because I thought that I was not good for starting conversations with the people that I just met, I was quiet in the class. Helen came to me and invited to discuss. She asked me about lesson in the class. Everything likes magic when I felt comfortable to chat with her. We discussed about anything beside lessons in our class. We became close friend. I made a friend with her on Facebook.

Helen, Tugba, and Me at Sakura Festival

Later, Tugba, a Turkish woman, joined us. She is a talkative woman. She always had topic to talk in our class. Helen, Tugba, and me attended many cultural events in OU. We went to international women's day, Sakura festival, and also Holi night. We became best friend.

The program was very flexible. Not every student came all days. One of my friends, Gawlasyan, just came on Wednesday and Thursday, because she has a young child. But the rest of students such as me, Helen, Tugba, and Tatiana attended class almost every day.

There were six teachers in my class. Three of them taught us in Monday and Wednesday, and the rests taught in Tuesday and Thursday. For Monday and Wednesday, Carly, Kristina, and Katie became our teachers. For Tuesday and Thursday, they will be replaced by Mary, Elen, and Ethan. They were good teachers. They taught us patiently.

Sometimes we didn't understand, but they always kept trying to explain the lessons. I believe that they faced difficulties to teach us because our mother languages are not English.

Today, we graduate. Finally, we finish this spring semester. We go to Baker Center for graduation. We get a certificate. I already have two certificates from this program. If I stay in Athens for many years and attend this program every semester, maybe I will collect many certificates. But, certificate is not the main point. The main point is friendship with many people. I’m so happy cause I met lovely friends and great teachers.

I will leave Athens soon. Someone told me that we never precisely predict what will happen in the future. Maybe someday, I’ll back to Athens and meet my classmates and my teachers. I believe there’s no an accident in this world. Every meeting has a purpose. Friends are those who meet us for a reason. They're meant to cross our path to enrich and to nurture our life with love and compassion to other people. Someday I’ll meet them for a specific reason. Maybe it is for love.

Athens,  April 28, 2013