The ELI Weekly
Out and About: The Colliding Rivers in Venezuela
Antonio Nohra, RW31
In my hometown in Venezuela, Puerto Ordaz, two famous rivers collide. One of those rivers is called the Caroni River and the other one is called the Orinoco River. There is a legend about these two rivers that is influenced by the fact that the Caroni River has clear water and the Orinoco River has brown water.
According to this legend, the Caroni River was a woman whose feelings are manifested in the blue color of its waters. The Orinoco River was a strong and passionate man, whose dark waters emanate the warmth of his heart. Legend has it that, before becoming rivers, these humans fell in love despite belonging to different ethnic groups. Love was so strong that they decided to face their own families, which had rivalries with each other, and did not allow that love to take place. One day, they decided to seal their love with a kiss and a promise that they would escape from the shelter of their families to be able to live their love without anything or anyone preventing it.
Then the Atlantic Ocean, touched by the affection of these two lovers, decided to take them in its current to help them flee, merging them with the water. This is how they ended up becoming these two rivers that have to go so far to join. Nowadays you can see those two rivers collide if you go to the Angosturita bridge and look for someone near this one to tell you the legend.
CIP Weekday Activities
Sign up for all activities here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0C4BA9A823A02-student31
Photo of the Week
US Federal Tax Forms for International Students
Taxes are due on April 18th this year. Taxes are filed for the previous calendar year, which in this case is 2021. If you didn’t earn money in the U.S. in 2021, you won’t owe taxes; however, if you were an international student in a U.S. school in 2021, you must file Form 8843 for you and your dependents whether you worked at a campus job in 2021 or not.
As a UF ELI student you can use a free non-immigrant tax filing program called Sprintax to file tax form 8843. Daryl Bish emailed you how to access Sprintax. Contact him at studyenglish@eli.ufl.edu or make an appointment to talk with in 223 Matherly Hall if you did not receive information about Sprintax. You must access Sprintax through a secure portal, and you must use your Gatorlink information to enter the program.
If do not use Sprintax, you can print form 8843, complete and sign it, and mail it to the government. You can access form 8843 here: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8843.pdf. Fill out the information under Part I and Part III. In 9 and 10, you need to include the information about the academic institution that you attended in 2021. You can find the address and phone number for the ELI at www.eli.ufl.edu. The name of the director of the ELI is Megan Forbes.
Mail your completed form to this address:
Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service
Austin, TX 73301
If you had on campus employment in 2021, you will receive a form reporting your income and tax withholdings called a W-2. Because you earned taxable and reportable income and must submit a federal tax return to file your W-2. You also must file form 8843. Sprintax can help you do both.
The ELI is not permitted to assist any student with any IRS tax form preparation or give tax advice, but if you have questions about the above information, please contact Daryl Bish.
Student Voices Deadline
Friday, April 8 is the last day to send submissions to Student Voices. Share your experiences, recipes, essays, poems, paragraphs, creative stories, etc. with the ELI! Send your submission to Olga (omoody@ufl.edu). Look at past semesters of Student Voices (https://eli.ufl.edu/news-publications/) if you need some inspiration!
Notes from the Office
Apartment Leases: As the semester draws to a close, keep in mind that your lease might be ending soon. It is important to know the exact date that your apartment lease ends so you can make plans. If you’re not sure when it ends, ask your apartment office.
If you need help finding a hotel to stay in short-term (you should ask your friends first!), someone to take over your lease, or a new apartment, talk to Victoria in Matherly 223.
Expiring I-20s: If your I-20 is expiring soon, make an appointment with Daryl in MAT 223 to renew your I-20 before it expires.
Financial Guarantees: For scholarship students, it is time to request your new financial guarantee letter for the Summer semester, if you plan to return. Most of your financial guarantees will expire this May, which means that you will need to submit a new financial guarantee by the tuition deadline of May 18th for the Summer C semester to avoid owing a late fee. If you need an enrollment letter or if you have any questions, please email Jennifer Vann at jvann@eli.ufl.edu.
Charges Due: Every ELI student should log in to ONE.uf.edu and look at the “Campus Finances (Bursar)” tile to see if they owe any fees to the university. For example, you may need to pay for services you received at the Student Health Care Center or printing in a library. If you have a scholarship, it will not pay these charges.
Manners & Culture
Q: Why do many Americans smile at people they don’t even know?
In the United States, if you make eye-contact with someone, even a stranger, it is considered polite to acknowledge that person by smiling, nodding, or saying “hello.”
Q: I see many American students wearing pajamas or flip flops at school. In our country, it is extremely rude. Why?
As you have seen, student clothing is very casual in the United States and includes flip flops and pajamas! Here are some reasons for casual clothing:
- Casual clothing is a great equalizer–you can’t tell who is rich and who is poor.
- It is common to express individuality by wearing unusual clothing.
- The hot/rainy Florida weather (and cold air conditioning) makes casual clothing more practical.
Q: Why do people from the United States call themselves ‘Americans’? (Canadians or Latin Americans don’t call themselves that way)
Let’s compare the full names of countries in North, Central, and South America and see what happens when we talk about the people from those countries:
- Canada–Canadians
- Brazil–Brazilians
- Mexico–Mexicans
- United States of America–United State-ians??? USA-ians??? US-ians???
The words “Canadians, Brazilians, and Mexicans” sound great! For people from the US, however, those words are too long or too difficult to say. It is easier to shorten “people from the United States of America” to “Americans.” Besides, if you talk about people from one state in the US, you can use the -ians/-ans/-er endings to talk about the people from the state:
- Floridians
- Texans
- New Yorkers
Grammar
Q: Why are there so many silent letters in English words?
A: English is a combination of many different language influences. One of the main languages that influenced English vocabulary and spelling over the centuries was French. French arguably has more silent letters than most Western languages (they kept a lot of the Latin letters that they stopped pronouncing). A lot of the words that we imported, we didn’t make many changes to; also, we adopted quite a few spelling patterns from the French language. English spelling wasn’t actually standardized until the middle of the 19th Century!
Q: Why do American people have a lot of mistakes when they write?
A: The answer above is one of the main reasons why some people writing in English have so many mistakes, Americans and non-native speakers alike. Because of the combination of different languages, words aren’t written the way they sound.
Birthdays!
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