The ELI Weekly
Weekend Event
Saturday, March 23rd – Kanapaha Botanical Gardens: Spring Garden Festival – 9:30am – 12:30pm
Visit Gainesville’s beautiful botanical gardens with over 60 acres of amazing plants and walking paths throughout. It is a special weekend to visit because it is the Spring Garden Festival! There will over 100 booths offering plants, landscape displays, garden accessories, arts and crafts, educational exhibits and, of course, foods! Entry is 10 dollars and bring extra money to buy food, plants, or souvenirs. Meet at Norman Parking Garage at 9:30 am. Don’t be late so we can avoid the crowds by getting there early! Contact Grace if you have trouble finding us!
You must sign up to attend this event. If you do not have a car and need a ride, sign up for the slot that says “I need a ride.” If you have your own car, sign up for the slot that says “I have my own ride.” Sign up here: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0C4BA9A823A02-48496048-kanapaha
- Norman Parking Garage Address: Parking Garage 8 (Norman), Gainesville, FL 32601
- Kanapaha Botanical Gardens Address: Summer House, 4700 SW 58th Dr, Gainesville, FL 32608
CIP Weekday Activities
Other CIP Reminders
St. Augustine Bus Passes
Tate is selling St. Augustine Bus Passes starting on Monday until they are sold out. It is a full day trip happening on March 30th. Tickets are 25 dollars exact cash and can be purchased from Tate’s office Monday through Wednesday 9am to 12:30 pm. The first week of sales is open to ELI students and family members only. The second week of sales, if there are tickets remaining, will open up to purchase other guest tickets.
Sign Up for the Talent Show
The ELI will be having a talent show on April 5th in the beautiful University Auditorium! Anyone is welcome to perform!! Please sign up if you have a talent to share, or even something simple to share. Some ideas are singing, playing an instrument, showcasing your art, doing a dance, reading poetry, doing a skit – anything you like! You do not need to be amazing to perform, there is no winner! This is a great way to connect with ELI friends and share your interests in a supportive environment. Signing up for the Talent Show involves coming to a few practices.
Sign up to perform here (and share with your friends!): https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0C4BA9A823A02-47954719-elitalent
Want to MC/Host the talent show? Talk to Tate!
Conversation Partners
Want to meet with a fluent English speaker and make a new friend? Sign up for a CP! If you choose to sign up, you must meet with your partner for one hour a week. It can take up to two weeks to get a partner from when you sign up. Please sign up at this link: https://forms.gle/Vs8dgX3R8qGvT1Ed7
Please email Will at conversationpartners@eli.ufl.edu for any issues, questions or concerns or visit him in the CIP Office during office hours.
CIP Passport
Don’t forget to get your CIP Passport hole punched from the activity leaders AT the event (not after). We don’t hole punch passports after the event. Redeem your completed passport for a small gift a photo for the ELI Instagram, and your name published in the ELI weekly!
Need a new CIP Passport? Stop by the CIP Office?
Remember the CIP Pineapple is hidden in a new place every Monday in the CIP office. Stop by and find it for hole punches!
Completed CIP Passports
Congrats to students who completed their CIP Passports! Thank you for being so involved with the CIP!
- Azzam Almatrodi
Notes from the Office
Welcome to Tatum! Please welcome our new ELI receptionist, Tatum Homer-Dibble. Come by the main office and say hi!
New students: B Term begins this week, so you will see new students coming to the main office, in the hallways, and at activities. Please welcome and help new students as they begin to settle at UF and in Gainesville.
People out: Christine and Daryl are both out of the office March 21-23. Please plan around these dates if you need to talk to them.
Taxes: International students that were in the U.S. in 2023 need to file tax forms with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Tax forms are due on April 15th this year. As a UF ELI student you can use a free international student tax filing program called Sprintax. Talk to Daryl (studyenglish@eli.ufl.edu) if you need more information.
Student Voices: Every semester, we have amazing student writers, so we take your writing and publish it in an online collection called Student Voices. In past semesters, students have written paragraphs, essays, creative stories, recipes, letters, obituaries, poetry, and more. You can see past editions of Student Voices (https://eli.ufl.edu/news-publications/, scroll to the bottom of the page) for inspiration.
We encourage you to submit anything of your work that you wish to see published. It can be from any class or something you have written on your own but ask your teachers for help editing! You can email it to Olga Moody (omoody@ufl.edu) or to your teacher. Please include your name and class on your submission. The deadline for submissions is Friday, March 29.
Photo of the Week
Birthdays!
Here are the birthdays from Spring Break and this week:
Manners & Culture
Q: Why do Americans pronounce the word ‘wanted’ without the ‘t’ sound?
A: Listen to several people say these words. Do you hear them saying the ‘t’ sound or not?
- wanted, mountain, Atlanta, plenty, center, painter
Linguists who research phonology (the study of complex sound patterns) have noted that when a ‘t’ sound follows an ‘n’ sound in the middle of a word in American English, then the ‘t’ can be soundless. Since not everyone follows this rule of phonology, it might be a regional difference. It is not necessarily a conscious decision to pronounce or not pronounce the sound, it is just the way people talk.
Grammar
Q: What’s the difference between ‘like’ and ‘such as’ for examples?
We use ‘like’ to mean ‘such as’ to introduce examples when we are talking. Most textbooks will consider ‘like’ used in this way to be slang or conversational informal English. This means that you are likely to hear people say ‘like’ for examples, but you are less like to see it written in formal or academic texts.
- You will hear people say: “There are great trees here, like pine, bald cypress, and oak.”
- You will see written: This county has a variety of trees, such as pine, bald cypress, and oak.
Notes from the Editor
I still need your help with the ELI Weekly. Send me a paragraph about fun activities you have tried in Florida or send me a story about an interesting place in your country. Send me grammar questions, culture questions, or even jokes. Send them to mshastri@ufl.edu. Use the subject heading ELI Weekly.