The ELI Weekly
Out and About: How to live in a harmony with alligators
by Veronica Acosta-Loli and Sangyeon (Ria) Kim, RW 50
Have you ever seen alligators? If you want to see them, you should come to Gainesville! This amazing city is located in North Central Florida. There are many springs and lakes around. It is common to find many alligators in the University of Florida campus. Also, they live in a natural harmony if they are not provoked by humans. There are a few ways you have to know in order to live close to alligators : maintaining a safe distance and avoiding feeding alligators for fun.
At first, alligators live in shores and in the water. Some activities like canoeing are practiced in the lakes. In those activities, you can be close to alligators. The first thing you have to do is to be calm and relax. Because they can recognize you a prey and attack you when they feel you are afraid of them. Just back off slowly and paddle towards to the shore.
Second, Alligators always try to find the prey. If you feed alligators for fun, they can come close to attack you. And it is forbidden to feed alligators too. They are able to eat fish, bird, turtles, snakes, amphibians, and mammals etc without us feeding them because they are natural hunters.
In conclusion, people can appreciate the nature in different ways. It is possible to live in a harmony with alligators, if we keep distance between humans and nature by respecting their lives. Nature always surprises us. Enjoy it!
CIP Weekday Activities
Weekend Event
Saturday, March 8th – Haile Farmers Market & Sweetwater Wetlands – 9:00am-1:00pm
Join us to start at the Haile Farmers Market, where we will shop at local vendors selling small groceries, food, and crafts, and explore the scenic Haile Village!
After, we will go to Sweetwater Wetlands, a beautiful natural park, where we will walk the nature trail and see wildlife like alligators! Meet at Norman Parking Garage.
You must sign up to attend this event: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/20F0C4BA9A823A02-55359985-haile
Other CIP Reminders
Complete CIP Passport
Thank you for all your involvement in the CIP! Congratulations!
- Viola Zhou
Selling Transportation Passes to Busch Gardens for our 3/29 trip!
Don’t miss the fun at Busch Gardens when the ELI spends the full day there on March 29th! Purchase your transportation ticket from Tate in the CIP office this week before they sell out on Monday or Tuesday for 25 dollars exact cash. Remember that Busch Gardens theme park tickets will need to be purchased on your own separately. Tickets average around 100-125 dollars depending on deals, choice of pass, etc.
Conversation Partners (CPs)
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 here!
Please email Joey at conversationpartners@eli.ufl.edu for any issues, questions or concerns or visit her in the CIP Office during office hours.
CIP Passports
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
Find the Pineapple
Remember the CIP Pineapple is hidden in a new place every Monday in the CIP office. Stop by and find it for hole punches!
Notes from the Office
Time Change: Daylight Savings Time begins at 2:00am on Sunday, March 9th, so remember to “spring forward” by changing the time on the clocks in your house. Your cellphone should update automatically, but most electric and battery-powered clocks will not. You can check www.time.gov to make sure your time is correct.
Congratulations and farewell to Jane
We are excited to share that our very own Jane Keeler has accepted a position as an Instructional Designer in the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at Klamath Community College in Oregon.
Jane has been teaching at the ELI since 2014, so we will be very sad to see her leave!!! However, we know that this position will allow many more students and faculty to benefit from her excellent instructional skills. If you see Jane, please be sure to congratulate her and thank her for her decade of service to the UF ELI.
US Federal Tax Forms for International Students
International students that were present in the U.S. in 2024 have a responsibility to file tax forms with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Tax forms are due on April 15th this year. They are filed for the previous calendar year, which in this case is 2024.
You must provide required tax forms even if you did not earn any money in the U.S. in 2024. All F and J visa students (including dependents) must submit IRS form 8843. You can get the form 8843 from the ELI main office. Instructions for completing the form are also in the main office.
You cannot submit this document electronically. You must physically mail it to this address by April 15th:
Department of the Treasury
Internal Revenue Service Center
Austin, TX 73301-0215
Come talk to us if you have questions about how to mail the form. You can get an envelope from the ELI main office.
If you had on-campus employment in 2024 as an international student, you will receive a form from your employer reporting your income and tax withholdings called a W-2. Because you earned reportable income, you must submit a federal tax return to file your W-2. Talk to Daryl if you had on-campus employment last year and have questions about filling your taxes.
Scholarship Opportunity
Are you looking for a scholarship for the Fall 2025 semester? If you are a full-time F1 or J1 ELI student, you are eligible for this scholarship opportunity. The contest is live from January 21-March 16, 2025.
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 28.
Photo of the Week: B-term Campus Tour
Birthdays!
Manners & Culture
Q: Why are potatoes so popular in the US? People eat many kinds, including mashed potatoes, French fries, and potato chips.
A: Potatoes originated in South America and have been in the US since 1691. It is undoubtedly one of America’s favorite vegetables! And what is not to like? It is filling and nutritious- a medium potato provides 110 calories, 26 grams of carbs, and plenty of vitamin C. It is also versatile- it is delicious baked, boiled, or fried. It can replace bread or rice or be used more as a vegetable. If you don’t like mashed potatoes, French fries, or potato chips, try potato salad, loaded baked potatoes, or tater tot hot dish!
Grammar
Q: What is the difference between ‘interested in’ and ‘interested to’?
Let’s look at example sentences to see what is going on:
- I am interested in your project.
- I am interested to hear more about your project.
- I am interested in football.
- I am interested to see if my team will win the game.
- In sentences 1 and 3, interested in is a phrasal adjective, and a noun will follow the preposition.
- In sentences 2 and 4, we do not think of the word interested and the word to as belonging together. Instead, we put the word to with a verb to create an infinitive phrase, so to hear and to see are considered the unit of meaning, and to is not a preposition. Basically, we are using an infinitive in the place of a direct object.
To make it more interesting, we can also exchange the infinitives in sentence 2 and 4 with in + a gerund and get the same meaning:
- I am interested to hear more about your project.
- I am interested in hearing more about your project.
and
- I am interested to see if my team will win the game.
- I am interested in seeing if my team will win the game.
Joke of the Week
Q: How do new spring flowers greet each other?
A: Hey bud!
Notes from the Editor
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.