E-MAIL *_* !!

Hello everybody, today I want toke about thing everybody use it at this time. So, when we open our internet first thing I do it check my e-mail and I saw a lot of people in my e-mail online and I know some people put appear of line, anyway, everybody know how the e-mail important at this time. In a lot of places ask me about my e-mail. For example, when we register in any university they give us e-mail like IEP. In the end I want give you some advice for e-mail be careful when you use your e-mail and don't put any important thing like your account number or you address.

Thank you

"where to eat"

Hey, “where to eat” always seems to be an interesting topic for us – international students. Bloomington Bagel Company is one of my favorite places to eat. That is the place that my best friend took me to so early in my birthday morning. It was the first time for me to try the bagels there as well.
My friend said there are not a lot of international people coming over the store, but those foods are kind of familiar food of American. And that’s true. Whenever I come in, there’s no international people there (according to my experience ^___^). I don’t eat lots of bagels, so I haven’t tried many bagels at many places yet. However, I like those in that store. I like the place. You can bright your laptop there, have some drink with bagels, just like a coffee shop. In addition, it’s so interesting to have free bagels, yah!? It’s so easy; you can take a photo with the bagel, and bring it to the store to get free those. You will see lots of such photos inside the store. They are so nice.
By the way, the location is very easy to find out. It is on Dunn St., very close to Kirdwood St. let’s try it once and enjoy your good time!

Email Template: Absence

In class we've been talking about emailing and writing some sample emails. I'm posting a template the class has written that you can use to write emails quickly. This one is to an instructor about being absent. This one only works if you write BEFORE you're absent! Take out the italic parts and fill them in with the appropriate info.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Subject: Absence on Insert Date

Dear Insert Name of Instructor,

This is Insert Your Name in your Insert Name of Class class. I am writing to let you know that I will be absent tomorrow OR Insert Date. I would be happy to know if we will have homework assignments. If we do have homework, I would be grateful if you could send the assignments to me.

Best regards,
Insert Your Name

Email with Password

Hi every body,

One of my cousins, who know nothing about technology or internet, asked me to open an Email to him, so I opened it then I sent it to him in a text message the email with the password. when he received the message he forwarded it to all his friends "the Email address with the password !!!

Lake Lemon

I am going to introduce Lake Lemon. This is a lake in the north-east of Bloomington. Lake Lemon was built in 1952 as part of a water supply program for the city of Bloomington. However, nowadays you can go there for rowing, picnic, or just to have a peace of mind. It has been really peace and quiet on last few months. However, I really do not know how crowded it will be in the summer. You need to take E State Road 45 to get there from the town. It is 15 miles to drive from downtown, which usually takes almost 25-30 minutes to get there. I am also adding a picture of the lake, which is taken from panoramio.com

Bowling alley

Hay guys what's going on ?

yesterday was FUN! FUN! the bowling alley event ,I had a BLAST with my friends and I hope that they had too. so basicly I was happy because I beat the guys in the game :P LOL . no I am kiding it was fun just because it was an activity with your friends, teacher and classmates that you can have fun with and also to see the how the IEP can be fun . for those how missed the event the missed a lot and I hope they come the next time. :D

indiana university-1958

IEP was founded by Mr. Marlin Howard the Senior in 1958. At first, due to technological inadequacy of the transportaion, there were only few students coming to Intensive English Program. This pretty old picture shows, how IU and first IEP class was looking like in 1958. This is elective class of "How to use a Typewriter" lectured by Katherine Vlasov in the IEP. There were neither typwriter, nor a room for these braveheart teacher and her students. However, afterwards they succeed to built a class and buy a typwriter with the donations from government. Today, IEP has changed a lot. They do have many offices, room for lectures, and many students and teachers. :))

Tripoli

Hi,

This is Tripoli, my home.

Tripoli is the Capital Libya. its on the Mediterranean sea,... I feel like I am in the TOEFL exam LOL.

Home sweet Home.

Speeding Ticket

I got my first speeding ticket in the United States, LOL.

O wasnt going very fast though,... , but I'll be looking over my shoulder for a while, LOL.

see you.

Info about Omar :)

hello guys, before I give you information about me I want told you this is my pic when I was child and this pic I took it in Bloomington and I think exactly in the Monro Leak. Anyway, my name is Omar. I am from Saudi Arabia, and Arabic is my first language. I am 19 years old. I have been here maybe one-year and six months. I think this level is last level for me, because I will start in the university at the fall 2009. In the end I hope we are enjoy in this class together. thanks for you.

Abo leena is here guys!!

hello every body I'm glad to be with you on this beautiful blog.
What does Abo leena means?
"Abo" means Father and "Leena" is my little baby name so I'm Leena's father and this is her picture

See you..

Introduction about myself

Hi!! my name is Abdulrahman Banjar I am a 16 year old student and I just get accepted in IUPUI for freshman year and I am glad that I am going to start to study this Fall . I was burn in the state and nowadays I am taking IEP classes to improve my writing since I was raised in Saudia Arabia my first language is not English so I am not used to English writing even though I am also bad in Arabic writing :P . I like to play with computer and everything about computers but I am totally not a freak I like to foul around a lot I guess :D . I am interested in making friendships and I al looking forwerd to make new friends :D .

Hello Everyone!

I am Mustafa, from Turkey. I will be one of the contributors of this blog in this session. I am a graduate student of engineering, pursuing to have his Masters and PhD in USA. Currently, I am trying to decide where to go, Penn State or U of Arizona. Well, this is my fifth session in the IEP, and I have had a great chance to improve my English skills here. But also, there have been ups and downs in here, and finally I am glad that I am leaving after this session. Thanks for your time.

Do you know How to get out of here :)

Hi Everyone
I`m Abdulkerim Alim. I`m an engineer and I have a scholarship from my government for master degree about nanotechnology. I have been here for 10 months. I hope this session will be my last session.

Please help me to escape from here :)

I`m waiting...

Hello there,

My name is Anas, and I am from Libya. I have been in Bloomington for seven months now and I like it here very much. especially now after that ugly winter has finally gone.

Any ways, I'll keep this one short and hopefully you will hear from me in the future.

Regards.

Kimanh, hi bloggers

I'm Kim Anh, an "old" student in the IEP. I have been here for almost 1 year (plus, almost of my friends have left B-town... so sad). Im making new friends. That's always interesting. Especialy, having lots of international friends is great to me.

New Session, New Faces

It's a new session in the IEP! There will be new authors joining the blog soon!

Wordle

Look at this cool image:



It's made from the text of our blog. You can make your own at Wordle. Wordle takes text and makes an image with it. Words that are used more frequently show up larger. You can customize the font colors and layout. It's fun, give it a try!

Dining in Bloomington

Dear fellows, the following are some information about Dining in Bloomington. I am not telling you where the Domino's or Jimmy John's is. I am telling you something special or my favorites. If you know more good places, please feel free to share with us. Help us, Help you.

Thai Food:

Esan Thai Restaurant‎

221 E Kirkwood Ave # D, Bloomington, IN‎ - (812) 333-8424‎
This is the best Thai food restaurant in Bloomington. The Tom Yum and Patai, and Tai milk tea is good.

Indian Food:

Shanti Authentic Indian Cuisine

221 E Kirkwood Ave # G, Bloomington, IN‎ - (812) 333-0303‎
The curry here is good. But sometimes it take a long time to wait for the food.

India Garden Restaurant
207 N Delaware St, Indianapolis, IN‎ - (317) 634-6060‎
There are buffet in the afternoon on weekdays. About $8~9. If you are hungry, go try their curry chicken, beef, lamps, and etc... Its buffet~

Chinese Food:

Chow Bar‎

216 S Indiana Ave, Bloomington, IN‎ - (812) 336-3888
Held by Taiwanese, during the season, you should try their Kong Xin Cai. Their Duck is also good. If you talk to their boss, you may offer special dishes by appointment! They also have special lunch buffet on Sunday, from 12-3pm. Try to arrive early if you wanna go.

Lucky Express‎

307 E 3rd St, Bloomington, IN‎ - (812) 333-5262‎
Good food and price, but not the enviroment. The boss said they don't want their resturant become too famous because they cannot serve too many costomers. lol. Its my favorite dining hall! lol

Great Wall Chinese Restaurant
2038 N Walnut St, Bloomington, IN‎ - (812) 323-8778‎
It is a buffet resturant. There is a best asian supermarket right next to it.

New China Buffet‎

2616 E 3rd St, Bloomington, IN‎ - (812) 339-3388
The best China buffet in Bloomingotn. About $12 for each person.

Western

Scholars Inn

200 E Matlock Rd, Bloomington, IN‎ - (800) 765-3466
This one is good for breakfast. Very bright and nice enviroment. They have lemon ta. And they have free wifi also.

Farm Bloomington‎

108 E Kirkwood Ave, Bloomington, IN‎ - (812) 323-0002‎
Local food. Little expensive.

Basil Leaf‎
404 E 4th St, Bloomington, IN‎ - (812) 330-8978

Full-screenIcecream

Cold Stone Creamery

115 S State Road 46 # D, Bloomington, IN‎ - (812) 334-825
I think Most of you will like it. No matter you go alone, with friends, or with your parten, its a nice place to hang out for desert.

‎

This week movie

Hello all. My today's topic is the movie "Gran Torino" with Clint Eastwood. Great and very moving story. It's about old but still strong Korean War veteran Walt Kowalski and his releationship with his immigrant neighbors. Here is the official movie trailer:

Introducing one of Korean restaurants

Hi, I'm Younjin.

Do you like Korean foods?

I'd like to introduce one of Korean restaurants in Bloomington to you. It's MAMA's Restaurant and located near Tulip Tree apartments. I went to there last weekend with my friend and took some pictures for you.

First, when you order your beverage, you can order a cup of ‘boricha’ instead of water. It’s a roasted barley tea and Koreans usually drink this tea instead of water. I think that it goes well with Korean dishes. For me, everytime I go to this restaurant I drink this tea and also would like to recommend you try it.




These are side dishes such as two kinds of Kimchi, mushrooms, salades, and some vegetables. Here's a small tip for you. :-) You can ask for a refill of side dishes as many times as you want, free of charge.






I ate Bibimbap which is a popular Korean traditional dish and contains many vegetables mixed in a bowl with rice and hot pepper paste. It’s made with variety of vegetables, rice, meat, and Gochujang(hot pepper paste). There is a spoonful of hot pepper paste, so if you don’t like hot taste, I recommend you not put so much of hot pepper paste.


And my friend ordered Bulgogi. It's slices of barbecued beef seasoned with soy sauce and sugar which gives a mild and sweet taste. The literal meaning of bulgogi is “fire meat” and therefore roasted over fire. I think that it tastes great with Kimchi.



I hope my post would be helpul for you if you're interested in Korean foods.
Don't be afraid of trying Korean food! ;-)

Transportation in Bloomington (buses)

Transportation here in Bloomington is easy with buses. Many students here do not have cars and they can go whereever they want to go. That because of buses. There are two types of buses: Campus Bus (Red) and Bloomington Transit bus (green).

The red buses are only for campus and the green ones are for campus and the town.

Bus Stop

Bus Stop Signs Bus stops are marked with Bloomington bus stop signs located along routes throughout the city. Please use these designated stops to wait for arriving buses. Bloomington buses will also stop at most street corners assuming there are no safety hazards.

Please wait until departing passengers are off the bus before you board. Have your exact fare or pass ready when you board the bus. Remember drivers do not carry change. Also be sure to present your Bloomington issued picture or student ID card to the driver when boarding the bus if you qualify for a special fare. If you need a transfer, ask the driver for one when you board the bus.

Please save front seats for senior citizens and persons with disabilities. If all seats are occupied, please move to the rear of the bus so that others can board and alight more easily.
As the bus nears the location where you want to get off, pull the cord located above the windows or press the yellow strip between the windows. A bell will alert the driver to stop the bus at the next stop to let you off. Bloomington drivers announce major intersections and destination points along each route.

Tranfers
Transfers are issued to provide service between two points not served by a single route. Transfers are only issued to customers who pay a fare or board with a Bloomington Transit paid pass. Transfers are free and valid for the next bus to your destination at locations where routes intersect. Transfers are only issued at the time of boarding. Transfers may not be used for a return trip. Transfers can be made between BT and Rural Transit routes.
4th and Washington Downtown Passenger Transfer Terminal

On Board Courtesy
Please observe a few courtesies for the benefit of other passengers and our drivers: no smoking (by law); no eating or drinking on the bus; no offensive behavior or language; no animals except service or guide animals; no fuel containers or car batteries are permitted on the bus; no oversize objects that cannot be properly secured; radios or other audio players are permitted only with the use of earphones; and please keep children seated at all times.

Listening Practice

Here are two great sites with free programs to listen or watch. They're great for students of English who are practicing English, or anyone who just wants to hear a good story.

This American Life is a public radio show that does programs on different themes each week. You can listen to past episodes online for free from their website or subscribe via podcast. I listen to this show often. Here is one of my favorites: Break Up

TED.com publishes videos of talks from its conferences on technology, entertainment, and design. You will notice many famous names and faces! Here's one I watched recently:



Have a favorite show from one of these sites or another site that you go to? Post in the comments!

Thunder Over Louisville

Location: Downtown - Riverfront
Event Date: 04/18/2009
Time: 3 PM Airshow
9:30 PM Fireworks



Rated as one of the top 100 events in North America, the Derby Festival's Opening Ceremonies is truly a sight to behold. And each year, more than 500,000 eager thrill-seekers do just that.
The day-long event kicks off the two exciting weeks of events that are part of the annual Kentucky Derby Festival. The Thunder Air Show dazzles the crowd with more than 100 planes, aerobatics teams, daring sky diving teams and breathtaking stunts.
When it gets dark, the Thunder rolls. The fireworks will feature the latest in pyrotechnic power from America's "first family of fireworks". Eight 400-foot barges assemble on both sides of the 2nd Street Bridge to form the stage from which the fireworks spectacular ignites. Foe more information visit Thunder Over Louisville website. If you want to know more about its history click Here

Monroe County Public Library

In downtown, we all know that there have delicious restaurants for eating, nice bars for fun, and various stores for shopping. However, if you go to these places, you will spend much money there. Therefore, I wanna recommend you a great place which is located on Kirkwood Ave., and everything there is free. That is "Monroe County Public Library". You can spend free time in the library and read books. There has heater in winter time and air condition in summer time. Both of them are free. You will feel comfortable while you are enjoying reading.


Of course, you also can checkout books or DVDs. First, you need to have a library card. It is easy to get one. Two things are required for applying a library card. A student ID card and one personalize mail with your name and address. Again, it is free and it takes less than 5 mins, then you get the card.


There are many interesting things in the public library. You should go there and enjoy your free time there. For knowing more information about the public library: http://www.monroe.lib.in.us/home.html

IU Library in Bloomington

IU Library or Herman B Wells Library is located on the Tenth Street in the IU campus, with its double towers of Indiana limestone, is the visual center of the multi-library system and primarily supports the disciplines of the humanities and social sciences. More than 4.6 million volumes are contained in this building.Many IU students go there in their free time. It's a good place for students to study or for reading books. The IU students can also use the internet for searching or for studying. Computers are available on the first floor in the West Tower. The IU students can also borrow movies for free if they show their IU student photo ID. I found this picture on the IU Library's website. For more information go to IU libraries

IEP Classes

What are classes like in the IEP? Here are a few pictures of a typical IEP classroom. These photos were taken in Ballantine Hall.

This first photo shows a typical seating arrangement in IEP classrooms - a circle. Students and teacher sit in a circle to make discussion easier. You can also see the desks that are in many classrooms on IU's campus.



The next photo shows a common activity in IEP classes - group work. A small group of students move their desks together to discuss or do an activity. It looks like Amir, King, Madina, and Yi-Niu are talking about something exciting!





The last photo shows Amir giving a presentation. IEP students often give presentations in their classes. Here Amir is explaining something to us about Flickr. You can see that he is using a computer with a projector -- some IU classrooms have this technology available.

Lake Monroe

Hi, I'm Younjin.

I'd like to introduce one of my favorite place to you.

Have you been to Lake Monroe?

It's located about 10 miles(16km) southeast of Bloomington.

The lake is huge and its view is beautiful!

Once when I went to the lake with my friends, I could see several people were fishing. Therefore,my friends and I were tring to keep quite so that I couldn't bother them. At that time, one of them gave me a chance to grab his fishing pole for a while! Because it was my very first fishing, I was very excited! Unfortunately, nothing happended in my fishing pole..but it was a really interesting experience. I guess all fishes in the lake also knew that it was my first fishing. ;-)

Indeed, it's great idea to visit the lake at a starry night as well. You'll see lots of twinkling stars and if you're lucky, you can see a shooting star and make a wish.

Beautiful nature always makes you refresh and feel better. why don't you visit the lake someday?

For further information about the lake, visit the website. http://www.lake-monroe.com/html/about.html

Free movies at IMU

Every weekend you can enjoy great movies in the Whittenberger Auditorium of IMU absolutely for free!!! You just have to show an IU student identification card. The last movie I saw was 'Slumdog millionaire'! and it was great... I would recommend this movie to all my friends, relatives and everyone! And also my advice: get there early to get a good seat, or any seat at all!!! ))) I couldn't watch 'Slumdog millionaire' on Friday, as there were no any free seats. But I came earlier next day and enjoyed the movie at last )))

The tallest dog in the world

This is a picture of the tallest dog in the world. His name is Gibson. Even though I like cats more than dogs, but he is so cute. I found this pic on his website. For more information about Gibson click on this http://gibsondog.com .

Break Vacations

Hello all again. Today I'm going to write about places to go to from Bloomington on breaks. I came here in October last year so I have only a few trips to describe.


So, the first one is Chicago, IL. It is the closest big city (except Indianapolis), and the best choice for those who are missing the big city life. The trip takes a little more than 4 hours and is not tiring at all. I have put the route below, so that you could see it in details.

The next destination is Washington, DC. This one is much longer but still not so difficult. I suggest that you go there in night time because it is much easier to drive when there's almost no traffic on the road. Washington is the best place to walk around and take some pics (especially the way between Capitol and Lincoln Memorial, which is also quite tiring).

The last one, is Cincinnati, OH. It's not the best choice to hang out but if you want something new, go ahead. Moreover it's only two and a half hours from Bloomington. And shopping malls are a little better than in Indianapolis.

IU Community

I hope you like these pictures. One of them was taken in the Ballantine Hall and the others were taken in the IMU.

Intro: Moody again hehehe!!

No comment!! (^_^)'

Intro: Madina

Hello All! )))

I am Madina from Kazakhstan.

In the previous post the photo of our class with Katie and with some ghost was published.

Don't believe it! There were no any ghosts at Starbucks, at least at the moment when our photo was taken )))

Intro: Moody

Hi everybody, I'm Moody (^_^)'

IU students: ALI

This picture is taken in Ballantine Hall (BH) at Indiana University. In the picture, we can see something weird for us as international students that american students do which is sitting on the floor of aisles to studying, doing hw or waiting for classes. some students do worse than that. They sleep on the floor LOL.

Intro: Amir

Hello all. So here is my photo... Kind of scary, isn't it?

Hi, this is King. This is a picture I took at Indy last summer. I am happy that there are water and green in Indy. I like clean city with water. Do you like water or ocean?

Yi-Niu Tsai

Hi, I am Yi-Niu from Taiwan. This picture I took

at somewhere in the Disney World, FL. last winter

vacation. The weather in winter there is much

warmer than Bloomington.

Intro: Younjin Kim

Hi, I'm Younjin.

Do you remember the day on this February when all classes were canceled because of lots of snow? Because I live in warm city in Korea, that was my first time to see that much of snow, so I was very excited! It was very beautiful. :-D

Intro: Ali Aljaroudi

Hi, My name is Ali Aljaroudi from Saudi Arabia. I have been here for almost one year. Here I am going to tell about my experience in IEP and Bloomington town.

Intro: Katie Vlasov

Hi! I'm Katie Vlasov, the teacher of the class that is writing this blog. I hope we will be able to share information and advice for current IEP students and anyone wondering what life is like in Bloomington.

Intro: Rajeh Alyami.

Hello, my name is Rajeh Alyami. I am from Saudi Arabia. I live in Bloomington, IN. I came to Bloomington to study the English language. I took this pic two months ago. It shows the Monroe County Public Library on Kirkwood St. Downtown.