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My first video call session with ECU was in a group. We introduced ourselves to the students from ECU. I was very excited to meet to people from other country. The total number of students in the class is less than 20 students which made us easier to seek our lecturer's attention and guidance. By exchanging our email with the ECU students, the way of communication has become easier. I had a good chat with partner, Heleigh. So far, i had so much fun attending the class as i love communicating with people from various culture.

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S37945 KELVIN TAN

Well, for our first class, I was really surprise as before the class I was imagining how could world culture be taught inside a class. This video call session with student across the globe was an amazing experience although we encounter some technical problems such as the microphone wasn’t clear, resulting in poor communication during the call, but I believe this is a small problem as we were still able to continue the conversation. During our chat, I tend to feel our class was a little more tense compared to students of ECU, which might be because our lack of practice in communicating in English in our daily life which should be improved and also might be because the they are more used to this type of scenario. During our first link, we learned about the system of the school’s hostel, their daily meals, their ways of transport and much more. The hostel system in ECU is almost similar to ours in UMT, where 1st year students have to stay in the hostel for a year then most of them have to rent a house outside as they continue their studies. Their everyday meals which is more towards fast food such as burgers, fries and hot dogs which is different from here where we have rice and noodles for our meals. The way of transport is basically the same where they walk and skateboard in their campus unless they want to go to another campus then they have to take buses.

Another topic to mention about is about the sports they played, the main sport there is football, the game is similar rugby but then there are still differences in the game. Overall, I think it was an awesome experience, I’m really looking forward to the second link and hopefully we have more things to share.

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S39253 YVONNE CHIANG

Very disappointed cannot attend the first class and have a video call with all ECU friends. Very luckily have them email so that can share opinion and make friend with them. By using mail, my partner with me  have know more each other. My partner name is Sam Twaiti, computer science major. and we both like outdoor sports, For him hobby was playing soccer and underwater hickey. I was very happy be friend and chat with him due to sharing a lot of same things, example , we can have discuss about our major together. Beside using mail, now mostly, we know more better using Facebook and Instagram. and we have each together phone number but whats app we can't find each other maybe
have some international number factor. but fb messager is already best way to communication. Have chat with him this few times ,can strongly feel they English for communication really better, and I have honestly tell him my English very poor, hopefully him understand and want to continue be friend with me. Ya, he was response very gentlemen and still want share knowledge together. I really excited to have my first class with them and can share more and learn more.

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I have gone through such a wonderful experience and meaningful discussions with the students in East Carolina University (ECU). They are very amicable, courteous and easy-going as well as, sweet lecture at ECU, Madam Tatjana. She was very helpful and conducive with UMT students. We get to learn education systems that is carrying out in both Universities. Group A students in UMT had a conversation with the same group in ECU. We shared ideas and asked questions about education systems, foods, accommodation, whether, cultures of international students, curriculum activities and students’ population. Both countries had a great exchange of knowledge throughout the session. At the same time, group B students in both countries had a long and cheerful conversation via chatting. I myself in group B had gained plentiful information about their college lifestyle. This was a great platform to strengthen the bond between our partners from different countries. Our awesome lecture Dr Azza, was helping us throughout the session. Other than that, I have benefited from ECU students by learning English speaking skills and writing skills. As an example, I able to correct my mistakes in English grammar, the way to construct best sentences and knowing some new words as well. This will become a superlative platform to upgrade myself in English language so that I could apply those skills when studying abroad.

I have gained many knowledges from the overseas friends. They said they are studying various of courses in ECU such as marketing, finance, technology systems and biodiversity. They will be having some sports in their University such as soccer, swimming and basketball. The population of students at ECU is around twenty-eight thousand. The local time in USA is 14 hours behind than Malaysia. Plus, ECU students are eating more fast foods compared to UMT students. This is because, pizza, burger and hot dogs are the most popular foods in USA as well as at university cafeterias. They are provided with mini bus inside their campus to take along to their classes from their rental houses. These are some ideas that we have discussed during the class. I was so grateful for being part of this course as I could enhance my English level, and get to know s numerous information about different countries.

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Mohamad Zul Arif bin Mad Salim S39183

It was my first time of video calling people beyond Malaysia. It feels a little bit awkward at first, but later I get used to it as the situation are not tense anymore. First, student from ECU introduced themselves one by one. They explained about themselves, what course that he/she study and the partner. Then, it's our turn to introduced ourselves to them. After that, they explained about their college and how was the lifestyle in USA. Official video of UT are played for give them an idea about how was UMT look like. Next, we are divided into two groups. Group A need to video call individually, while group B stay video call in a group. Overall, it was a fun class, even sometimes disturbed by lack of speakers which our conservation are hanging. I can learn many things about other country culture and also improve my communication skills especially in English.

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Suganthi Priya(S39243)

I had a wonderful and new time on the first class because of the interaction with students from other country. It was an unusual experience because i got to communicate with people who have different lifestyle and educational background. To come across some cool American people is something not that easy and through this class, I got to know a few of them.
My partner,Sam and I had exchanged few of our interest through chat and also we were given opportunity to know each other more. Although it was a short talking session, I had a great time.

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The first video call session with ECU was introduction session within us . It was exciting to have a video call with unknown people fro different country. The slide that they present gave me a overview on their university and their country. Later on in the second session I had a conversation via message with my partner (Smith Ray'von). We discussed about the management of our University and I found that both our universities are using the similar management for the hostel application.

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Honestly, this is a very new experience for me and i was very impressed how the technology has advanced to the point where we can present power points over the internet. Probably it was possible all this while but i was out-dated regarding technical things but i had a lot of fun chit-chatting with another group of friends despite time differences between US and Malaysia. We've been locked up in our universities and country all this while and being able to see how other college students' life are is amazing. All of us have watched and expected their culture of college life through the various television shows but being able to ask them is a whole lot different and clarifies all the questions running in our head. We talked about most of the activities in the college like sports, food and the education system of ECU and we are very glad to let them know that we are not very different from them in terms of education system. Though we face some microphone issues while talking to them, we still enjoyed every seconds and minutes of our conversation with them.

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Second time talking to ECU students was much more fun because we all weren't so nervous anymore like the first time. Besides, the microphone was much better which leads us to our next topic, family. It can be seen that they were quite surprised by the fact that some families in Malaysia has more than 2 children as most of them has only 1 sibling. They questioned about how did our parents manage a big family because in US, they keep their family small so that they can fulfill the needs of each children. In my opinion, it is the difference in thinking between our society and theirs that differs the number of children as some of us in Malaysia prefer more children but some restrict the number of children due to the financial issues. As our government push forward for more newborns, it is quite normal for a family to have more than 2 children. We also manage to sing them a song to represent our culture in Malaysia that blends in well despite the differences of culture among the races.

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In the topic of religion, i was quite surprised by my own friends that share so much about their religion that i have no idea about. Despite living in the same country, it is probably because we never have the chance to talk about their religious in detail. Therefore, through this session, we were not only sharing about our religion to ECU but among our friends too. Through my understanding, they were quite flexible with their prayers' time and it varies among each other. They do not have as much to share as us but the most interesting topic that they would like to know is our marriage customs. Hence we told them about the marriage customs of Malay, Chinese and Indians in our country and lastly, we talked about the meaning of life of each person. We do have similarities and differences but we accept the opinion of others and we respect each other in their own perspective of life.

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Wow! there is a another wonderful day at morning just now. This week topic was about family and culture. We shared several things with ECU students like family traditions, marriages, traditional foods, costumes and dances as well. Talking about family, we get to know that at USA, mostly will have not more than 2-3 children. This is because they want to balance their expenses among their children and to survive in a lavish lifestyle. But in Malaysia, especially malay and indians will have up to 8-9 childrens. Secondly about food, USA people love fast foods but we malaysian love spicy foods like nasi lemak, chicken rice and banana leaf food. Other than that, we discussed about traditional dances in USA and Malaysia. Asuntha Patrick showed up some steps from Indian classical dance, known as 'bharatanatyam'. She was really awesome. Last but not least, we from UMT sang a song together for them. ECU students really enjoyed our short performance. From this week, I have learned a lot about culture and religion in USA as well as in Malaysia. I'm eagerly waiting for a enjoyable discussions on following week.

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The second part that we have discussed is about religion and meaning of life. There was a good discussion among us. More than half of their religion in USA is Christians and the rest comprised of Jews, Muslims, and Buddhists. They will go church mostly on Sundays to fulfill their prayers. We Malaysia have a three different worship places such a Hindu temple, mosque and Buddhist temple. Lifestyle in USA is very different from Malaysia. Expenses also depend upon where American people wish to live since costs vary depending upon location. Americans may greet strangers on the street by saying "Hello" or "Good morning", although they may pass without any greeting.  Same as Malaysian people, we greet when we meet our boss, friends and colleagues. American people will travel long distances by car, bus, train, or airplane to do so. People are generally expected to be on time for appointments or when they are invited to someone's home. These are some ideas that we have discussed during this session and from this I have learned how American people's life varies from ours.

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It was really exciting to have a video call with ECU friends. This video call session with oversea student was an amazing experience although have a bit issue about microphone wasn't clear. It was more fun having the ice chatting with my partner , Sam. He was telling me about difficult to hear me during video call session because I were too far.During the chat, we know that Sam main language was Arabic then follow by English. Beside that , also know Hebrew, which is main language for Israel people. There are another language we can communicate together which is programming. It really great to meet another programmer. I was really enjoy this discussion.

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We have been talking about dance and song due to during video call, one of our Indian friend have showed some classical dance, known as Bharatanatyam. And it was amazing, this was my first time know it too. When want end video call, we have sang a song together. And they all really enjoyed it. After that, during ice chat, have ask Sam, did him know how to dance. And ya, we all don not it.The dance they usually dance is almost same like salsa ,one of the Latin , is a very romantic dance. For song, usually was listen country song. He was thinking where should go for him summer vacation. For him brother was thinking about where to go for honeymoon. It was really enjoy and happy chat with Sam. I'm really looking forward next sharing discussion.

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In this second class I talked on the topic family. First we talked a little bit about our family background and then I found out that both Malaysian and American spent time differently with our family members. And it was excited to know how the life in village could be as our classmate described it. Then we moved into the culture but we had very little time to discuss with them. But I loved the last part we sang the song titled 'rasa sayang'.

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In the second session we had a conversation on religion and i was surprised that Halloween is not a religious celebration for a long time I had a misconception on that it is a celebration that all christian celebrate in US and they don't have any lenten campaign in their country

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Mohamad Zul Arif Mad Salim S39183
During our second class, we are about to talk about family and culture. We suppose to chat via computer which is online chatting but our partner can't reach it. So, as an alternative we just chat on our Whatsapp group. Most of religion there are Christians, and our partner are mix Italian. We share a lot about our family such as number of siblings, the average number of siblings there and many more. From the explanations, we know that the maximum number of siblings is 5. It's pretty much the same in Malaysia. We also find out as the century goes by the average number of siblings are slowly decreased as our ancestors have up to 20 siblings but in this era it quite rare to see it.

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For the next session, we discuss about the religion and what are the meaning of life. As for Muslim, we explain to them that we must to perform a prayer 5 times a day and we need to cover the aurat while performing a prayer. For Buddhist, it's basically up to them when they're going to pray. They can perform it at the temple or else in their own home. It also pretty much the same for Hindus. Next, we talk about marriage. We explain to them each of different culture of weddings. For Malay culture, we have 'merisik' ceremony which to propose the girl whether she taken or not. Then, we explain about the engagement and then the wedding ceremony. They a bit shock when we said that total people that invited are 1k and above. For them, max amount of people are around 200 only. Before that, we also tell them about 'rewang' which is the people of that village helping to feast the invited people. For Chinese culture, they have to decorate their car with a ribbon. Before the groom enter the bride's room, some game are play. They also have dinner ceremony at night, and tea drinking ceremony. For Indian wedding, basically the groom and bride are tied up and circled the holy fire. We do share some photos of the wedding.
For the meaning of life for me is having a happy heart. Be with someone that I loved and appreciated me for who I am. But mostly, the true happiness is to make my parents happy and proud.

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I am very interested to learn about international culture. I have a short experience when I meet foreign at public place in Penang and I would like to share some culture of Malaysia to them. However, the interaction through a screen which is video calling with foreign students, it is first time! It is a special experience for me to make an interaction with students from other country. I can exchange my country lifestyle through communicate with ECU students. It is different in sport and university life between two countries. For example, rugby and tennis which is the sports lack to play in our country. The sports are less in our countries, so I am interests and curious about the rules of these games.

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At the second link, I have learn about family and culture between US and Malaysia. Today, we introduced ourselves, our family and our hometown. Through this communication, I also learn that lack of them manage a big family due to they want to fulfil the needs of their children. We discussed about the traditions of culture. One of our group member have shown the Indian tradition dance to our foreign friend. After that, we shown our traditional clothes. We exchange the perception about marriage between two countries. Most of us disagree toward arrange married. However, they are mostly arrange married. Then, we are discuss about after married, “Are we need to changing name?”. It is different among Malay, Chinese and Indian. Also, we discussed about the festival. We have celebrated a lot of occasions either foreign nation or our nation because both of us are multi-ethnic nation. We were given opportunity to learn the different culture each other. Before we quited from video call with them, we had sang a song, “Rasa Sayang”.

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I have learned about meaning of life and religious between US and Malaysia through a short chat. Based on personal perception, we shared mutually about meaning of life and religious. My partner, Ray’von had told me about his family and their lifestyle. Halloween is one of occasion and it has characteristic that every child “trick or treating” from door to door. Ray’von let me know about their special food at their country such as Gumbo which is rice stewed with potatoes. It is differ between the culture of what I have expected and their actual culture. For example, as I know, their life is freedom. However, my partner let me know his family have some of restriction in his home such as drinking alcohol. Almost all languages are spoken there, they can hear different language anywhere. In university, they can hear different language further added. He spend time with his family by taken some exercises or entertainments. My partner, Smith Ray'von and I am happy to exchange daily life through chat.

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Assalamualaikum and a very good morning,
I hope everyone is having good day today. On our supposedly second class on ITWC for Semester II 2017/2018 but it was actually the first time for me. I'd say I was very nervy but my partner, Kelvin was very friendly and supportive. I get the flow of the class as the conversation continues. The first session was where we chatted about our family and culture through the chat server on the university computer. Our US partner, John, was the one who kept the conversation so interesting and going , he has 5 siblings. He also has lived in Texas before he moved to North Carolina. When I asked where he prefer more he answered with Texas, which is kinda cool because of my impression on Texas and cowboy. We also talked about our religion like the majority of Malaysia is Islam practitioner . Even though, we have a lot of religion , I am very proud that we still do live harmoniously and in peace.  My first impression of John , is that he is not the one who talked that much but once you get the common things to talk about , he just know how to keep the conversation going.

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After the chat, my group held a video call with our US partner . It was also my first time to see the East Carolina University student and I'd say that each of them looked very matured! I was very excited to actually communicate with my partner, John virtually too. We actually talked about a lot of things and customs in Malaysia. Each of the members shares their own uniqueness and it was very cool of how diverse our world are. We also talked about the meaning of life, this is actually my most favourite topic for today. As for me , my meaning of life is just being happy. I had thought about this question a lot of time throughout my entire  life  and that was the answer that I got within myself. I really liked how everyone perceived life differently and how different people think about this. The session was very eye opening and I was really happy during the sessions. A lot of new knowledge were gained and I really anticipate the next session. Thank you everyone for the great times. ^^

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Based on the sharing session, it can be seen that there are many different for both country. Of course Malaysia is the best especially on family and tradition which we have variety of fest and background but we can still harmony. As the end of the session, i know how and what are normally their culture over there and it seem nice to know about it.

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Our second class, we started the class on chatting with ECU students about our family followed by the cultures in both countries. John, Khaulah and I was in the same group chat, we shared information regarding our own family members, both Khaulah and John have a big family group compared to my own family. John's family is consider very big in the US as most families there have only 2-3 childrens unlike in Malaysia the average number of children in one family is above 4. It was not a surprise to John as he was also from a family of 5 siblings. He also mentioned that he was from Texas and just moved to North Carolina in recent year. We then touched a little about the religions and cultures in both countries and ended our chat on the computer to move to the webcam to have our second part of our discussion through video call.

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On the second session of the class, we shared mostly about religion and cultures. We talked about cultures in our countries where most of the citizen in Malaysia are Islamic and citizen in the US are Christian. During the conversation, most of the members in our group shared a lot about their own religion, some of the points were even new to us, might be because even though we are living together but we don't have the chance to talk about religion in details and there are just too much to know about one's religion. The conversation also include the topic on the meaning of life and what we want in life which was interesting as everyone have different goals. Besides that, we also shared some of the traditional dance and songs through the webcam, Asuntha perform some steps of the classical dance during the class and before ending the conversation and the class, we sang the 'Rasa Sayang' song together in the class together.

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Everyone has their own goals to achieve. as a muslim, the main goal is to be a good khalifah in this world. Where dunya is only temporary, the hereafter is the thing we look forward to. For this reflection i just realised that we are born to follow the path that are served to us by our parents. Some of it has their own religion but not really practicing it. It is good to know the differences among us, just to show that we need to respect to each other and be more tolerate.

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It was a very first time to have this kind of way of learning. It was fun and interactive. I have been introduced to my partner, erin whom from carolina college. I even showed the videos to my friends, and they are so impressed to know what we are learning in this course. Can't wait to make more friends!

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We shared our stories about our family members. There are a huge differences of the people in malaysia and us, this is due to the gap of geography, where the normal practices are different too. Usually in malaysia, the kids in the family would be at least 3 or more. Compared to us, the number of children would be 1 or 2 due to financial difficulties. Weashared about the culture here, and surprisinglu, the people there do not have culture or traditional thing to show to us. Above all, we are all differ in our own way, but to make our live stay harmony, we need to create a good and positive environment to ensure it will sustain for upcoming years.

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We shared about our family and cultur. I got to know my partner's family members and she also got to know about my family members. My partner has 3 siblings while i has 5 siblings. It shows the different number of family members in US and Malaysia. Malaysians have have more kids compared to US citizens. The cultural part was the most interesting. We shared our respective cultures. There were a lot of differences between our cultures. The Malaysians have intense culture compared them. There, they dont really practise cultures like we do. Thier culture is only followed during christmas, Thanksgiving and wedding ceremonies while we are following our culture in our everyday life.

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My partner from the US have a different thought about the life. For her being with her family is what makes her life complete. She dont see her life individually but she includes her family with everything she does. Even her dream is also settle down with her own family. About the religion, my partner considers herself as not a very holy person. She follow the main regulations in her religion but not sacrficing herself for religion.

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All the reflections are written in this document. from 21 Feb - 25 April

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World Ocean Week _ Greening the b

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The session under the topic of Stereotype and Prejudice was so informational and it was so cool to talk about this with someone from The States, John also asked us a lot of question based on our daily life. We also got to know some prejudice or stereotype towards some people in the States, I think the exchange we did during this session is very good and important in building more understanding and trust between cultures.

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Me, Kelvin and John did our presentation today it couldnt be any better . We discussed through Facebook Chat and we actually got to know each other better than before when we were discussing . We did the topic on life after retirement and what do we want to do when we reach 35 .This is very cool as we, Malaysian prefer to stay in our hometown and John prefer to move for better life environment. It also was awesome when we figure out how we expect the same thing in life after retirement , to be happy with the people we loves . All in all, the experience of getting to know John and Kelvin through the last few were so precious and I hope our friendship doesnt stop here. It was sad to realize that it was our last session with ECU but I am also very excited to welcome the student from Mexico into my life.

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The first link with Mexico was so happening and the vibe were so happy. They are super friendly and we talked almost about random things. We were required to manage our own class due to some circumstances and we ended up did the ice breaking session. We also noticed how Mexican is not so good in English as their main language is Spanish . However they got a big heart. It was full of fun and I got so happy that morning. After the session , I got so excited to go the next session to figure out who is my partner because from the first impression , every each of the Mexican student got their own personality and uniqueness. They were so cute throughout the session too!

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Honestly speaking, I was so dissapointed that I missed the session because I got terrible stomachache the night before. However , after the session , my partner , Jorge looked for me in the Whatsapp group of Introduction to The World Culture and we actually got to contact each other. He was so funny and sometimes we do got some miscommunication but we managed to get over it with laugh. I actually got to redeem my disappointment with my personal chat with him. I was so grateful to have such a great partner and he was so understanding.

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The third session with UNLA was so happening as ever and we discussed on meaning of life and religion. I love the session , we got to talk about a lot of things in such limited time . We also jokes around and become closer than before. From what I noticed, meaning of life and religion really depend on the family background and the faith of the person themselves.  It was great to know about each of the class member perspectives on this and how we can communicate like normal even with the difference in our believe . I believe understanding beyond religion and belief is something crucial now in keeping the harmony and peace in the world .  All in all, it was a great session and I got astonished by how deep we got into the topic given.

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Our last session with UNLA , was the presentation on the global question  for our collaboration project. During the preparation , Jorge's father got hospitalized and we lost contact in between. I do understand Jorge and we decided to discuss about it the day before the presentation . We discussed on our meaning of life and compare our similarities and differences. We were so glad that everything went well , it was so funny how Jorger got so nervous and mispronounced my name , but that actually made everyone's day. It was also the last session with UNLA and I got a little bit sad because there will be no more session with the UNLA's student. Each of us says our last words (in class) to each other and agree in keeping in contact with each other even after this. After the session , we have also exchanged our Social Networking Sites account with each other. In a nutshell, I love every session that we had in UNLA and so grateful to get the chance to know such a beautiful group.

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Unfortunately , I wasnt able to go to the first session with ECU because I attended another program outside of the university. I felt like I was missing out something but the Kelvin sent me and John an email. We then exchanged our information with each other through the email and I am still so grateful to have such a great partner like Kelvin and John to keep me updated. Thanks to everyone ! and I am also very excited to attend the next session!

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There are different stereotypes and judgment based on our perspective. Malaysia and US have different or similar view on this topic too. Most of us tend to have the stereotypes based on the first impression, and here become great conversation.We agreed that some stereotypes need to be change and most of it we need to understand. This is what me and partner have learn during this session class.

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It was really cool can together done this wonderful project with my partner Sam and Suganthi.  Our title is what would u do if u win 1 million dollars on a lottery ticket. It is really great topic. All of us have own idea, about how to do with money. we have our own plans and own ways to invest money. From this collaborative project, we have share a lot of idea together, most of it is out of the field already, but we having fun on it. hope one day, we still can work together

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I am very excited to having  the first class with the student of UNLA from Mexico. They are very kind and friendly. We have introducing session. we showed them with our official corporate video, and same goes with them. I very like them lecturer , just feel him is kind and nice to be friend and he looks like very worry about class. They all are very handsome and beautiful. I was wondering who will be my partner that day.

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It was very funny that day, It was our second class with the Mexican friends, each of them brought one item to be showed to us. and tell us that stories. Some of them brought toys, jersey and so on. We did not bring anything, and we have discuss among us what should we Malaysia team should present. So, we decided sing that rasa sayang song. and Mexican friends was too perform, they also good in singing too. Lastly, we have the great and fun ended , and we that day know our partner , My partner is a active and beautiful ladies, which name Ashley

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We are having our third class with discussed on meaning of life and religion. Most of our religion are based on our background family, and they are called temple as church. When they very young already can having driven lessen so they have good driven skills. Besides that, we have different between 'j' and 'h' pronoun. It is great to learn so much and know them. Still have a lot need to learn and know but time is really limited so our class only can stop.

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we discussed on meaning of life and religion. I 

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For the collaborative project , me, Ashley and priya choose the topics how do you define success. We discussed on our success of life and compare our similarities and differences. Three of us are almost same, we are more to family, career and investment our own life. It is great having discussion among us. After end of the class, we have exchange our facebook account together, ya. I really enjoy the class with Mexican friends. I hope can meet them one day after.

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This week we have discussed abo

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This week we have discussed about stereotype and prejudice in USA and Malaysia. There is so many different aspects for both countries in term of stereotypes. In Malaysia, normally Malays are known to be rely on governments, Chinese are gamblers and Indians are drunkards. This misconception should be avoided by Malaysia communities because it will effect the reputation of our country. But at USA there is no such a thing where all people will be so respectful to each other. However, there were some similarities of stereotypes within both countries where female drivers are known as main cause for road accidents. These are the some ideas that we have shared during this session and we have learned a lot of things from this link as some stereotypes need to changed in both countries in order to avoid any misunderstanding to be occurred.

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Me and my partner Angelica did a collaborative presentation together in title of 'role model'. We chose our mother as a role model and i have explained about her mom, and she have explained about my mom. Overall the presentation was too good as we have gained a lot of information about her family, culture, religion and so on. This was a great platform to upgrade my English level as well as to strengthen the bond between both countries. I feel so grateful for being part of this subject as this is a good exposure for myself to help in future education prospects

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Mexicans are very sporting. We got shared a lot of information regarding education and culture within short period because they are too friendly and happy go lucky. After we introduced our-self, we had shared our education system in UMT, about food, classes, lecturers and subjects. We found that there were some similar systems in both Universities. They have explained about their college lifestyle, students populations, faculties in their campus, accommodation service and so on. Both countries were very glad to communicate to each other because they love to listen to our ideas all the way.

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During this link, we have discussed about religion in both countries. Mexicans students brought their own props each that reflects their culture. They have explained the history, meaning, and background beyond the each things that they have brought. It was too amazing as we have gained a lot of new in formations from them. We explained about our three different races by showing them videos, pictures and some demonstrations on dance steps in order to enhance the discussion flow. Overall we both countries have gained a lot of beneficial ideas in term of culture and religion.

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This week, we have shared our ides about stereotypes and prejudices. In Mexico, people won't criticizes on skin color and they will be so close to each other. Same goes to Malaysia, we won't discriminate within different races. In Mexico, sometimes there will be war to be happened but in Malaysia there is no such a thing because our democratic system brought us to live peacefully. These are some ideas that we have shared during this link as we had been taught to unfollow the negative stereotypes that effect our both countr.

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During collaborative project, my partner was Claudia Venegas. I and Asuntha have shared our project with her. The title chosen was 'five people who mostly influenced our culture'. From this project, we have learned about the people who contribute to Mexico and what are their contributions. Plus, we have shared about sacrifices and contributions done by Dato Lee Chong Wei, P.Ramli, and Tun Sambanthan. This project lead us to gain extra general knowledge in both countries.

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shared about sacrifices and contributions done by Dato Lee Chong Wei, P.Ramli, and Tun Sambanthan. This project lead us to gain extra general knowledge in both countries.
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Me and my partner Chin and Rayvon did a collaborative presentation which is regarding success. In life we have different perspective towards success. For Ravyon success means to develop something that can make people life easier. And to be financially stable. Whereas, for Chin success is when she overcome the challenges in her life and achieve financial stability. I am so grateful that I’m a part of this subject as it gives a good exposure.

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The first meet up with Mexico was great even though we had some technical issues we have a great discussion. The were so friendly and were too open. We discussed random things and then we exchange the culture by showing pictures and it was great as we had a clear view how really things are.

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In this link we discussed on religion in both the countries. Each student from Mexico brought 1 props and they explained the meaning that lies behind it. Besides we explained regarding our ethnics here and the religion we follow here.

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This week we discussed on stereotypes and prejudices. In Mexico, people don’t criticize on skin colour and they will be so close to each other. Later on I left the class because I had an industrial talk in DSM. I missed that session.

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Claudia and Enthira was my partner for the collaborative project with Mexico. ‘five people who mostly influenced our culture’ was our topic. From our project I can to know that arts played a major role in influencing the Mexican culture.

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The second session with the USA was less awkward and more engaging. Myself and my partner talked about our family members and how much they have been influencing our life. Besides we also talked about our culture and the meanings behind every traditions. Since my partner is from Yemen, he shared how the culture actually integrated according the norm of US. We also talked about the war that have been going on in middle east and how it affects his family back in the there.

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The third session was more relaxing and laid-back as we were just discussing about the stereotypes and prejudices exist in our both communities. As we discussed, my partner opened up about the prejudice he get as an Islam in the western community. We discovered that the existing stereotype and prejudice are almost same for the both of the country.

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Me and my partner discussed about our religion and also the meaning of life. It was a nice and deep talk we had there. as for my partner, he is some who have strong faith in his religion and he practices it in his daily life and as for me, I am not a religious person but I pray occasionally.
We also discussed about the meaning of life. As for my partner, he feels that life have a meaningful impact if he makes his family happy and he does whatever he has interest on. As for me, I felt that life have more meaning rather than make yourself,family and people around you happy. Life is about contributing to the least privileged people and strive harder to protect the peace as whole and also be happy together in the space we share together with others.

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It was kind of sad to realize that the collaborative project with USA came to an end because Sam was a great partner and we shared a lot of things, from our personal things to world issue. I loved the how Sam was into all the discussion we had. At the end of the day, I felt like I made a new friend rather than class partner. Overall, it was a wonderful experience.

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On our 3rd session with the Mexicans, we discussed about the stereotype and prejudice together with meaning of life.
Based on the discussion we had, I can actually conclude that the meaning of life really depends on the way we raised up and also our family background. The way we define life are different.
Besides, in Mexico people aren't being judged for their skin color just like in Malaysia. Otherwise, I feel like almost all the stereotypes and prejudices are similar.

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so for this session we change our opinion on the religion part which show the differences in religion in Malaysia an US. Besides that, we also share about the meaning of life some said that money is everything while some said that family come first over everything in life. yeah, everyone have their opinion.

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we talked about the stereotypee in Malaysia which Malay been consider as lazy, Chinese been consider as racist and India been consider as drunk man. All this stereotype really do not work out in the class where we can respond to each other very well. Besides that, on the USA sides, a Muslim been threaten because of his faith. This is why Malaysia can be consider as beautiful country because we don't judge people on religion.

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it was a good experience to know other side story and it was a very enjoyable class. I can polish my English and also help me to boost up my confidence. On final presentation we, discuss on our plan in 35 years old and yeah it very nice to plan since we are still young.

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Yeah, new country means new member. it a great conversation even though Dr Azza wasn't there due to some work to settle down at Penang. Mexican was a very good listener and very friendly. Since English is not our mother tongue so it very nice to have conversation with very "pasar"word. hehe

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wow this is one of good session, they bring a lot of things to show us how unique their culture. It very nice to have chit chat with them and yeah we created whatsapp group so then we can still connected to the end of day.

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again we talk about life, prejudice and religion. It nice to have a sharing moment with them and they were so excited to know about Ramadhan. Yeah this session was really nice and sweet to be remember.

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Final presentation, we talk about 5 most influence person in Mexico and Malaysia. yeah, learnt a lot from them. Last session, it sad but we now sometime we need to let go of the things we love to do. They are really good friends but it time to say "Sayonara". So long till meet again. Thanks Dr Azza for inviting me to this class. Really appreciated it.

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Overall.. What I can learn through this session is the way of life of the US side as it is completely different from our life. I also learn that the way to interact with them which is good for me to boost my confidence and also helps to improve my vocabulary. This type of learning process also are really fun to do as I'm exposed to the world and get to know them better. There's is so much things that I learn from my partner Dominique and Nava. Beside of US culture, I also learn some indian culture that are new to me. We learn many things about religion, family and etc. Due to this, we learn to respect each other culture and also add up some information about the culture itself

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During our first link to Mexican friends, I'm quite excited cause I was wondering who will became my partner for this second country. Also that day we used our new technology to test up. Then, we have a little bit of conversation with our fellow friends. We discuss a bit about what will be doing for next session. Overall, I'm feeling excited because all of them are very very good looking. Can't wait to know who's my partner

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In this session we discuss about the religion and family. We share about the religions that practiced in our country. Then, what I got from this session some of Mexican friends are not really practicing the religion. In the middle of the class, we are singing rasa sayang song after the Mexican friends are singing their traditional songs. At the end of class, we decided to make a Whatsapp group as me and Brenda already chatted on Whatsapp. We call it as the meximalaysian.. 😂..

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This session we talk about the meaning of life to all of us... Overall..happiness is the keyword.. Most of us belive that happiness is the main point.. As when we are happy the life are easier. It's all about happiness.. Cause when we are happy with our life then its what all about.. Meaning of life is when we happy with our life.. Happy with all positive people that surround us. Then, we also discuss a bit about the stereotype occur in our and their country.

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During our collaborative project, me and Brenda are choosing the title of what are the meaning of success. For Brenda, success is when you don't have a feeling of regret of the things that you do when you are in a late age. For me, having a good job, happy with my own life with my love one is a success. To conclude, we both agreed that success is not all about being rich and have a lot of money. It's more than that.

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In the third link with ECU, we discussed stereotypes and prejudices to exist on US and Malaysia. I have learned some stereotypes and prejudices that I need to understand for building trust and avoid misunderstanding between both countries. Today, we already discussed the stereotypes and prejudices against some topic such as meals, discount and gift, dressed in class, skin colour, course of learning, appearance and attitude, women, languages, name, culture and family, opinion toward stereotype, and stereotype on pets. I learned about US’s stereotype on purchase decision more on junk food though this session. There are least of stereotype on women in US. We also discussed some positive stereotype. We agreed that the stereotypes and prejudices can positive and negative according the way we use it. At the end, Group A and Group B joined together and discussed serious issue on stereotypes that need to control. In US, they have serious issue on stereotypes about ratio of religious within American. In conclusion, there are more similarities than differences in stereotypes and prejudices in both of the countries.

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It is a special chance to work together with another countries. In the collaborative project, I and my group members, Assunta and Ray’von decided to choose the question about “How do you define success in life?” and we needed to find out about a global definition of success. In this process, I learned how to communicate with my partners for completing a group project. Firstly, we collected perspective on success from each of us.  Then, we compared the definition of success between three of us. We discussed also the global definition of success. Also, I have learned the difference and similarity in our perspective of success. The similarity with success in our life is having a stable financial and take care of our families. This collaborative project also helped me to have a deeper global knowledge on the topic we had discussed. I learned the different between both countries about others topic while other groups present during the class.

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The topic of the first link with Mexico is “College Life”, we started with introducing ourselves and our universities. I knew the main language of Mexico are Spanish and the famous sports are soccer and basketball through the communication. The time difference between Malaysia and Mexico is 13 hours. I learned several university traditions in UNLA including “Expo UNLA” which the presentation of project and “Day of the Dead”, celebrated on 2 November, the annual festival to remember and honour those who have passed away. This culture also shown in “Coco”, a cartoon movie. I also learned culture in Mexico including types of food, traditional dance, and festival. Mexican like to eat spicy food and beans. They like to cook their food with corns. They show us the picture of “Taco” and “Pozole”. Pozole is a traditional soup from Mexico. They also just passed “Holy Week” on last week, the week they do not eat meat on Tuesday, Friday and Saturday and they visited to Catholic Church, a popular church in Morelia, called Cathedral. Most of them live with their parents because of the university is near to their house. I learned do and don’t in both countries. For instance, we cannot wear shoes into house in Malaysia but it can in Mexico. We shared Mexican the place we pray, diversity of people and culture in Malaysia. We let them know although we are different ethics, we celebrate all festival together. Also, we allow go to temple and wearing traditional attire of each ethics.

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In second link with Mexico, we discussed about “Family and Tradition”. I am surprising that each of the Mexican brought one props to show us. The props including La Catrina, Monarch Butterfly, Alebrijes, El Guerreros Águila, Mexican rag dolls, jerseys and some props that can representative their culture. La Catrina of “Coco” movie, it is classic image of Mexico made by famous painter call Diego Rivera. “Monarch Butterfly”, a special species of butterflies in state of Michoacán notable for its annual migration for over-wintering from Nouth America, United States, and Canada to Mexico during spring. Alebrijes, also appear in “Coco” movie, it is mixing of different animals and different brightly colors, it created in Oaxaca. It has meaning and people belief it can take care of someone. El Guerreros Águila is ocarina, it is a clay flute from artist Mexico. We shared the family activities, festival, famous sports, martial art, traditional clothes and some religion significant wearing. Also, we exchange the perception and culture on marriage of both countries such as ages, customs, arrange marriage, and tradition of marriage. I had learned Mexican normally manage a small family which almost 2 to 3 siblings only. Most of them will find own partner for marriage and they do not have culture of arrange marriage. I learned also the restriction on food which Catholic cannot eat red meat on Holy Week. We take turned to sing our childhood song together. “Las Mañanitas”, Mexican’s traditional birthday song. We also shared our song, “Rasa Sayang”.

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It is the final link with Mexico before a team presentation. In this link, we exchange our perception of stereotypes and prejudices, meaning of life, and religion. Most of the people have stereotypes and prejudices on Mexican such as all of the Mexican wears hat all the time, they are lazy, and have a lot of chili, donkey, and mustache. Besides that, there are stereotypes on Mexican like to move to United States for a better live. Mexican used to think everyone is Muslim in Malaysia. We discussed stereotypes and prejudices between race, male and female. It also linked to ages for own license, traffic rules, and rate of car accident. In the part of religion, I learned the meaning of karma, individual opinion on belief, how they pray, and culture of religion in getting marriage to different culture. I knew the difference between Cristian and Catholic and some of them do not believe on religious. Lastly, I learned everyone’s perception of meaning of life and success. Each of us has different opinion on success, but it is no rich. I am agreed that life does not have meaning, it is action you make and decision you think. Also, the peoples who important is equally, no in level.

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It is the first time we do collaborative project together but also the last time we meet with Mexican. I am happy for cooperation with my partner, Aldo. We choose the title “5 people that have/had the most influence on culture Mexico and Malaysia”. I learned the people that influence in culture Mexico including Diego Rivera, Octavio Irineo Paz Lozano, Mario Fortino Alfonso Moreno Reyes, Pedro Infante Cruz, and Hugo Sanchez Marquez. We find out similarity and difference between both countries. The similar on people that have influence both countries including famous artist, athlete and entertainment. This experience provided me a deeper understand on my country's culture during the process I shared with others. I had learned a lot of culture in Mexico from him. Also, I am grateful to Dr Azza provided me a great chance to have a global understanding experience.

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Religion and meaning of life is more intense in our country compared to tjeirs. This is because we are living in a multiracial country with various different cultures. Other than than, we also follows more than a religion. Although the majority follows Islam, the others are allowed to follow our religion. In US people keep their religion individually private. Most of them consider themselves as not a very holy person.

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The collaborative project made us to get in contact more often. We had a good sharing of knowledge on the tittle we choose. My partner was very collaborative during the project. Most of our opinion was same towards the social issues. We tend to share many things openly during this session. The cultures of both countries are very different. So the collaborative project helped me to understand more clearly on cultural topic.

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Both Mexican's and Malaysian's first language and is not english. So this similarly helped us to understand each other better. The class was very happening and full of fun. The Mexicans are all very friendly and warming.

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In the second link, I they brought a lot of thing related to their culture. It showed their love towards their culture. This act made us to understand clearly about their cultural things. Most of the things were so beautiful and colourful. We also showed our cultural activities by pictures. They could imagine how more clearly after seeing the pictures.

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During this link, I we discussed about relogiona and meaning of life. We got to know about their religion. They seem to be not very holy but follows some basic things about their religion. We discussed more about our social life. We shared about the traffic rules, I and many other tjings that made our country different. We were very friendly to each other and even made a lot of jokes.

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The collaborative project with my Mexican partner was quite different compared to the previous one. We had very little time to make the slides and the time differences between us made it to be more difficult. My partner was quite late in replying messages which made me do the collaborative project in the last minute. But although we did it in the last minute, we still managed to make a good one. We get contact with each other in whatsapp.

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We started with Group B discussing about prejudice and stereotypes through the video while Group A through the chatroom. However, my partner did not show up and little did I know that Trevor was absent that day. After awhile we finally join the rest to chat through the video and we talked about what are the stereotypes that happened in Malaysia such as the Chinese are viewed as very rich and very good in maths which is not true and the stereotypes towards american where we perceived them as quite rude and they are just like how they are from the movies which are not true as they say they are very different from the movies. Mostly Ecu are very curious about how the different races in Malaysian can be united and they told us how the environment in United States are multiracial too, just like us. In the end, we found so much similarities more than differences which we thought would be otherwise.

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It was a good experience partnering with Trevor as i faced difficulties in contacting him when he did not reply my email and instagram messages until the day before the presentation. All he replied was we will choose on the topic of "Life at 35" and we would do it together that night which is daylight for him while it is midnight for us. Clearly he totally forgot about the time differences between Malaysia and US but again, he went missing until that night before presentation. Without much choice, i did the whole presentation slides that night and told him to update with his thoughts about life at 35. He said he will later after his class but it was already pass 12 midnight and i received his corrected email at around 6am. It was pretty bad cause all we did was reading slides for each other but afterward, he apologize as he was going through an eviction which cause him not be able to attend classes for a week. After all, he is a cool partner that likes living life on the edge and it was nice someone like him.

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The first link with UNLA, some of us were quite late and they were already waiting. But they were so nice and friendly that they did not mind but happily smiling from ear to ear introducing themselves by passing around the microphone. We found out our partners for this link and we were just basically introducing ourselves. It turns out that they were all course mates of the course of International Business, therefore, they know each other very well. Some of them were quite quiet but we manage to make fun of it and make sure everyone did talk. It was such a wonderful chat as they were very friendly and we showed them our university video while they showed us theirs too. At the end of this link, we could feel the enthusiasm of their lecturer into contacting us because he stress that he couldn't reach Dr Azza and he make sure we got his email address correctly showed his effort into being friends with us was very warm.

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It was a link to talk about family and culture and we were all quite surprised by the fact that they all brought something related to the culture to show us. Most of it was miniatures but we felt so bad that we did not put the effort into bringing something to show them but we explained that all of us are far from home and we didn’t have anything to show them. They were totally fine and we chatted about the number of siblings in every family and we learned that they usually have small numbers of family members due to the economics situation. We asked them about their biggest celebrations and they told us about the celebration of the day of death and we totally understand it from the movie that we watched, COCO. Instead of multiracial like all of us, they call themselves Mexicans and it is the same for everyone. They share to us about their foods which are mostly based on beans such as burrito and tacos which looks very delicious. From the looks of it, they look like they were vegetarians for eating so much beans and corns but they are not. Lastly we also created a group for us all to keep in touch and have better conversations.

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In this session, we talked about religion and meaning of life where they were very curious about the many races in our country because they only have 1. The muslims from our country were sharing about the 5 prayers they need to do each day which UNLA were so curious about as to how long are each prayers and how are the classes conducted during these prayers. Our friends explained to them about how it will just take about 15 minutes and it will be during the break. Besides, they also ask about the hijab the muslim girls are wearing as in wouldn't it be warm wearing it all the time and they explain about not wearing it at home but just when they need to leave the house. Then, we talked about the meaning of life and we explain it according to religion. One of the Mexican do not trust in any religion but hold on the beliefs of karma and he asked us about what are our perceptions towards karma. Not only that, we also chatted about relationships where we talked about who matters most between family or our partners. In a conclusion, it was a enjoyable chat where everybody just openly throws out their opinions and the link with Mexicans was always filled with laughter and fun.

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Fabrizio was not that friendly when he seen my text without replying. Then it comes to the moment where he needs to talk to me as we are collaborating together where he finally replied and apologizes as he had problems with his phone's screen. After ECU and then Fabrizio from UNLA doing something totally the same with Trevor, i just wish i had a talkative partner. I felt like i do most of the talkings but Fabrizio did have a little time to let me know his thought about our title which is the definition of ideal role model for our future children so that i have something to present about him. But i don't think he likes sharing and he prefer to present his own thoughts which we did. Overall, he was a nice guy and it was nice working with him. Besides my partner, everyone else was so friendly and we added everyone on the social media and yes, we totally will keep in touch.