After scheduling conflicts with my original conversation partner I was assigned a new partner, Johnathan. I thoroughly enjoyed meeting Mohammad, so I was excited to have the opportunity to learn from another international student. Friday afternoon in Union Grounds I met Johnathan and we quickly began getting to know one another. Since we both had a conversation prior to this account, all nervousness and anticipatory anxiety was set aside.
Johnathan started off by telling me his life history. He was raised in France and was born in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He fluently speaks five languages! I had to admit how impressive that was. When I told him I could only speak English, he blatantly replied "oh no! that's so bad!" I couldn't help but laugh because I know how beneficial it is to be bilingual. He has only been in the U.S. since August and plans to complete the IEP program at TCU and transfer next semester to Kansas State where he will study aeronautical engineering. As a pilot, he plans to travel the world and be able to say he has been to every country in the world. He is definitely off to a great start since he has lived in several different locations and can speak five languages. Fascinated by his endeavors, I am inspired to travel.
Johnathan is in fact a very comedic guy. Throughout our meeting, he saw several of his friends and answered two phone calls to coordinate his plans for the evening. I can tell that he is extremely social and active with with his large friend group. He plays on the club rugby team and stays busy with practice and games. He informed me of his love to party. I laughed as I started to see a common trend among my previous conversation partner and Johnathan. His daily routine for rugby involves practice, games, followed by a party. He is intrigued and slightly confused by the way American's plan parties stating that, "someone just texts me the address and I show up to the party to have good time." Proceeding, he asked me how students at TCU plan parties because they're constantly occurring. I honestly admitted and said I had no idea. I continued to chuckle because I'm the last person that would know the "party scene" and both Johnathan and Mohammad brought the topic up.
Johnathan continuously asked me "What's up?" I reassured him that his weekend was going to be much more exciting than mine. As my group projects are coming to an end, the stress and work load has reached a maximum. We said our goodbyes and planned to meet again next week. I am excited for our next conversation! I learned so much about Johnathan and cannot wait to see what our future conversations will entail.
No comments:
Post a Comment