Conversation 4

Yesterday, Guilherme and I met and decided to mix up our routine a little and grab lunch during our meeting. What exotic location did we choose to dine at? The BLUU.

As much as this is not my first choice for any meal, it sparked interesting conversation about food, something we both enjoy quite a lot, and its differences in America and Brazil.

Guilherme definitely enjoys American food. Pizza (although it’s Italian) and French fries were his lunch of choice as we sat outside of Market Square. Our conversation started of talking about the crazy weather yesterday (as cliché as this sounds we both agree that Texas’ weather is conversation-worthy.) Guilherme was also excited to share with me that he found an apartment to move into within the next two weeks so that he will be closer to campus, and more independent. We also discussed our respective Spring Break plans. Guilherme is planning on moving into his apartment and going to Abilene with his girlfriend to hang out with her and her family. These conversation topics and the natural flow that we have between topics lead me to almost forget the age difference between Guilherme and I since much of what he deals with is similar to any other college student.

However, these commonplace topics barely scratch the surface of all the funny things we talked about yesterday. Since Guilherme’s girlfriend has become a common area of conversation, I decided to ask Guilherme about Valentine’s Day since we had not met last Thursday. He simply responded that his girlfriend had insisted that he not make a special trip up to see her for the holiday because this would have required that he rent a car to drive up to Waco for a few hours and come back that night to return the car (since Guilherme has class on Fridays.) I responded that he was lucky, most girls have high expectations for this day and he just kind of laughed. Being the excellent conversationalist that he is, Guilherme asked about my Valentine’s Day in return. I responded that since I was home for the weekend my boyfriend and I “celebrated” with a low key dinner and hanging out with friends on Saturday night instead, explaining that this was fine with me since I am not a huge fan of Valentine’s Day myself.  I even went on to joke that my boyfriend was more upset about missing the Hallmark Holiday than I was.

 I can’t even describe the look of confusion/awe/humor-struck (if that’s a word?) that came across Guilherme’s face when I said this. He responded, “Ah! He and I are much the same then!” Turns out what I labeled as a “lucky break” he was too polite to correct as “disappointment.” This conversation was probably the most advanced that Guilherme and I have had. We went on to talk about the premise behind Valentine’s day, he was explaining things like how commercialized the holiday is but how he still loves the meaning and significance. This topic required advanced English, and yet he was able to convey his thoughts almost completely fluently.  Guilherme also explained how there is a similar holiday to Valentine’s day celebrated in Brazil but it is celebrated in June—so I guess he has a chance to redeem the romantic holiday in just a few months.

Being a self-proclaimed “foodie” I decided that this lunch was the perfect context to ask Guilherme about food in Brazil.  He explained to me that the cooking is pretty similar in both countries or “at least to [him] because it all tastes so good.” We were definitely able to relate on this note, we both love to travel (as previously discussed) and one of our mutually favorite parts of travel is exploring the world’s different foods. Guilherme did specify, however, that breakfast is different in America than it is in Brazil. Breakfasts in America are huge, consisting of bacon, eggs, toast, and the works. Breakfast is Brazil is a lot lighter, and lunch is normally (at least for Guilherme) the biggest meal of the day. We then got on a 5-minute tangent about how this is unfortunate because we both really enjoy breakfast food. We went on to discuss our respective cooking skills and experiences with cooking, Guilherme had some funny stories to share.

Yesterday’s conversation revealed not only more about Guilherme’s superior pragmatic skills in English and use of an extremely diverse vocabulary, but it was also interesting to learn more about his culture and background. We have often gotten so caught up in what’s going on here and now at TCU—as it is so easy to do—that this conversation and cultural comparison was rather refreshing. We were both shocked to realize that we only have 3 more meetings left after yesterday, and plan to talk a lot about humor next time we meet. This had been mentioned before, but Guilherme is determined to find YouTube clips to show me that he thinks are funny—but can only find his favorite shows in Portuguese. I am excited to be able to compare cultures even more with Guilherme over our next meeting, and think that such a modern and international thing as Youtube and the entertainment industry as a whole will serve as a great premise to do so.