Conversation 7

Guilherme and I met for our last time yesterday and neither of us could believe it. Seven meetings have already passed by? This semester is moving by way too fast!

We used the majority of our last meeting discussing stories from break and catching up since it had been almost ten days since we last met. Guilherme is all moved into his new apartment and loves being able to be more independent now. His break consisted of far more than just moving into his apartment as he had originally suspected. He and his girlfriend’s 3 day trip turned into a tour of many stops in Texas including Abilene, New Braunfels and a few other smaller cities.  Guilherme was relieved that his girlfriend’s mother gave a couch and table to him for his apartment, saving him some money. He laughed as he detailed he and his girlfriend attempting to move the couch and table upstairs—needless to say it was not a successful event.

Guilherme is pretty much settled into his apartment at this point and was excited because yesterday the cable and Internet company was finally coming to install his cable and Wifi. Guilherme and I laughed about how hard it is for people our age to get by without these things and he told me about how he has been occupying his time with reading. He then proceeded to ask me about my Spring Break and laughed in his usual polite manner at all of my stories from Destin. He seemed to be shocked that I survived a road trip for 26 hours in a car with six girls, I can’t say that I blame him much because I was pretty surprised, too.

We both agreed that Spring Fever is in full force (after I explained to him what I meant by this) and got into talking about our plans for the summer. Guilherme bragged about his girlfriend’s internship that she got for this summer in Atlanta. She was one of five student picked for the program so I guess his bragging was within reason. Guilherme plans to volunteer more with Destination Imagination this Spring and Summer for the state competitions. He was not sure how long into summer IEP goes or if he even gets a break from the classes since he has to maintain the criteria for a student visa. This was mind blowing news to me- a student who isn’t counting down the days until summer...what kind of person is this?? I told Guilherme about my summer plans and he was delighted to hear that I was also going to be doing some volunteer work this summer in my free time.

Before we knew it the meeting was coming to an end so that I could make it to class on time. We left Union Grounds and walked together through the commons as Guilherme insisted that we become Facebook friends so that we can somehow stay in contact without our weekly meetings. I don’t know why neither of us thought of this earlier but he now has a friend request from me awaiting him once he logs in on his newly installed Wifi.

The conversation partner experience was an enjoyable component of this class for me. I was lucky to have a partner who was skilled in English as my partner, and who I feel probably taught me more than I was able to teach him. I normally love to use travel as a means to connect with a different culture but the opportunity to learn about the people of a different culture right on campus proved to be worthwhile and quite interesting.