Learning Experience #4: It’s Almost Over!

I sit here, typing this as someone who has just finished her last class of her first year of college. Honestly, I can’t really believe that it’s almost over! College is a learning experience, both academically and experientially. Sometimes the life lessons and academic lessons go hand in hand. Sure, I’ve learned a lot in my classes and written papers, take tests, typed notes, and listened to many lectures. But a lot of my learning has happened outside of the classroom, as well. I’ve learned that people that I didn’t know a year ago can become as close as family and that sleep isn’t necessarily a priority. Even with just a week and a half before I fly back to the Land of 10,000 Lakes, I continue to learn things every day.

One experience that will stick out to me when looking back at this school year is meeting with my conversation partner, Essa. This assignment was a growing experience for me because I got to meet with someone who was so interesting and that I would not have met without this class. It pushed me out of my comfort zone of my usual routine. Believe it or not, before having a conversation partner, I didn’t make it a habit of meeting weekly with Saudi Arabian men with a wife and a three year old daughter. At our first meeting, I was nervous and anxious about meeting with a conversation partner every week because I did not know what to expect. Would it be awkward? Would there be struggles to communicate due to a possible language barrier? However, these worries were put to rest during my first meetings with Essa. Every time we met, he seemed to be more comfortable speaking English and sharing about his life. I was continually impressed by his willingness to share things about his family, life in Saudi Arabia, academics, and plans after this school year. He even brought me Saudi Arabian coffee and cookies! As a whole, I learned that friends can come in all shapes, sizes, countries, and walks of life. It also gave me a perspective on what it would be like to move to a completely foreign country, away from family and friends, to get a better education. There is a big world out there, yet people from all over the world come to TCU to get a good education – this makes me realize just how lucky I am to be here!

Something people told me before I left for college is there are three basic components to college life: sleep, social life, and academics. However, you can’t have all three, you have to choose two! At first, I didn’t really get this… why can’t you sleep, do homework, and have fun with friends? After several weeks of college, it became clear that the wise people who told me this were right. It is a continual juggling of these things. Over the past few weeks, this notion has been continually reinforced and I have come to the conclusion that sleep is usually going to be the odd man out. Something that I’ve told myself, when all I want to do is sleep or take a nap, is that I’m not going to look back at my freshman year and say “wow, I’m so glad I spent all that time sleeping!”. Getting the recommended eight hours of sleep each night just is not going to happen – and I’ve become okay with that! Life is happening regardless of whether I’m awake or not. Sometimes it’s necessary to stay up until 3:30 am studying on a Thursday night and then wake up three hours later to study more, or to walk to Kroger at 10:00 pm with friends to get a cookie dough and eat all over half of it on the way back. Other times, it’s necessary to hide away from the outside world and just do homework, but other days it’s necessary to disregard all homework and just have fun.

            Even though I’ve been rambling on about these life lessons that I have learned, I have still learned so much academically. One thing that has particularly interested me recently is my Environmentalism class. We have been discussing deforestation. One of the new leading drivers of deforestation is the production of palm oil. Forests are getting cut down in order to plan rows and rows of palms that produce the fruit from which palm oil is produced. Palm oil is in many products today because it is oil that does not contain any trans fat. Deforestation to make way for palms is a growing trend in Asia and Africa. One of the many problems that arise from this is the destruction of orangutan habitats. Many orangutans inhabit the areas in that are getting deforested. Because this is happening, poachers go into these habitats and shoot the mother orangutan so they can take the babies to sell illegally. This business is reinforced by the palm oil business as more of these primates are displaced by destruction of their habitat. Something that we as consumers can do to is to either buy products without palm oil or to make sure that the products that we do buy with palm oil come from a responsible source. From now on I’m going to try to be more intentional about what I buy and where it comes from in order to avoid inadvertently supporting a the destructive side of palm oil production.

All in all, freshman year has been a learning experience. I’ve learned in classrooms and I’ve learned in every day life. Though I’ve learned a lot this year, I have a feeling that each year will bring a new set of life lessons and academic lessons!

Learning Experience #3: US History, James Early Ray, MLK, and Dr. Samuel “Billy” Kyles

The year is winding down… only a week and a half left of class before finals? Honestly I can’t believe where the time went. Classes now consist of learning the last of pieces of information before the piling on of final papers, projects, tests, and stress. Needless to say, a lot of work will be packed into these next few weeks!            

Despite this daunting time ahead of us, classes continue to offer something interesting and new. Though I have learned a lot in my other classes, my US History class has been exceedingly intriguing to me lately. For the past few weeks, we have been talking about the 1960s, the Civil Rights Movement, and now the Vietnam War. In light of this, we were assigned to read a book about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., called “Hellhound in His Trail” by Hampton Sides. The book is a narrative of James Earl Ray’s life leading up to the assassination, and “the largest manhunt in American history” that ensued afterwards. So far I’m only halfway through the book, and I’m at the point where Ray is fleeing. Thus far I have learned that James Earl Ray was a very interesting man. In 1967, he escaped from Jefferson City prison in a breadbox… he had been in prison for armed robbery, and had previously served for stealing money orders. He had spent most of his adult life behind bars. After he escapes, he goes to Mexico to be an aspiring pin-up photographer, then to California to rally behind the campaign of George Wallace and to learn hypnotism, and somehow from this he is led to want to assassinate King. During this time he goes by multiple aliases, including Eric Galt and John Willard, and is just an all-around sketchy character. Long story short, Ray is crazy. Not only have a learned a lot about Ray, but I have also learned some things about King that I had never known before. He wasn’t exactly on the good side of the FBI – John Edgar Hoover was not a fan of King, and thus constantly had him followed. Hoover knew many things about King that the public did not know and also thought that his actions were all part of a communist plot. Another thing that I learned is that though King’s contributions to our country are undeniable, this did not make him invincible to temptations. As discovered by Hoover, King had many mistresses across the country. One of them, a senator from Georgia, was supposed to go to a dinner party with him the night of the assassination. Hoover also found that King “used raunchy language”, smoked, drank, partied, and “told off-color jokes”. Painted as a family man with Christian values, this among other things, made Hoover view King as a phony. When he was shot, there was a cigarette in his hand and a box of cigarette in his pocket. Before anyone could notice, Dr. Samuel “Billy” Kyles (a friend of King’s who was supposed to have King over for dinner that night) took this cigarette out of King’s hand and the box of cigarettes out of his pocket so the public would not know that he smoked. King kept his smoking habits a secret from his children so they would not imitate his actions. These things go to show that even though he was a great man who was the catalyst for progressive and positive change in our country, he was not above succumbing to vices that ordinary people face. This is no way takes away from his greatness, but allows us to maybe view King as human. Learning these things have reminded me that there is often so much more to what we learn or what we have learned in school. Not everything is what it seems.

Another reason that I find the account of King’s assassination interesting is that I have been to Memphis and the Civil Rights Museum. Though I was only in fifth grade, I remember being amazed but also saddened by the Civil Rights museum – that’s a lot for anyone to take in, let alone a 10 year old. Part of the museum includes the Lorraine Motel, where King was shot. It was hard for me to comprehend that something so earth shattering had occurred right there, on the 306 balcony of the motel that I was looking at. We got to experience the tour of the museum unlike many others had. That day, Dr. Samuel “Billy” Kyles was at the museum (possibly out of coincidence or maybe he frequents the museum to share with visitors) and spoke to our tour group while we were in the museum. At the time, I thought it was cool to meet someone who was friends with King and there when he was shot, but looking back I can truly say that it is incredible to have met him. So, when I started reading “Hellhound in His Trail”, I texted my dad to ask the name of the man we met in the museum to see if his name came up in the book. Sure enough, Kyles was mentioned more than several times. As I mentioned before, King was supposed to go to a dinner party at Kyles’ house that night. Kyles was in the room, waiting to leave for his house, as King was standing on the balcony when he got shot. Reading about this situation after meeting a man who was there and seeing the place where the assassination happened made it all the more real. I was able to imagine the Lorraine Motel and the kind man that we met at the Civil Rights Museum. This connection has made me realize the importance of experiences in the light of learning, because this connection and experience in Memphis has solidified my learning, even 8 years later. 

Learning Experiences #2: The Arts and the Art of Acting

With only one more month of my freshman year left, I figured that it was about time to think about and reflect what else I have learned this semester. Because each of my classes is different, my learning has been spread over many different topics. Two classes, in particular, have stuck out to me in the past weeks.

In my “Fine Arts for Children” class, we learn about how music, art, and creative movement can be integrated into education for elementary school students. This class has opened my eyes to why the arts are important to the development of children. Being an uncoordinated, not musically or artistically child, I never participated much in “the arts” besides what we had to do in school. Sure, I took dance classes when I was little and my parents forced me to play the flute for a year… but I wasn’t good at these things – at all. Before taking this class, I just thought that the arts were stressed to make students more well rounded and knowledgeable about different areas. However, I have learned that the arts not only enhance teaching, but can also help students achieve in other content areas. For example, students who have consistent art exposure and experience as children and throughout their schooling often have more success in other academic areas. Art, music, and creative movement can also be used to reinforce any subject area. Math, social studies, language arts and any other subject can be taught or reiterated by an of the fine arts. Learning this is incredibly relevant for me because if I stick to my current major and career path (early-childhood education), I can incorporate what I have learned into my own classroom.

My Spanish class brings a completely different kind of learning than “Fine Arts for Children”. It’s called “Oral Communication”, so as you probably could have guessed, we do a lot of speaking, especially in front of the class. In a couple weeks we have one of our biggest assignments “La Lectura Dramatizada”, which is a play that we have to act out in front of the class. In Spanish. This assignment freaks me out for several reasons – 1) Speaking in front of the class for an extended period of time, 2) Acting in front of the class, 3) acting in front of the class in Spanish. Did I mention we have to use props? And that I have to play an actress who is trying to seduce a bible salesman? Needless to say, this assignment is going to push me outside of my box. However, speaking in front of the class in Spanish for an extended period of time will definitely be beneficial for me, and good practice for me potential future. From even just looking at the script that I have to read, I am learning that I’m not comfortable speaking in front of the class, but I am realizing that I’m going to have to be. Being an Early Childhood Education major with a Bilingual emphasis, I will be spending a lot of time in front of a classroom, likely speaking Spanish. I’m not necessarily planning on acting out plays in front of my class, but the more I get the chance to practice Spanish in front of people, the better… even if it’s intimidating or scary, because the more I practice the less daunting it will be.

The moral of the story for me over the past few weeks has been this… Although I’m not artist, musician, dancer, or actress, taking on these roles will benefit my learning. Hopefully, these experiences will also benefit the future learning of others, the students that I will be teaching.

Conversation Partner Meeting #6: Sweets, Saudi Arabian Coffee, Scares, and Spring-Break

Today was the first time that Essa and I had a chance to meet in a couple weeks due to Spring Break and hectic schedules… It was good to see him! We met at our usual time and place; except for today he brought something extra with him – Arabic coffee and sweets! When we were confirming that we would be meeting that day, he told me that he was going to bring Arabic coffee and sweets, which made me look forward to our conversation even more! I felt bad that I couldn’t really think of any good and “American” that I could bring him that he hadn’t already tried… I figured that a box of Mike and Ikes and coffee from Union Grounds wouldn’t really measure up to the Arabic coffee, date cakes, and dates that he brought. Personally, I don’t drink coffee and have never really liked it (based on the few times I have tried it), so I was a little hesitant to taste it. However, I was pleasantly surprised, it was actually good! It tasted kind of like something between coffee and tea. He said that it’s a lighter color because the coffee beans are not cooked as much as they are for American coffee. Also, different spices and things are added… but these ingredients are not always listed on the package. He said that he bought a package of coffee the other day, and it didn’t say what was exactly in it, that it was their “special recipe”. In addition to the coffee, he brought dates and date cakes. I had never eaten a date before… it was good, but different than expected. The date cakes looked kind of like mini donuts, about an inch and a half in diameter. On the exterior was a sort of cookie casing, and on the inside were dates that were compacted into the cookie. It sounds a little odd, but actually tasted really good! I commented on the cookies were, and he put one in a plastic bag and let me take it with me for later… how nice of him! Essa said that his wife had brought back two boxes from when she went back to Saudi Arabia, and these cookies were from the second box… he went through the first box in a week! I don’t blame him… these cookies were so good!

After our discussion and my curiosity about the food, Essa wanted to explain to me about why it took him awhile to reply to my text when I told him (last week) that I wouldn’t be able to meet with his last Thursday. Last week, it was about 1:00 in the morning and Essa was studying and doing homework, when his wife who had gone to bed several hours earlier, texted him that she wasn’t feeling well. She couldn’t feel her left shoulder and part of her arm, so she asked him to take her to the hospital. This was really scary for him, especially since these are possible signs of a stroke. They arrived at the hospital and put his wife in the MRI machine to make sure that everything was okay with her brain. After running several tests, the doctors could find nothing wrong and Essa’s wife had regained feeling in her shoulder. So, despite the scare, they were given the “okay” to return home because Essa’s wife was back to normal and there was nothing proven to be wrong. Essa said that they were thankful that everything was okay, but a little perplexed at how the doctors found nothing. Luckily, nothing like this has happened to Essa’s wife since they went to the hospital last week. 

When he was done telling about his adventure to the hospital, we caught up on how each other’s spring breaks had been and everything else that we had missed. He said that he didn’t do anything over spring break besides watch “How I Met Your Mother” – he got all the way to season 7! His favorite character is Marshall, who happens to be my favorite character, too (he’s from Minnesota, so a clear favorite for me). His wife got back home from Saudi Arabia and had to study for her finals for her class (which went well) and then he had finals the following week. He said his finals went well, so he can advance onto the next class that he wants to take! We also talked about his daughter, Dana, who is staying in Saudi Arabia with her grandma and aunt. He said that she likes spending time with her grandma, aunts, uncles, and cousins who all live there. He even showed me some pictures and videos of Dana, who is absolutely adorable. One of of her sitting in a grocery cart at the supermarket, trying to put the food that she wanted into the cart and telling her aunt all about the food she wanted. Another of the videos was of her again in the grocery store, correcting one of her cousins on how to say “ice-cream”. She knows both English and Arabic.

It was great to catch up with Essa’s life today! He seems more noticeably confident with his English, which makes the conversations flow even more smoothly. I interpreted it as a good sign that he was comfortable enough to bring coffee and sweets from home, as well as show me pictures and videos of his daughter. It was just like what normal friends do – catch up on each other’s lives over (Arabic) coffee!

Uncontrollable Laughter #2: Because I’m Happy

It was another eventful, exciting, thrilling day of Spring Break 2014. There I was, sitting in my kitchen in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, eating lunch with my mom and dad. Pretty exciting stuff. We were just finishing up lunch and I was just about to bring my plate to the sink when my dad says, “Kally, I have a song to play for you”. Usually when I hear something like this from one of my parents, I usually think, “oh gosh, what is it this time” and then just go along with it. Before I could say anything, his plan was already set in motion. My dad excitedly found the highly anticipated song on his phone and connected it to our speaker system in the living room. Of course, it has to be loud. The song started playing and I immediately recognized it – “Happy” by Pharrell Williams. As soon as it started playing, my mom ran into the living room, too. And there my parents were, two grown adults, in the middle of our living room dancing around like little kids. That’s when the laughter started… and didn’t stop for a while. I wasn’t laughing to make fun of them or because I felt superior to them, but for several other reasons. I was laughing due to the fact that most people would probably think that this was a weird thing for adults to do, but I didn’t think it was weird at all. Us Nords try not to take ourselves too seriously. My parents are just goofy, fun-loving people who aren’t afraid to act like little kids every once in awhile. As they danced and danced (they refused to stop until the entire song was over), I sat there and thought, “This probably explains a lot about why I am the way that I am”. Then, I realized this definitely wasn’t the first time they had danced like this around our living room to this song. I though of my sweet, goofy parents doing this around the house every so often, merely because they can with all their kids gone in college. However, the biggest reason for my uncontrollable laugher was simply the joy that the dancing brought my parents and myself… it was contagious. The song, the giant smiles, the laughter, and the wacky moves filled my heart with such appreciation for my parents and the fact that they find so much joy in dancing like little kids around the living room. A year ago, if they had done something like this, I would not have gotten so much enjoyment out of it. However, being so far from home for most of the year, this instance reminded me of one of the reasons I love and miss my parents when I’m away from home… something changes in a person when they’re thousands of miles away from the people who raised them for 18 years. It was this combination of ridiculousness, goofiness, appreciation, love, and joy is what brought on my fit of uncontrollable laughter. To put it simply, or in the words of Pharrell Williams in his (danceable) song, I was laughing “because I’m happy”.

Learning Experiences #1: A Growing Population and a Growing Sense of Awareness

The first half of my second semester at TCU has proved to be a learning experience in itself. It has been a mix of taking and applying the things learned from first semester, in addition to learning academically and from new experiences. With a new grasp on what “time-management” means and new notebooks, I was ready to take on second semester of freshman year. I quickly found that the work I had this semester was more project-based, rather than the numerous papers I had written my first semester. Despite this change, classes were enjoyable and interesting… a lot of the information that I have learned so far has made me think, and not just in a classroom setting. For example, my Contemporary Issues in Environmentalism class has opened my eyes to the many environmental problems that our world faces. The world’s population is predicted to hit 9 billion by 2050… how crazy is that? The big question surrounds the challenge of feeding and sustaining the lives of 9 billion people. How will we produce enough food? Where will our energy come from? When will our sources of energy from coal and natural gas run out? How can we reduce pollution even with a growing population? These are just a few of the questions that propel the discussion and lectures in Environmentalism, and are directly applicable to the world that we live in today, to the here and now. One specifically eye-opening experience was our very first lab. In a simulation about carbon footprints, I found that it would take over 4 earths to sustain the world’s population if everyone lived the same lifestyle as I do.

Another class in which the information we are learning has affected my thinking outside of class has been this class, Literature and Civilizations II. First off, I never even knew that there were such things as theories of comedy… I just thought that people laughed because they viewed something as funny, plain and simple. However, after learning about these theories, I am more aware of the nature of the things myself and other people find funny. One aspect that has been really interesting to me were the “Greatest Comedy Film” presentations. I had seen almost all of the movies, minus a few, so the scenes presented were scenes that I was familiar with. Seeing these scenes was different this time, because they were presented and shown with different theories of comedy in mind. I found myself thinking, “Oh, that’s why people laugh at that”, or realizing that some movies relied on a certain type of comedy and others had a variety. Now, when I watch or see funny things, I try to match the situation with a theory of comedy.

Though I have learned many things so far this semester, these are just two of the things that have stuck out to me especially. My Environmentalism class and my English class have made me more aware in my life outside of the classroom, though in different ways. In my eyes, this is a sign of learning information that is actually valuable because it is applicable to life, not solely confined to a classroom.

Uncontrollable Laughter #1: Trips and Giggles

Tripping… it’s almost always funny, even when it’s you who’s doing the tripping. I might be the only one, but I think it’s even funnier when you are the one who trips.

It was last Monday night and I had just met up with my two friends, Tianna and Blair, in the hall to get dinner at the BLUU. We hadn’t seen each other all day – how did we survive the day? As we walked down the hallway towards the stairs, we chatted and caught up on how everyone’s day was. We waved to our friends in the hallway, and then opened the door to descend down the stairs with Blair in front of me, and Tianna behind me. After just a few steps down the stairs, I tripped and caught myself on the railing. Before the thought of “phew, that was a close one” could even cross my mind, I took one more step…. And tripped again. Luckily, I caught myself (again), but then collapsed onto the ground in a fit of laughter. I could hear Tianna and Blair cracking up because they knew I was okay. For anyone who has every spent a good chunk of time with me or with my friends, you will know that it is not uncommon for me to do something incredibly ungraceful (like tripping), nor is it uncommon for my friends and I to laugh uncontrollably. We just sat there for a minute or so, laughing and laughing as my friends made sure that I was okay. After I pulled myself together, I assured them that I have had much worse falls down many more stairs. We continued to laugh about tripping and falling as we walked to the BLUU, and I made sure to pay attention when I was going down the next flight of stairs. As we walked to the BLUU, we recalled funny instances of us tripping (mostly me, I wasn’t kidding when I said I’m not very graceful), which of course brought us even more laughter.

This situation caused us to break out in uncontrollable laughter for several reasons. Personally, I laugh when I fall because I’m clumsy, but I’m also relived that I’m not hurt… Blair and Tianna laughed because they know me, they saw me trip, and they knew that I was okay. Another reason is that this clumsy, ungraceful moment happened when I was with my friends. I don’t think I would have laughed nearly as much if I had been alone or just passing a random person in the stairs. Trust me, I still would have laughed to myself if I were alone and I definitely would have laughed if I were passing someone on the stairs when I tripped, but this laughter probably would have been more “this is awkward and slightly embarrassing” laughter rather than uncontrollable, laughing-with-friends laughter. Luckily, it was my friends, therefore we felt comfortable laughing with each other about this unfortunate situation. It was under these circumstances that this situation warranted uncontrollable laughter, which is always a nice thing to have on a Monday night. 

Conversation Partner Meeting #5: Family Trees, “Friends”, and Fancy Writing

 

As usual, Essa and I met in the afternoon at Union Grounds. However, today was a little different… he had just dropped his wife and daughter off at the airport, where they were flying back to Saudi Arabia. As I have mentioned before, his daughter Dana is staying there with her grandma, and his wife is returning in a week to finish taking classes at a school in Fort Worth. He said that it was kind of sad to have his daughter leave them, but at the same time it will make things easier. Plus, she likes staying with her grandma. Because Essa comes from a large family, Dana has cousins that she can play with that are around her own age. To show this, Essa took out his phone and opened an app that was a family tree. At the top were his parents, with a picture of each of them, and the rest of the family extended down throughout. There were pictures of his siblings, brother and sister-in-laws, and nieces and nephews. It was a really app! Something interesting about Essa’s phone is that the writing is in Arabic and not in English. Of course this makes sense, but it is just so different to see something other than the letters that I am so used to typing.

 

Upon noticing the Arabic writing on his phone, I was intrigued by Arabic writing. Once we got on to this subject, I was just so curious! He asked for a pen and paper so he could write our names. Here are three interesting facts I learned about Arabic writing in short period time: 1) It is written from right so left, instead of left to right like in English, 2) There are several different ways to write things, according to how much detail is put into each letter, and 3) Some letters are written differently depending on whether the letter is placed at the beginning, in the middle, or at the end of a word.  Essa was writing with a Sharpie marker, and said that it is easier to write with a pen or marker that has a flat or slanted tip, because when writing in Arabic there are certain parts of letters that are supposed to be thicker or thinner. Wow, that seems complicated and confusing… I exclaimed to Essa, “That must be SO hard to learn”. He responded that English is SO hard to learn…. Just think about it! He gave an example he had heard of someone trying to learn English… He asked me, “Do you say ‘Chick-ago’ or “Kih-cago’?” – I responded, “Chick-ago”. Then, “Okay, so do you pronounce it ‘Ch-ristmas’ or ‘Kristmas’?”… I was beginning to see his point. He gave several more examples, and I realized that English is one funky language where people make of rules for grammar, spelling, and punctuation, only to break these conventions frequently with many exceptions. Although I cannot even imagine trying to learn Arabic, learning English would be likely just as hard. With this in mind, his fluency in the English language is all the more impressive.

 

Because his wife is not going to be gone until next week, I was curious about what he was going to do all by himself… Watch movies? TV? Netflix? Sleep? I asked him what his favorite TV shows are. Apparently, he doesn’t watch that much TV but his favorite show is “Friends”… he has all of the seasons on DVD! Joey is his favorite character. His favorite movies are action movies, like “Fast and Furious” and “Transformers”… we definitely bonded over the fact that we both like transformers! Another interesting thing that I learned is that a lot of American movies are played in Saudi Arabia, and in different cities there are places to illegally buy current movies and TV shows. Various cities are known for having better or worse qualities, so it’s important to go to the right place. 

 

Later that afternoon after our conversation, Essa sent me a picture of the different ways to write my name in Arabic (attached)… how cool! I also viewed this as a positive sign in our partnership, which seems to be turning into a friendship more and more! This is promising, and each conversation feels like it takes less effort and just like two friends talking. 

Conversation Partner Meeting #4: Family, Siblings, and Sweets

With our conversation today, I learned several new and interesting things about Essa that surprised me. We started talking about family…. Essa has 5 siblings! He has an older sister, 3 older brothers, a younger sister, and a younger brother. He is closest with his two younger siblings, because his older siblings are married and have their own families. His brother’s name is Rashid and is six years younger than him. His sister is four years younger and they call her Nona, but that’s just a nickname that she has had since she was little, because it is similar to the Arabic word meaning “small”. This got us a little sidetracked… I asked him if he had any nicknames. Some of his friends call him “Jee” because Essa’s name in Arabic actually means Jesus… And then we got sidetracked about what different names mean. He looked up my name, but apparently it doesn’t mean anything (big surprise there, especially since I got my name because my parents had a coworker whose dog was named Callie and they liked the name, just not the spelling). His daughter’s name, Dana, means “pearl”.

After this tangent we went on, we got back to the topic of family. Back in Saudi Arabia, his father owns a very large building, kind of like an apartment building or set of condominiums, where all of his siblings and cousins live with their families. So, it’s like a big family reunion, all the time. Even though he is not living there at the moment, Essa’s apartment has been kept just the way he left it, so he can start life back up again when he returns home. Although his whole family lives so close to each other, he is closest with his younger siblings, and seems to spend more time with his sister, Nona. He said that he usually helps her bake. “Wow”, I thought, “that’s so nice of him,” thinking that it was just your average baking-chocolate-chip-cookies-at-home kind of baking, maybe with the occasional birthday cake or something. Essa then pulled up his sister’s Instagram account to show what his sister bakes… I was completely wrong. These pictures were of cakes and cupcakes designed to look like basically anything and everything – Soccer balls, princess castles, actual Disney princesses, crowns, guitars, graduation caps, engagement cakes, soccer jerseys, and Minions (from the movie “Despicable Me”), just to name a few. I sat there, in amazement. She makes and frosts all her cakes by hand, takes pictures of them on Instagram to advertise, and then customers can call to order whatever they want. It is a full-blown business operation! She even converted a room in the family’s building to bake and to put all her supplies; according to Essa, the whole room is pink. Nona has been doing this for a couple years now. Before she started her baking business, she made greeting cards, but did not enjoy that job. So, she went to school to learn how to bake and to make these wonderful creations, leading to the starting of her business. Recently, she went to a class in Dubai to learn how to make cakes very flat. Essa said that while she was learning, she would take out a level (like ones that builders use) to make sure that her cakes were perfectly flat. Currently, Essa is in the process of trying to make a machine that will help his sister to mix the colors of the frosting more easily. He seems to be very supportive of his sister and her business.

This conversation has been one of our most interesting yet… Essa’s name means Jesus, his whole family lives right next to each other, and his sister bakes beautiful cakes for a living (possibly one of the coolest jobs ever). Every time we meet, I seem to learn something new and interesting about Essa!

Conversation Partner Meeting #3: Fire Safety, Driving Safety, and Saudi Arabia

Today’s conversation, like our previous ones, started with brief small talk. I asked him how his day was and if he had any tests coming up or a lot of homework. He responded that he had a presentation about fire safety in one of his classes earlier that week. Fire Safety? I thought to myself that this was kind of a random topic to give a presentation on. However, as he explained it, I realized it made sense… that’s the beauty of getting to know people. Once you learn more about them, the things they do and how they are makes more sense. Essa worked at the Fire Department for a couple years when he lived in Saudi Arabia. He liked his job at first, but during the last few months he didn’t like it. He said that during the presentation he was asked about the first hard thing he experienced in America, so I was interested to hear what he said. Apparently in his apartment, there was a small fire on the balcony… however he found this out by policemen and firemen banging on his door late at night. Someone had seen him smoking earlier that day, so they police and firemen wanted to ask him questions. However, he assured me, he knew that he put out his cigarette properly due to his experience in the fire department. Essa also pointed out that the door in the classroom open inward (it was pull, not push) and that there was not a fire extinguisher in the room… something that only a fireman would likely notice.  We also discovered that we share of dislike of presenting projects in front of a classroom.

After talking about his presentation, we somehow got on the topic of driving. I asked him if he had to take the test to get his American drivers license. When he took the test, he was under the impression that he would have to go on the highway… but no! This came as a surprise to him. He got his license, so obviously he did well on the test, but there is one thing that he said he messed up on. When turning left at a stoplight on green, he just went without stopping to yield to the incoming traffic. His instructor freaked out (I don’t blame him), but just told him that he needs to stop when turning left and passed him anyways. Despite this mishap, his driving has been good ever since, minus a speeding ticket for going – wait for it – 110 miles per hour on the highway. Then I was curious about how driving is different in the United States versus Saudi Arabia. More people follow the rules in the United States than in Saudi Arabia. For example, stop signs are basically optional there. To reinforce this notion, he showed a picture of a car wreck that happened at stop sign intersection right in front of his home. Apparently, police are a little stricter in the United States as well. Also, the driving is faster in Saudi Arabia… the fastest he has ever driven is about 160 miles per hour (he had to mentally convert from kilometers per hour) on the highway! 160 miles per hour! I don’t even trust that my Kia Optima can get past 80 miles per hour.

Our conversation then lead to the subject of spring break and his family… remembering that his wife and daughter are leaving to go back to his country, I asked him more about what that would be like. Although he would miss his wife and daughter Dana (I asked him how to spell it this time), he said that it would be much easier because he now longer has to worry about being a father and a student. How he can just focus on doing well in school and passing this section of his course, so he can hopefully move on to take a writing class over the summer. Then, he will maybe return to his home country. However, he does not seem to have an exact plan about when he will go back and seems to be pretty casual about the timing of when he will go back. This struck me as interesting, because I could not wait to go home for the first time over Thanksgiving break… and although Minnesota is different from Texas, there is no way to compare the difference to the differences between Saudi Arabia and Texas.

As the weeks progress, I have found that our conversations flow more normally. This is a good sign, because it shows we are more comfortable talking to each other and we are becoming more familiar with each other, too! Sometimes I have to rephrase certain questions for him so understand better, but other than that Essa’s English is totally understandable. I see both of these things as very positive and things that will progressively to improve as our conversations continue.