My Last Meeting with Omar (Meeting with Omar Part 6)

Today was my last meeting with Omar. It was sad knowing that I likely would never see him again; he finished his finals this week and leaves for Mexico on Saturday.  He truly has taught me so much about myself and has impacted how I view my life. Omar has been a shining light throughout this whole semester and has never failed to put me in an amazing mood. I cannot say enough great things about Omar and my experiences having a conversation partner; it has been hands-down my favorite experience I’ve had since coming to TCU.

As usual, Omar and I talked about a variety of different subjects in our conversation. However, our chat focused mainly on different holidays in the United States and Mexico since Christmas is right around the corner. We talked about Christmas, and how it is equally a big deal in both the United States and Mexico. It is such a joyous and giving time of year, and Omar and I both agreed it our favorite holiday. We then got chatting about various other holidays throughout the year. One holiday in Mexico, called, “Day of the Innocents,” occurs on December 28^th every year. Omar told me that it is a day where people play jokes, tricks, and pranks on innocent friends for some good fun. Immediately, the first topic my mind was drawn to was April Fool’s day here in the United States. It sounded strikingly similar to me since on April Fool’s day, we play practical jokes on our friends and family. I told Omar and he seemed to agree. I thought it was extremely interesting how there is practically the same exact holiday in the United States and Mexico, but on two completely different dates. It truly shows how similar the two countries are.

Another topic Omar and I focused on today was politics, due to the upcoming presidential election. Omar was amazed at how complex our government and political system is. For Mexico, the presidential election runs for two months. This is drastically different to the United States, where it seems as if events for the election have already been going on for ages. I also asked Omar further about politics and police in Mexico. I have always wondered if they are as corrupt as they are always portrayed in movies. Omar said that Mexico is just a corrupt country. The politics are unethical, and the police are even more dishonest. The police will often pull you over and ask for bribes instead of writing a ticket. Basically, if you have money, you can get away with doing essentially anything. I compared this to the United States. I believe that politics can, at times, become corrupt and dishonest. However, it is in the nature of the U.S. politician to lie in order to please their constituents. Often, corrupt actions will occur, but I do not believe that they will ever be to the extent of the situations that occur in Mexico. Moreover the police in the United States are, as a whole, not corrupt. It is generally believed that our police are well-trained, law-abiding individuals who are working for the good of the country. The Mexican police, on the other hand, are working for the good of themselves. I found this topic fascinating to focus on solely because it is so different. It truly highlighted the fact that Omar and I come from two different backgrounds. However, even though our backgrounds are different, we bond over these differences and have become amazing friends.

I cannot believe that this semester has come to an end and I will not be able to see Omar on a weekly basis. I had never thought I was going to have such an amazing experience with my conversation partner, let alone make a close friend from it. My time with Omar has created some of my favorite memories from this semester and I am grateful to have had this opportunity. He has taught me so many lessons throughout the semester that I know I would not have learned on my own. Omar was a primary reason I appreciate the importance of pushing myself to step more outside of my comfort zone, and gaining a deeper understanding other cultures. This semester has been truly unforgettable thanks to Omar.

Hunting for Humor

My adventure to find and photograph laughter was much harder than I was anticipating. I was expecting to get a flawless picture of a group of people laughing. Instead, my pictures turned out to be far from perfect. It was difficult to photograph a group of people laughing without them knowing about it, but also not be totally creepy.

My hunt for laughter took me to Sweet Sammies and the Super Target on Saturday night. I dragged my roommate (pictured below) to come along with me so I did not look like a totally crazy person. We first went to Sweet Sammies and we sat there for about 30 minutes while I tried to sneakily take a picture of laughter. However, I did not get great footage. Other than my poor attempt to take a photo of the two girls laughing behind me by taking a selfie (pictured below), I had come up empty handed.

My first (and failed) attempt to photograph humor

My roommate Tori, smiling for the camera

As a result, my roommate and I drove across the street to the Super Target. We walked around the store for around 15 minutes while I attempted to get some photos of people laughing. Although I did not get any action shots of people laughing, I was able to get a picture of a mom and her daughters shopping together. In my pictures, it looks as if they were talking, however, within their conversation before and after my picture was taken, they were joking and laughing. I was able to eavesdrop on what they were talking about.


 Photo of mother and daughter

  First attempt to photograph mother and daughters

The mother and two daughters were looking at the women’s clothing section and a lot of their conversation was cheerful and playful. The three ladies joked around with each other and laughed about it. At one point, one daughter picked out a dress that was hideous and teased about how she thought her sister should wear it. The three of them thought it was hilarious because because the dress was so atrocious. I also found that laughter seemed to be contagious between the mother and daughters. Whenever one of the ladies would start to laugh, the other two would think that the comment was funny and let out a chuckle. Overall, it appeared as if the ladies were lighthearted and easy-going. A large part of what made them laugh was focused around making fun of themselves and not taking everything too seriously.

Wrapping Up the Semester (Learning Experiences Part 4)

As this semester comes to an end and finals quickly approach, I cannot believe how fast this semester has flown by. It seems like just yesterday I was writing my first blog post for this class, when in fact it was around three months ago. It has been a whirlwind, but this semester has changed me and I have grown tremendously as a person. Even though at times it has been difficult, I would not take any of it back.

Starting with this class, I have enjoyed learning about humor. Humor was never something I thought about in depth before Lit and Civ II. However, it has been interesting learning about everything humor has to offer. By far my favorite part of this class were the “Humor Around the World” presentations. I especially expanding my worldview and learning humor in other countries. Also, it was fun researching about my group’s country, the Czech Republic, because the Czechs have such a dry and sarcastic sense of humor. It was easy finding information for our presentation, and Grace, Hailey, and I were excited to talk to the class about the Czech Republic because the humor there is hilarious.

Another one of my favorite parts of this class has been the opportunity to have a conversation partner.  I always look forward to my talks with Omar. Omar has impacted my life in so many ways and I am truly blessed to have met him this semester. He is a brave, driven, and intelligent individual and he has transformed how I view the world. Before I met Omar, I thought I was open-minded and had a decent grasp on other cultures. However, after my talks with Omar, I now know that I had so much to learn. There were several topics that I had no knowledge about.  Omar helped widen my knowledge, but also made me thirsty for more. He was a large reason why I applied to study abroad this summer. Moreover, ever since meeting Omar, I have admired him for his bravery to leave his whole life in Mexico and start over in the United States. He is unbelievably driven to advance his career, and he knew that learning English would do this. I could not imagine doing the same, but I hope that I will be able to pick up some of Omar’s courage and translate it into my life.

In my other classes this semester, I have learned a lot about time management and study skills. My classes got significantly more difficult, which required me to put in a lot more studying for each class. Compared to last year, I was not accustomed to this. This was an adjustment for me and I had some late nights, but I now understand the amount of work I need to put in for tests and assignments in order to get the most out of it without losing too much sleep. It has been difficult, but the semester has been important in teaching me about how to make the most meaningful use of my time.

Moreover, a large part of my schoolwork semester has been group projects. I have had a lot of group work in Lit and Civ II, as well as one large group project in one of my business classes, Business Information Systems. Before this semester, I had never enjoyed group projects, mostly because the group dynamic was poor and I would get stuck with the brunt of the work. However, this semester has been much different. Every single group I have been in, each person has carried their share of the project and finished it in a timely manner. This was much less stressful than group projects I have had in the past. In my Business Information Systems class, my group worked amazing together. Although it was a journey from beginning to end, we created a solid business report that was turned in the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. Thanks to this project, I learned effective communication skills, the importance of dividing up work, and how to interact with different types of personalities. These are vital lessons that could not have been taught through a lecture or individual assignment, so I am glad that TCU provides these opportunities for academic growth. However, my favorite part of this group project was how the members of my group became my friends through the process. We had group meetings at least twice a week, long group texts, and several late nights together. We bonded through our mutual stress and our drive to get an “A” on the project. Nothing was going to stop us from receiving an amazing grade on that report, and each of us knew that it was going to require constant communication and a lot of work. When we turned that report, it was one of the most rewarding feelings of my life. This semester changed me from being someone who favors individual work to a person who would rather collaborate and work in groups. I truly believe that working in groups provides endless learning opportunities that an individual would never receive on their own.

This semester has been a wild ride from beginning to end, but it has been a great experience with endless learning opportunities. From my time in Lit and Civ II to all my other classes, I have learned a lot about myself and my academics. I have grown and matured as an individual and I am definitely a different person than the woman who walked on campus in August. It is sad to see this semester coming to an end, but I am looking forward to see what 2016 has to offer.

Travel and Life after TCU (Meeting with Omar Part 5)

As the semester draws to an end, so do my meetings with Omar. Yesterday I met with Omar in the TCU Bookstore. Considering Thanksgiving is right around the corner, we immediately began to talk about the holiday and what activities we were planning on doing. We had talked about this briefly last time, and I remembered that Omar was excited about potentially going to Las Vegas for the holiday. He told me yesterday that he thinks he still will be going to Las Vegas. Omar is eager to be able to visit the city for the first time. Omar asked me what my plans are for Thanksgiving and I told him that my family is flying here to Fort Worth this year to celebrate. The main reason is for the Baylor football game on Friday. It will be interesting because we have no real plans for Thanksgiving dinner. This will be a new twist to the traditional Thanksgiving festivities my family normally partakes in, but my family is equally, if not more, excited to switch things up and have Thanksgiving in Texas this year.

Later in our conversation, Omar told me that his English exam is on December 12. He has to pass this to be able to apply to graduate schools and attend schools internationally. He is nervous for it and still has a large amount of studying to do, but he hopes he will be able to pass. If he is able to do well on the test, then Omar plans to go back home to Mexico and find a graduate school to attend. As a result, this will be Omar’s first, and last, semester here at TCU.

Omar is extremely curious about the United States and experiencing all it has to offer. Therefore, in our conversation, we chatted about the best cities to visit in the United States. I told him about iconic cities such as New York, Hollywood, and New Orleans. However, Omar was the most interested in my hometown in Arizona. I am from Scottsdale, Arizona, so I told him all about it. It is a great place to visit and it does attract a lot of tourists. Especially during the winter, since Scottsdale has great weather. I told Omar that if he likes to golf, hike, shop, and eat delicious food, then Scottsdale would be a great place for him to visit. By the end of my long speech about Scottsdale, it sounded like I had done my job and convinced Omar to visit the city at some point in his life.

After Omar and I discussed the best cities in the United States, we got talking about the different types of people in each state. I casually brought up in our conversation that each state has a different character. Omar thought this was surprising because he just assumed that all Americans had the same general personality. I went on to explain to him that people from California are much different from people who live in Texas, while those who live in Boston or Chicago are much different from people who live in Texas or California. Basically, each state has its own quirks and tends to cater towards a certain type of person. Omar then told me that this occurs in Mexico, too. He said that people who live in North Mexico are much different from the South Mexicans. There are also smaller differences in personalities among regions. I thought this was interesting how this change in character throughout a country occurs in Mexico as well. I naïvely assumed that all Mexicans had the alike personalities, just as Omar had thought the same of Americans. This widened my perspective of the world, as I’m sure it also did for Omar, and made me realize that other countries are diverse and different, just like the United States.

Getting to know Omar has truly been a humbling experience. Not only has it been amazing getting to know a talented and driven individual, it has been eye-opening learning about other cultures. Before I met Omar, I thought I was an open-minded individual that had a decent grasp on world events and cultures. However, after my conversations with Omar, I know that this is far from true. I have so much to learn about the world and how other cultures work. Thanks to my time with Omar, I want to experience many different cultures during my lifetime.

Talking with Omar (Meeting with Omar Part 4)

Today I met up with Omar for the fourth time. As usual, I had a great time talking to him and am enjoying seeing his year here at TCU unfold. It had been around two weeks since I had last seen Omar, so we had a lot to catch up on. When I first saw Omar, I could immediately tell he was stress-free and relieved. He told me that it was partly because it was a Friday afternoon, but also because he had just made it through a week with a bunch of tests. The tests went well and he is now looking forward to being able to focus on other things. For one, Omar has been searching for graduate schools to apply to once he is done with the Intensive English Program here. He is looking at graduate programs at TCU as well as universities in Liverpool, England, and Edinburgh, Scotland. Omar told me that he would be able to complete his master’s degree for free at TCU through a program that TCU offers. Under this program, Omar just has to work for a professor in the department he would study and his tuition would be paid for. He said that this is especially appealing to him, since the work would be in something of interest to him. However, he is excited about in the universities in Liverpool and Edinburgh. I have a ton of respect for Omar for expanding his horizons literally all over the world. He is not afraid to drop everything about his life and go somewhere completely new. After meeting Omar, this is a characteristic I admire and am hoping to adopt in my life.

Today, Omar and I talked a lot about the people he has met in his Intensive English classes. One of his favorite parts about the program is being able to interact and become friends with people from all over the world. He is learning about all different kinds of cultures. Omar told me about one person in his program who is from Korea. One day in class, they were talking about going to the movie theater. Apparently in Korea, instead of eating popcorn as a tasty movie snack, people in Korea eat fried Octopus. Being a vegetarian, naturally the concept of munching on some fried Octopus while watching a movie grossed me out. However, Omar and I both agreed that it is interesting how the type of food people eat vary drastically from culture to culture. Casually in our conversation today, I mentioned a “grilled cheese sandwich,” assuming that Omar would know what I was talking about. However, as soon as I started talking about it, Omar’s face was puzzled and he had no idea what a grilled cheese was. When I explained it to Omar, he was surprised that people just ate bread and melted cheese. It is fascinating how the type of food people eat varies so much depending on the culture.

Omar and I also talked about sororities and fraternities today. Not having any type of Greek life in Mexico, Omar is curious about the whole Greek system. I tried my best to explain to him sorority recruitment, “bigs” and “littles,” and basically how a sorority works. Omar said that nothing like this exists in Mexico, so all he had to rely on about sororities were how they were portrayed in movies. I told him that sororities, at least at TCU, are nothing like how they are in movies. He seemed to understand a little better about Greek life once we finished talking about it, although we both decided the whole concept of it is kind of strange.
 
Omar has become a great friend to me during this semester and I have loved getting to know him. It is great seeing him become accustomed to TCU and the American culture. I admire Omar for his drive and passion in his career, and his un-faltering bravery to follow his dreams. He has inspired me to grow as a person and expand my horizons. I am looking forward to my next meeting with Omar to see how else he has succeeded in his journey in America.

Harold (Uncontrollable Laughter Part 2)

It is always refreshing whenever I visit my home in Arizona, simply for the reason that I get to see my cat, Harold. I believe that all college students can agree that the number one “person” that is missed when they leave for college are pets. I was no different. During my freshman year, I constantly told my parents that I never really missed them (sorry Mom and Dad) and I just wanted to see Harold. Being a sophomore now, I thought I would grow out of it; however, it is no different. I still wish I could take Harold with me to Texas, but unfortunately, cats do not travel well.

Harold has provided my family and me with an innumerable amount of occasions of uncontrollable laughter. Most cats are stand-offish and do what they want. However, Harold is just the opposite. He is a quirky cat and thinks he is part dog. He drinks out of the toilet, chases after balls and even chews on dog bones. He will chase me around my house and want to have his belly rubbed. In short, Harold is strange, but he is a great cat.

The funniest example I can think of with Harold is during fall break my freshman year at TCU. I went back home during fall break and since it was around Halloween, my parents thought it would be a great idea to buy Harold one of those pet costumes. My parents went to PetSmart and purchased a bumble-bee costume. At this point, I truly believed my parents had finally lost their marbles. When my parents got home with the costume, they were so excited and were convinced that dressing Harold up was going to go well. My dad ripped open the package and told me to grab Harold. I reluctantly did. Poor Harold at this point had no idea what he was getting himself in to.

My parents dressed Harold up in his costume. Once Harold had his costume on, it was close to one of the funniest things I have ever seen. My dad sat Harold on the ground and he refused to do anything. When I say he did not do anything, I mean literally nothing. As soon as Harold stood on the ground, he plopped over on to his side because he was so mad about the situation. It was as if he was saying, “How dare you make me look like a bumble-bee, I am a cat!” Eventually though, Harold stood up and started walking around. There were antennas on the costume that messed with Harold’s equilibrium. He sulked around the house, trying to bat them off. After walking around for a little while, Harold decided to give up and sit down. At this point, my family and I were dying of laughter. I think he realized he was putting on a show for us, and so if he stopped moving around, he would be taken out of his costume.

My family and I love Harold, so even though watching him prance around as a bumble-bee was close to one of the funniest things we have ever seen, we could tell he was not happy. His face resembled something close to grumpy cat. We decided that it was best to rescue Harold from the costume. I picked him up and took it off. As soon as the bumble-bee costume was off, Harold was back to normal.  

This experience was extremely amusing for my family and me. Since Harold was not having a great time, I could understand how this experience could be taken as being a bit cruel. However, watching him walk around as a bumble-bee was hilarious. We love Harold and he is spoiled rotten, so putting him in a bumble-bee costume for ten minutes was no big deal.

It is interesting, though, that my family and I thought that this situation was funny. After being in Literature and Civilizations 2 this semester, I believe that this instance illustrates the incongruity theory humor. This is because we did not expect Harold to act the way he did when he was dressed up as the bumble-bee. My family and I expected him to act as a normal cat. However, he was upset about the situation and grumbled around about it. This created an incongruity between what was expected and what actually happened, making the situation funny. It is interesting to see the humor theories in action. However, more than that, seeing Harold prance around in a bumble-bee costume was downright hilarious and will always go down as one of my funniest moments.

 

 

The Blessing and Curse of Technology (Learning Experiences Part 3)

Coming from Arizona, I do not exactly have a great grasp on how to deal with crazy and abnormal weather. I grew up my whole life with sunny skies almost every day. Clouds in the sky were rare and rain was even more of an anomaly. I still remember one time when I was shopping in target while I was in high school and it started raining. Everyone freaked out and did not know how to handle themselves. Many people took pictures of the rain and posted them social media, as if to prove that it is not always sunny in Arizona. To put things a little further in perspective, the first time it rained in Texas during my freshman year at TCU was the first time I had ever used an umbrella in my life. I never had the need for an umbrella, rain boots, winter clothes or anything else of that nature before. As a result, the bipolar weather of Texas proved to be quite a shock when I first came here.

I thought I had gotten accustomed to the weather here in Fort Worth. However, that was all until the storm of last weekend happened. As pathetic as it sounds, I have never seen that much rain in my life. I still haven’t invested in a pair of rain boots, so that made walking outside in the rain a lot more difficult; I went to all my classes on Friday with wet shoes and socks. However, the biggest causality of the storm was my phone. I was walking to dinner on Thursday night in the BLUU and it was pouring rain. I put my phone in the pocket of my rain coat (not the protective Velcro pouch that I discovered later). As a result, my phone got drenched in my pocket. Being the smart, honors student that I am, I did not notice that my phone was wet, so it sat around in its dampness for a while. This was the downfall for my phone, and while I was at dinner, my phone started to malfunction. The screen kept fading in and out with different colors—red, black, white and blue. My friend and I looked up what this meant, and apparently the red screen is called the “red screen of death.”  I concluded my phone was toast. I asked around to see if anyone knew if there was anything I could do to salvage my phone. Someone suggested putting my phone in a bag of rice. At this point, I was desperate, so the next day, I bought rice from Kroger and put my phone in it.

While I was without a phone, I actually learned a lot about how dependent I am on technology. When I did not have my phone on Friday for class, I felt naked. To clarify, I did not have the safety net of looking at my phone when I had no one to talk to. I did not realize I looked at my phone so much between classes, while studying and so many other times of the day. The largest issue for me, though, was communication. I had pretty much no way to communicate with my friends to ask where they were at, when they were eating dinner and what they were doing that night. I tried to communicate with them through Facebook messenger on my computer, but many of them never check Facebook, making communication challenging. Moreover, it was nearly impossible to get ahold of my parents to tell them my phone was broken. This snowballs with not being able to find my friends, because if I was able to find one of them, I would have called one of my parents from a friend’s phone. However, because I had no way to communicate with my friends, I could only hope I would run in to one of them so I could use one of their phones (which did not happen). I had to resort to e-mailing my parents on Friday night telling them that my phone was broken.  

In a sense, I did enjoy not having a phone and being unplugged for a day. I got a ton of homework done because I did not have the distraction of texting and looking at my phone. Moreover, I felt like I was more present in my conversations and was noticing more about my surroundings. I was focused on living in the moment and was not worried about what I had to do in an hour, or who was texting me to meet up somewhere. Not having my phone allowed me to take a step back, look around and appreciate my surroundings.

Miraculously, the bag of rice worked its magic on my phone and it came back from the dead on Saturday afternoon. I was not expecting this at all and assumed I would not have a phone for a week or so. This was a pleasant surprise, however, I did learn a lot from my experience without a phone. First of all, I am reliant on technology. I have been working on not using my phone as much. For instance, I will turn my phone off when I study now. Second, I am trying to use my phone less when I am in large groups of people. If I am with a group of friends or acquaintances, I put my phone away and talk to them instead. After this experience, I understand the importance of acting in the moment and being present in my conversations.

I believe that my phone breaking was a blessing in disguise. If my phone did not break on me, I do not think I would have understood how much technology engulfs my life. Technology is such a great tool to employ, but I have to be careful not to over-utilize it to the point where I do take the time to talk to the people around me and appreciate my surroundings. I am thankful for this experience so I was able to learn this lesson. At the same time, I am also slightly thankful that my phone survived the rain so I did not have to buy a new one!