Conversation Partner Meeting #2

      

         After figuring out our conflicting schedules, my conversation partner and I were able to meet again. It had been quite a while since we last spoke, but it felt as if I had been continuously talking to her since she was so easy to talk to. Any of the awkwardness that existed in the first meeting had completely dissipated.

         For our second meeting, we decided to meet at the same location as before: Union Grounds. This time, she had a Red Bull and I didn't. I made a joke about how hyper I got last time I had Red Bull, and she laughed, even though Red Bull is a staple in her day. Since the basic introduction was out of the way, we jumped right in to talking about Spring Break. Although social media seems to consume daily life, it came in handy because she and I are "friends" on Snapchat. This allowed me to see what she was doing during break in addition to having a more casual form of communication. She talked about how incredible her trip to New York City was, which I had seen snapshots of from her Snapchat. I have never been to New York before, so it was interesting to hear her opinion of the city since I had heard American opinions all the time. She listed off some of the places she went to, like the Statue of Liberty, Times Square, and the Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum. I had been to a Ripley's Museum in the past, so we talked about how unique the museum was for a short while.

        She then inquired about my Spring Break; although not as exciting as hers, I told her all of the fun things I did, mainly working and visiting Chicago. The things I did during Spring Break branched off into two different conversation topics: holidays and differences in the workforce between Saudi Arabia and the US. On my trip to Chicago, I ended up seeing the St. Patrick's Day Parade and got to see the river dyed green. Since we got onto the topic of holidays, I mentioned that Easter was coming up soon. We talked about Lent during our first meeting, so it was an interesting progression. I was also surprised that she knew so much about American holidays since Americans are often unaware of holidays celebrated in Saudi Arabia. As I mentioned in my last conversation partner post, I'm only aware of Ramadan because of the world religion course I took.

      The second conversation my Spring Break adventures led to was related to the differences between working in Saudi Arabia and working in America. I work at a retail store, so I briefly explained what the work environment was like. Tilly's, the store I work at, is basically a family, which is an extremely relaxing environment to work in. We started talking about paychecks; she explained to me that in Saudi Arabia you get paid monthly, even for weekends and vacation days. All of the jobs I have had run on a biweekly pay schedule. I'm not completely sure how the company my father works for goes about payment, but I know employees don't get paid for weekends or vacation days after a certain point. It was interesting to see how even things like fiscal structure in the workforce are different throughout the world.

       The last thing we talked about was her new classes and learning new languages. Since she is in the Intensive English Program, she started new classes the day of our meeting. She is in a grammar class and a writing class, openly expressing favoritism towards the writing class. I made a joke that I wouldn't like being in a grammar class either. This made me think about growing up learning English grammar and the specifics of sentence structure; I asked if the structure of English sentences was different from the structure she is accustomed to. Based on her response, the way English is structured is much different from the structure in Saudi Arabia, but also, she explained that there are many similarities between Spanish and Arabic.

       I feel like I am constantly learning from my conversation partner; Saudi Arabia is a country that was rarely discussed in my past classes, apart from religion, so it is really eye-opening to hear the things she has experienced first-hand. It is also really exciting to see how happy the little things make her, like the trip to NYC. She seems incredibly appreciative, which is a quality that can sometimes be lost in current American culture.