After a few weeks of not seeing my conversation partner, we were able to find time to meet. We planned on meeting for the IEP community day at the Rec center. By the time I got there after my class ended, the games were already done. My partner stayed positive about it though, and suggested we go to Sweet Frog since it was right by campus. Before we left the Rec, she introduced me to a lot of her friends in the IEP program, including her aunt and one of her cousins. I had not been aware that so many of her family members were in the program with her. She joked and said it was "unfortunate" that they were all in it.
On our way out, she excitedly showed me the IEP classrooms. She also explained that for their Listening Class, they go to the Bluu. I thought that was a really cool idea; no better place to hear conversations than good ole' Market Square. What was interesting to me, was what happened when I tried to hold the door open for her as we were leaving. She hesitated, looked conflicted, and then walked through the door. Every subsequent time, she made sure she got to the door first so she could hold it. Back home, I'm used to people holding the door open for anyone. Kind of like first come, first serve, except first come, first hold the door. I'm still learning about the Saudi Arabian culture, but I'm going to take an educated guess that back home, she doesn't have people going out of their way to hold doors for her.
We eventually got to Sweet Frog (her aunt came with). On the way there, we would talk, but occasionally she would speak in Arabic to her aunt. I don't know a word of Arabic, so I felt out of the loop at times. When we went to actually get frozen yogurt, she made sure I got it first. I'm definitely not used to that type of respect. Again, that first come, first serve idea is pretty big back home. We were all sitting and talking, mostly about school and grades. We talked about trying to keep scholarships and how our GPA has a huge impact on that. Then we started talking about food--like we usually do. Apparently there's an Arabian restaurant on West 7th? She was talking about how she was going to go there for dinner and was really excited. Then, out of nowhere, she asked me if I've ever smoked hookah. I don't know about Texas, but in Illinois, you have to be 18 in order to smoke hookah. With my late birthday, I was never really old enough, but I also had no desire to go to a hookah bar. She said that hookah is really popular back home; she even has a hookah in her home back in Saudi Arabia. I didn't know that hookah was so popular there, but she said the hookah is a much higher quality back home.
Branching off of the hookah topic, we started talking about smoking cigarettes. She said that she just recently started smoking and noted that it is much cheaper back home. She also explained that there really isn't an age you have to be in order to smoke. "No one really cares," she stated. She gave the example that a five year old could go to buy cigarettes, and the person at the store would sell them to him or her. This really surprised me since age requirements are pretty well enforced here. She also said that twelve year olds back home drive and no one cares. Here, you need x number of day time hours, x number of night hours, practice in bad weather, and you basically need to recite the alphabet backwards while pogo-sticking through a hoop, that's on fire.
My buddy and I set up a lunch-date to go to Pizza Snob next week to celebrate the end of the semester and destress before finals. We both are obsessed with Pizza Snob, so it was a pretty quick and easy decision. I'm a little disappointed I wasn't able to meet with my partner that often this semester, but I'm really appreciative of the times we did meet. I've learned so much from her in just a few meetings!
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