final meeting with Leo

     Today was my final official meeting with Leo, and I can’t believe that I’m writing this right now. When I walked into Market Square, I realized that the semester was almost over. I can’t believe how quickly the time passed. When I arrived, it didn’t take me long to find Leo, sit down, and get the conversation started.

     The dinner started off nice because he unexpectedly paid me a compliment. He was looking at my I.D. on the table and said that I had a nice smile. It definitely made my evening; because I had spent the day stressed about how much work I had to do.

     We spent some time talking about his job, and about jobs in general. He enjoys working at the TCU Library. He said that it’s really not hard, but you have to “be patient.” I’m not sure exactly why that job requires patience, because he didn’t really explain about the job any more. He then told me about a his friend who wanted to get a Social Security card so he could get a credit card start building up good credit, but he needed to get a job first. However, this friend didn’t want to work. I thought this was interesting, because I don’t really know what international students have to do when they come here, or even what people from another country have to do when they permanently move here. But the whole process definitely sounds complicated. Leo and I also talked about possible reasons as to why college students get a job during the school year. He said that college students who have a lot of free time get a job. But I said that college students don’t get a job to fill up free time, they get a job because they need the extra money.

     He also asked me if I had a scholarship. I told him that I was a Dean’s Scholar and that I had some financial aid. I then asked him if he had a scholarship. I don’t think he said whether he did or not, but he did say that one of the reasons he wanted to change from a business major to a music major was because music majors can get a full scholarship. I don’t blame him because TCU is expensive!

     And of course, we talked about food. He made an interesting and true observation. We both had some nasty broccoli and rice casserole that seems to have cheese on it, so he said that it seems like cheese in America is similar to rice in China, because we eat a lot of cheese like the Chinese eat a lot of rice. We also talked about Market Square. He said how it seemed like there were a variety of wonderful foods at first, but now the food all seems the same, and he’s sick of the food. I definitely knew what he was talking about, because that’s how I sometimes feel about Market Square. I told him that Market Square could be good because they sometimes have “chicken nugget day.” For instance, today was chicken nugget day. He had never heard that expression before, and thought that was the funniest thing ever.

     I learned a new and interesting fact about Leo. He told me how he used to love to play video games, and how they would often distract him from his studies. But he said that instead of playing video games, he now reads Manga. He didn’t know the word for Manga, so he described it as a “Japanese animation book.”

     His English has definitely gotten better over the semester. He passed the test in the English Program, and can now take classes as a “freshman” next year, which is pretty exciting. I still occasionally have trouble understanding what he says, and he sometimes has trouble coming up with the right word to explain his meaning. For example, we were talking about how not eating lunch is bad for us because it damages our lungs. He couldn’t think of the word “lungs” at first, so he pointed at his lungs and asked what that body part is called.

     I can’t believe that that was my last conversation meeting with him. I hope to see him before the semester ended, and I enjoyed meeting with him over the semester. I’m glad that I had an opportunity to get to know someone from another culture, and teach him about ours. This is definitely something that should be continued next semester.