First Meeting with Monique

For our first meeting, Monique and I grabbed lunch together at Market Square. Because it was our first time meeting, I didn’t know what to expect even though we had communicated with each other over email. The emails were sent primarily just to set up times to meet each other but we still used the emails to introduce ourselves. In my first email to her, I told her about myself, all the basic stuff: where I’m from, what my major is etc. And she replied, also telling me about herself, like how she is from Brazil. I was glad that I got a friendly reply and that she also took the opportunity to tell me about herself because it gave me a little bit of what I should expect. Also, it helped me mentally prepare for our first meeting. I thought about what things I could talk about with her, before we were to meet. I intended for this first meeting to just be a little get-to-know-each-other session.
        When we actually met, I didn’t know who to look out for but I had told her that I would be wearing a light blue T-shirt and that I would be waiting in front of Market Square. Fortunately, we had exchanged our phone numbers in our emails so it wasn’t much trouble finding each other. Initially, we got our food, sat down and engaged in small talk. Coming from different parts of the world, we talked about how we ended up here in Fort Worth. She told me that she had learned about TCU through a few of her friends who are at TCU for their undergraduate degree. She had visited the U.S. multiple times before but only just moved to Dallas, where most of her TCU friends live, this past summer. I continued to ask her a lot about her English course here and she told me that despite having all-morning classes every single day and a heavy workload, she found the material quite easy. This didn’t surprise me at all because her English was proficient; I didn’t have any trouble understanding her. I learned that she was planning to complete her law degree once she returns to Brazil after her English course here finishes.
        The Blake Shelton concert was that night so it just seemed even more appropriate to discuss our mutual appreciation of the presence of Texan culture in Fort Worth. She really likes country music and really wanted to go see Blake Shelton but decided she wasn't going to go because she commutes all the way from Dallas. But we still talked about our experiences in the Stockyards and of general cowboy culture. It was interesting to see that despite our different backgrounds, we really related to each other. We smiled and laughed at similar things, like about how we miss the weather of the tropics back home. Overall, I found that we both shared feelings of being homesick and feelings of excitement being away from home, simultaneously. Perhaps, it was this “incongruity” that amused the both of us.

In turn, I told her about the Literature & Civilization course I am taking this semester and strayed off to my overall experience at TCU so far. Being in Market Square at lunch hour, many of my friends saw me, came by to our table and said hello to both of us. In response, Monique noticed that I had settled into the TCU community quite well so, I told her how TCU is very welcoming and how that has helped me transition from living in Vietnam to living in Fort Worth. To this, we could both relate because even though I was born in the U.S. and was raised in an American lifestyle, I also experienced culture shock when I got here, just last year.

Before we left, I told her that South America is one continent I have yet to visit. So, she told me more about São Paulo, the city where she is from. She described it as the “New York” of Brazil. This is why she prefers to live in Dallas, which we both agreed is more happening than Fort Worth, having that big-city feel. She really encouraged me to visit Brazil some time. I told her that in fact, I do have hopes of going to Rio for the next Olympics or World Cup. We dove into a discussion about the London Olympics this past summer, reminiscing on certain events and reliving our viewing experience. This made me realize that the Olympics really does unify the world, giving us all something to relate to. Unfortunately, our meeting was cut short because Monique had to go pick up her cousin in Dallas. We planned to meet again but because we both have busy schedules, we decided we would keep in touch by text to arrange our next time to meet.