New Friend

This past week, I met with my new conversation partner, Chris.  My last conversation partner, JP, went back to France to train for the swimming nationals there.  While I was sad to see JP leave so soon, I was also excited to make a new friend. Friendships, especially in this context, are so interesting in the fact that you can learn so much from them.  Through conversations, you share knowledge, ideas, and opinions.  Add different origins into the mix, and you got yourself an intriguing and stimulating relationship. 

The conversation I had with Chris consisted mainly of small talk. I learned that Chris is from China, and he has been attending TCU for the past year and a half.  Although he hasn't been here that long, Chris is already enrolled in some regular classes, in addition to his ESL classes.  This semester, he is taking intro to psychology, which he is not a big fan of.  This left me slightly disappointed since my chosen major is psychology.  We began to discuss what exactly he would like to do in the future.  Chris dreams of major in business at TCU, and then taking his new knowledge back to China to be a businessman there.  He is anxious to graduate fully from the ESL program, and begin his actual business classes.  Soon, our conversation of school expanded to include high school.  Chris shocked me with the amount of school he went to in China.  He attended school from 6:30 am to 10:00 pm and did not receive Saturdays off.  He explained that there were two class periods build in for you to do homework, however; he still managed to have to do some at home each night.  In addition, he only got a month off of school for summer break during which he had to complete a massive packet of school work.  Chris explained that schooling is the main priority for the youth there.  He wasn't able to sleep much, nor did he participate in sports.  When I asked him what he did with his free time now, he explained, "SLEEP!".  It is interesting to see that one thing Chris gained through college, was one of the things I lost much of during my past two years here. In addition, it shocked me to find out how different our upbringings were.  This only child from China focused on school work and his family during his high school career; whereas, I had a younger sister and was involved in various sports and clubs.  

In all, I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know my new partner.  While it was little more difficult to understand him, I appreciate the opportunity to meet another person.  I am excited to learn more about Chris and China through our next few meetings!