Conversation Partner Meeting #1

As soon as we were told that for this class we would each be paired with a "conversation partner" in IEP, I was excited. I love learning about new cultures and meeting new people. I anxiously awaited an email with contact information so I could meet him or her as soon as possible.

Finally, I got the email. I text her, Ileana from Venezuela, as soon as I had her information and waited for a reply.

And waited.

And waited.

I finally got a response and we picked a time to meet the following week.

I showed up to the bookstore early to get settled and pick a table and waited for Ileana to get there.

And waited.

And waited.

I got a text message from her saying she actually had to be somewhere else at the time, so we would have to reschedule. I understood, because I know things pop up, and everyone forgets from time to time.

We rescheduled, and again we didn't meet after I came down with bronchitis.

After weeks of miscommunication and texting back and forth we had set a time to meet, and I was thrilled. We would meet at the party the IEP students threw for their conversation partners. Most people had met their partners 2 or 3 times by this point.

Nonetheless, I was stoked. I wanted to meet Ileana and put a face to a name. She seemed lovely over text and I had been told by multiple people in the program she was one of their best students and just a lovely person.

I showed up to the party a little early and waited. Now was when I realized it would have been helpful to know what she looked like! Britt (a member of the IEP team) came up and asked who my partner was and I told her Ileana. She looked around a little bit and then pointed her out.

Ileana is smart and seems to have many friends in the program. She is super easy going and could talk to anyone about anything. She made me feel so comfortable sitting at a table of people I had just met!

We got on the subject of weird American sayings, and at first I didn't understand. Then we got to the funny part. Ileana said how strange it was that we add "though" to the end of our sentences. I busted out laughing, because it is ridiculous. We laughed over the fact that it made no grammatical sense and that she had trouble understanding such an odd quirk.

Then, someone else at the table told the story of getting her Texas driver's license. She said that the instructor told her, "Go ahead and back up," which she thought meant pull forward, and then back up. It wasn't until she did just that that the instructor said, "what are you doing?" She said, "I went ahead and then backed up!" Go ahead to us means "do it" but to people whose first language is not English, it means to literally go forward. We were all laughing so hard. I had a wonderful time!

Ileana and I decided to just text each other and see when a good time to meet the following week was. We are both really busy with work and school, so the next time that worked was this upcoming week. I am looking forward to speaking with Ileana one-on-one to get to know her better.