Conversation Partner 4

         For our meeting this time, Linda and I decided to mix it up a little bit and meet at Union 

Grounds. Linda had just come from the BLUU, so she did not care to order anything, but I was 

inspired to order a gingerbread latte. I’m a sucker for holiday drinks. 

           Linda excitedly told me all about her Thanksgiving. One of her friends, whom coincidentally 

is also from China, has a house just off campus. Over the break, Linda and her friends went to 

Kroger and bought a turkey and other traditional American Thanksgiving foods. Linda informed me 

that she had never had turkey before, and she liked it, although it was strange. 

            Linda went to the Christmas tree lighting and really enjoyed it. She showed me pictures of

 her and her friends in front of TCU’s massive tree, and shared her pictures of the entire event with 

me. She said she was confused at why we had a bull at the event instead of a reindeer, but other

than that, I think she got a lot out of the whole experience. 

            During our meeting, many of my friends happened to pass by. In fact, my room mate from 

last year, Ashley, came by and chatted with us a little bit. Ashley, too, had just come from the BLUU 

and shared her woes about what she ate with us. She had experimented with a smoothie, and it did 

not work out in her favor. 

            After Ashley left, we began to discuss our living situations. I told her more about living with 

Ashley last year and how she’s one of my best friends now. Linda wanted to know all about my 

current dorm, Tom Brown, because she is interested in possibly living there next year. Linda and 

her friends are also strongly considering living in Grand Marc because all of the apartments have a 

kitchen. 

           As the conversation continued, we ended up talking about her friends from back home. 

According to Linda, all of her friends stayed in China for college. What was interesting to me was 

that her friends are actually going through midterms as we’re about to start finals. Because the 

Chinese New Year is in February, Chinese students still have half of their semester left. I thought 

that was really interesting how different our schedules are. Linda said that was one of the main 

reasons she did not want to go home for the holiday break, because all of her friends would be in 

school still. 

           We decided to break up for the night because we both had finals to study for. While the 

majority of my finals are next week, all of Linda’s IEP finals are this week. We decided to meet up 

tomorrow night, too.