Round 2

It was not that long since our first meeting, and I was already ready for our second meeting. I shot Anderson a text asking if he was not too busy this week and wanted to hang out whenever he was free. He had some tough exams that week but said that he should be free later that week. The week passed by and the day we were supposed to meet up was slowly approaching. Finally it was Friday. We had agreed to meet up again at the world renown “Market Square” for lunch again around 1:30. I get out of Ecology at 1 on Fridays so that wouldn’t be a problem for me.

            As I got out of Ecology on Friday, I wanted to talk to my grandmother that day, so I gave her a call. I tend to call my grandmother as I walk back to my dorm from my classes almost every day. That day we were on the phone discussing the topic of who was the better cook. Now let me clarify; I am the worst cook out there. However, I always get a kick making things a competition with my grandmother and so does she. This Christmas we are actually putting our talents to the test in “Hell’s Kitchen” to see who’s the better cook. Our conversation lasted for a good while. I was pacing my room when my eyes caught a glimpse of the clock. It was 1:37! I was so late for my lunch with Anderson. I had to cut the conversation with my grandmother immediately. I literally ran out of the room.

            As I was headed over to Market Square, I let Anderson know that I was on my way and that I was running a tad late. He said that it was all good except that he doesn’t know how much longer his phone would last since it was running out battery. We agreed to meet each other at the little sitting area just outside of Market Square. I finally arrived to Market Square. W grabbed our food, sat down, and immediately began talking. I found it interesting the cuisine that Anderson would typically pick. He told me that in Brazil they would normally eat beans and rice almost everyday. That was the staple meal of the average Brazilian. It seems that here in the U.S. the staple meal is a hamburger and some large fries. He then started discussing the socioeconomic situation of Brazil. Brazil is not the riches nation and its per capita income is reflective of that. They can’t afford the amounts of meat that people in the U.S. can. Rice and beans are a cheaper meal. Not only that, rice and beans are quite a bit healthier than a big, greasy burger.

We later discussed more about his transition into the U.S. from Brazil. He mentioned that a lot of the things that they have in Brazil are also found here in the U.S. This made the transition somewhat easier. His wife also made the transition more fluid. I could only imagine how tough it would have been for him if he came to the U.S. without his wife. As our conversation continued, we then discussed many things about Brazil. I mentioned that I had a cousin who lived in Brazil. One of my cousin’s favorite things to do in Brazil was to attend the Carnival celebration in Rio de Janeiro. Anderson told me that it is quite an experience and one that everyone should have on their bucket list. He told me of all the fireworks and dances that happen during this time in Brazil.

As the time progressed, Anderson noticed that his wife had texted him saying that she was on her way to pick him up. We had to end the conversation because we did not want to keep the Mrs. waiting. We said our goodbyes and talked about possibly meeting sometime soon in the near future. It is honestly crazy how despite the differences in our cultures, there are quite a bit of similarities that unite us even if we do come from places that are thousands of miles apart.

Coco

            Robbie and I were sitting in our room in Hays 314 [hit us up ladies ;) ] discussing what we were going to do in D-Will’s class that day. Robbie, as usual, was claiming that he had the best idea for a comic character. His character was a chocolate lab named “Coco” who always wanted to eat chocolate, but like the coyote and roadrunner, Coco was always failing in acquiring the chocolate. To be honest, I was thinking to myself that this was actually a good idea for a comic character.

            It was time for Dr. William’s class, which means that it was time for me to start hauling my little butt to class before I was late. I sit in my normal spot in class as the discussion over “The Comic Toolbox” was occurring. We briefly analyzed concepts such as the “Rule of Nine” and many others. Finally it was time for the comic character creating portion of class. We were told to come up with three characters. Robbie and I looked at each other thinking the same exact thing. “We got this in the bag.” Something about us being roommates enables us to know what we are thinking most of the time. Anyways, we obviously decide Coco is a must. We describe Coco in great details from her flaws to her human qualities. Coco has to be a winner for this comic character competition. We come up with two other characters rather quickly. From a piece of paper to a little kid named “Nalyd”, we think to ourselves that we are the most hilarious human beings alive on this earth.

            Our turn to present our comic characters arrives, and we present them to the rest of the class. We first start off with Coco, who was supposed to be the star of the show. However after finishing up our presentation of Coco, we receive no laughter from anyone in the class. The second and third characters yield the same product, no laughter. How could these people not think that these characters were hysterical? I was dying of laughter just coming up with them!

We thought we would have the rule of nine on our side but apparently not. Despite the failure of making everyone else laugh, Robbie and I felt like it did not matter because it made us laugh. We heard several other people’s characters through the course of the class period. In all honesty, they were all pretty funny. Honestly days like these make college more enjoyable despite the rigorous and painful courses that we must take throughout our 4 or 5 years of education for our undergrad. I hope that in the near future we do a similar activity. I’m always down for a good laugh.

Back in the Day

It was the year 2012. Late December was somewhat colder that year in Mexico City, D.F., in comparison to past years. The problem with the experiencing the cold in Mexico is that they do not believe in central heating units, such freaking communists. To stay warm in Mexico City, D.F., one must acquire abundant amounts of electric blankets and warm family members huddled together.

Despite the frostbiting weather, December in Mexico City, D.F., is one of the most wonderful times of the year, especially when you share moments of uncontrollable laughter with loved ones that you see only so often. Being that my parents were the only ones to leave the “motherland”, all of my family lived in Mexico, so going down there to visit family was always quite an experience. One of these unforgettable experiences was during dinnertime when my grandmother was making her world-renown “Sopa de Tortilla.”

My grandmother is known throughout the land for her famous concoction (just among her friends in Mexico). It was one of those recipes that she had in her “top-secret” recipe book that she kept hidden somewhere in the kitchen. We always enjoyed helping her prepare it. Well actually it was more like we enjoyed trying to help. We were more of a nuisance and disturbance than anything. My grandmother would often times tell us to scram. I honestly just wanted to be the “taster.” That is honestly the best position, in my opinion, out the there.

On this late December, my grandmother had called the whole family in for lunch because she had finished created this ambrosia. All of us piled in trying to be the first in line for her soup. We all received equal amounts (I actually poured a little extra in mine) of the soup. We all proceeded to sit and mingle. During the conversation, my brother was choking a bit on the soup. It was the usual “went down the wrong pipe” kind of scenario. My cousin and I responded immediately with “Gosh Robert stop choking all the time.” We then proceeded to laugh. My grandmother responded to our laughter with, “Don’t worry Robert, I use to choke all the time back in the day.” Did I hear what she said right? She choked all the time back in the day? The whole kitchen erupted in laughter! We could not believe what she had just said. My mother literally peed herself with laughter. Even my grandmother was laughing uncontrollably. My grandmother tried to clarify what she had said, but the damage was already done. We all knew that she was referring to choking on food when she would cook; however the sexual innuendo that was present made all of us just die of uncontrollable laughter.

One can blame benign violation or even superiority theory for the uncontrollable laughter. Whatever it was, it was hilarious. My grandmother Now every Christmas from then on, we refer to that day with sudden references to it during our conversations. You can bet your butt we are going to bring it up again this Christmas.

Our First Meeting

            Days had gone by and still no notification of who was going to be my communication partner. Everyday I would check my email constantly refreshing the browser in hopes that it would somehow pop up with a new message in my inbox, as if one second was going to make a difference. Finally on Wednesday of September 16, 2015, at approximately 5:06 pm, Britt Luby sent me the email that I had been waiting for. As I scrolled through the email, I was carefully analyzing the text of the email in order to find the name of my communication partner. At last towards the end of the email (of course it is at the end of the email), I found my communication partner’s name. His name was Anderson Bronzato, and he was from the largest nation in South America, Brazil.

            The email contained Anderson’s contact information, which was simply his email. The art of the email has been a form of communication that I have struggled with from time to time. One may send me an email in August and finally receive a response in either that very same day or two months from then. Emails, as one might say, are “not my thing”. However, this was going to be something that I was not planning on messing up. I proceeded to email Anderson, not really knowing what to put in the email. Should I start the email in a formal manner with, “Hello Mr. Bronzato”? Would it be more appropriate to email him in a more relaxed and friendly way with, “Hey Anderson”? What if I tried the, “Hey what’s up dude” method? I surprisingly took a whole 5 minutes on this complex and strenuous thing known as “greeting someone”. As I continued with the email message, I started to relax and simply “go with the flow”. I then sent the message and waited patiently for his response. Thankfully, he replied the next morning to my message, and we were able to set up a time to meet up and grab some food at the one and only “Market Square.” According to the Zagat, Market Square had the best chicken fried steak and burgers out of all of TCU 4 years in a row! We decided to meet up on Tuesday at around 1:20.

                        Tuesday finally came around, and as usual, I was running late to our planned lunch. As I was walking to Market Square from Hays Hall, I could not help but start thinking about how Anderson was going to be. Is he tall? What kind of clothes does he wear? Does her prefer soccer or football? Does he like to take long walks on the beach? Is he more of a cheesecake kind of guy, or would he rather have some pecan pie? All sorts of questions popped into my head as I walked towards Market Square. As I got closer to Market Square, the more I worried that my communication partner would either not get along with me or that we would fall into stump when it came to conversing with my communication partner due to the language and cultural barrier. I soon approached the doors of the Brown Lupton University Union and proceeded to Market Square. I walked into Market Square and had my ID swiped. I then found a spot to sit and eat and texted Anderson my location. A man in his mid 20’s approached me. He stuck his hand out and introduced himself as Anderson Bronzato. I was caught completely off guard more than anything because this guy was about 10 years older than me and not some 19 year old teen who has soaking in the college experience and having the time of his life. I struggled initially to get a conversation going with Anderson simply because typically conversations between teens and people in their mid to late twenties tend to differ and on top of that this guy grew up in Brazil while I grew up in conservative west Texas. However as we continued with our conversation, I started warming up to Anderson and began to feel more and more comfortable around him. We talked about a wide array of topics despite having a short encounter due to my need to leave to get to class in time. What first started as a conversation that entailed similarities progressed to one of just growing up in different parts of the world. For instance, Anderson grew in Rio de Janeiro and is a married man with no children to disturb him in his studies. As we came to a close with our discussion, I got up and told him goodbye saying that we should do this again sometime in the near future. He glanced up at me and smiled at me with a small nod in agreement. Since then we have planned another meeting at Market Square.

Yo, Be Open-Minded

            The first two weeks of classes were an interesting one for me. To start my week I had the wonderful and simple class known as Organic Chemistry. Just discussing the syllabus for the course frightened me. I would be lying if I didn’t say that I was second guessing my major of Biology. However, I just shook off the intimidating feeling that Organic Chemistry radiated and convinced myself that I could tackle this beast. The next class to suffer through was Ecology. I have never been one to be too concerned with the environment. Granted I should be cautious and worried about the environment, but the truth of the matter was that I wasn’t. To add on to the misery, I had to take a class about the environment and preserving it. I thought I came to college to simply learn how to be prepared for medical school and do “doctor” things. I mean high school seemed to be intended to prepare me for college and college for medical school. For me, it was as if one stage of my life was intended to prepare me for the next. After finally leaving ecology, I had a couple hours of break time where I could either nap or just relax before my Literary and Traditions II class.

            When I first arrived to my Literary and Traditions II class, I honestly had no idea what to expect. I initially thought that we would analyze works of literature, provide an in depth analysis, and nothing more. For me that wasn’t very intriguing. I am more of a guy that is interested in the sciences and its applications in the world. However, I had a friend tell me to give this class a shot, and being that I trusted him, I decided to partake in a class that I thought would make me hate literature even more than I already did. I also have to admit that I took the class because Dr. Williams was the on teaching the course, and I had such an amazing time in the previous course that I took with him. During the class we discussed the syllabus and what was expected of the students. However unlike other classes, we started discussing things that were humorous. That caught me for a loop. I thought this was a class that was concerned with literature. Were we not taking a class that would potentially be analyzing great works such as Don Quixote or even Dante’s Inferno? As we started discussing humor in general and what were things that made us laugh, my preconceived notions about the course started to become even more wrong then before as the class went on. This was one instance that I was actually glad to be wrong.

            As the next Literature and Civilizations classes came by, my feelings toward the class transformed from dreading the darned thing to actually looking forward to this insightful course. We had been given the assignment of asking people what their definitions of literature and civilization were. Filming people’s responses kind of spiced things up and made the assignment more enjoyable. When we presented our results and later discussed the results, I was shocked to see that many people had differing definitions for both literature and civilization. Something that I thought had such an unambiguous definition actually turned out to be the exact opposite. For instance what constitutes as literature? Could a novel be considered literature? What about a map? A dictionary? Not only that but what constituted as civilization? What made one group of people more civilized than the other? Would one group be considered uncivilized simply because they don’t use a fork and knife for their meals? These sorts of questions that were thrown around in the class discussion seriously made me think. I never really put things into perspective. I had clouded my mind with simply one way to think or interpret something. I had failed to broaden my horizons or even think of things in another manner. Many a time I have thought of situations as either one way or the other, as if they were black and white. I later try to implement this kind of thinking to my other courses. A lot of times I saw Organic Chemistry and Ecology as this course that only had one way to approach it in order to find the solution. Man was I wrong. Something as fragile as the environment is influenced in many ways. Just when you think you have resolved the issue by tampering with one variable, you find yourself either being completely wrong or causing another problem. You have to be open-minded.