I just realized that I forgot to blog about my first meeting with my conversation partner Mubarak. So, I'll combine that post with this one regarding our meeting last night.
With our email and text conversations, I knew communication would be a challenge. I met with Mubarak at the first conversation partner tea time. We sat outside and chatted. I was able to meet his roommate who is also from Kuwait and is a bit more proficient with English. We made it through the painful introductions with a little translation help. So I knew it would be interesting to meet next.
We communicate mostly through text, which is funny to read if you don't understand the context. We decided to meet at cafe shisha, as it seemed to work well for the past group meeting. It's a casual atmosphere and quiet enough to converse comfortably. He arrived early & luckily Kim was there to visit with him until I showed up. We talked about siblings, school and music mostly. He had some music videos saved on his phone, which were fun to hear. Dominick & his conversation partner were also there, and he recognized the music Mubarak was playing from home. It's quite a relaxing atmosphere with the group and mixing up different conversation partners that know each other from CIES classes.
Our communication is very basic, as Mubarak has only been in the US for a few weeks. Next week we are planning to meet at a different cafe he likes, and share food.
Sweet! Which cafe?
ReplyDelete