One of the Last Convo Partner Meetings

Today I met with Ibrahim, and it was nice to meet on a day when my time wasn't limited, and I didn’t have to run to a class or a meeting right after. We had a nice discussion at the Bookstore, where we talked about his plans next semester and his family. He got accepted to Texas A&M Commerce, and he and his sister will likely move to Dallas. He doesn't want to live on campus, so this would be about a 20 minute drive for him. He did express some disappointment, as there were a lot of people on campus and he did not seem excited to go there. Today he talked to people at TCU, where he found out that he passed the necessary language scores, but could not get in because of his grades from school back home. He told me that back home, there is no pressure to get good grades. As long as you graduate, you can do anything you want. The representative from TCU is expected to give him a call tomorrow and let him know if they will reconsider him. I can tell he loves it here in Fort Worth and really would enjoy to go to TCU. He also said that we wasn't sure if he was ready for the academic rigor that would ensue from starting school. He noted that we wouldn't mind some more "vacation" time, which I can understand.

     He also told me about his sister, who is getting her Masters here at TCU in Nutrition and Health. He said she spends a lot of time reading and doing homework, even though her night classes are only twice a week. We also talked about holidays, and he told me about a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner he had, hosted by a Fort Worth family that invited many international students. He said people here celebrate almost anytime they can, even giving an example of when he brought donuts to class and his teacher got extremely excited. He also told me about his younger sister who is 14, and already could speak as well as him before he came to the United States. After hearing about his experiences here, she is excited to come here someday too.
            I will be meeting with Ibrahim next Tuesday since I do not have a final that day. I plan on giving him a Christmas gift, and already know what I am going to put in it. I thought about getting him one prior to today, but I haven’t known anyone that didn’t celebrate Christmas so I wasn’t sure if it was okay to give them a gift. He told me his other conversation partner did, and he loved it! That makes me happy, and I will definitely be getting him something.