Meeting Pamela and Karen

Before meeting my conversation partner Pamela, I was nervous about how it would go.  It took me a few weeks to even contact Pamela, and when she did email me she seemed confused about what we were supposed to do.  We agreed to meet in Market Square, and it was surprisingly easy for us to find each other in the crowded lunch rush.  (I was worried that it might have been confusing.)  When I met Pamela, I realized I had no reason to be worried; she hugged me as soon as we met.  Pamela brought her friend Karen, another student in the ESL program, to lunch with us.  Karen was not assigned a conversation partner, and she wanted to know what we were doing.  At first, lunch was a little awkward.  It is always hard to try to eat and talk with people you don’t know well, especially when they are fairly new to the English language.  I learned that Pamela is from Brazil, and Karen is from Peru; they said that they were both from small towns.  Both of them came to TCU to study English so they can get better jobs eventually.  They both agreed that the United States has many more opportunities than their home countries, and that it is important for them to learn English, even though it is not an easy language to learn.  Pamela is very new to Texas: she came here from Brazil at the beginning of this semester.  Karen said she has been here about five months.  I had a lot of questions for them about South America, because I would love to go there sometime soon.  Pamela told me about the beautiful beaches in Brazil, and she even invited me to stay with her family if I ever decide to visit the country.  I learned quickly that people from Latin American culture are much friendlier and more open to new friends than Americans.   We talked about everything from favorite foods and fun things to do around Fort Worth to boyfriends.  Pamela and Karen both have boyfriends back home in South America, but they explained that they aren’t dating seriously until they are both back in the same countries.  We talked for about an hour until I had to leave and go to class, (this class, actually), and made plans to have lunch again next week.  Pamela and Karen both like Mexican food, specifically the type of Mexican food we have in Fort Worth, so we are meeting at Fuzzy’s next time.  Even though it is very close to TCU, neither of them had been there yet, which is really unacceptable, since it’s delicious.  Pamela promised to bring pictures of Brazil for me to our next lunch, and we are now friends on Facebook.  Karen will be joining us for lunch again at Fuzzy’s, so I think from now on I may have two conversation partners!