6th meeting with Sina

Last night, Sina and I met for dinner at the BLUU. She was wearing a cute American flag cardigan. When we sat down and I asked her where she got it, she actually said, “Germany!” and laughed. Apparently, it was a huge craze over there for a while. She asked me about my week, as usual, and then talked about moustaches using hand gestures. Sina thinks that many professors have moustaches now and used  her fingers to describe

She told me that she’s been able to stick to her diet, even though she’s quite fit. She goes to the Rec for about three hours every other day for cardio. After eating a salad, Sina went on to tell me about a German restaurant about five minutes away from Hogwarts that had delicious pasta! She also told me that she likes pancakes (although they have a different taste here). Sina thinks the pancakes here are more delicious. I asked her what they have for breakfast in Germany-like eggs, toast, pancakes, etc. but she said they don’t eat breakfast food for breakfast over there. She said they have biscuits that they open to put bagel-like shmear on it and it’s wonderful. They also eat yogurt. After that, I wanted to get a fruit smoothie and we discussed the different personnel who work at the smoothie line in the BLUU. One lady is less-than-friendly and Sina told me about a time when the lady actually yelled at her! Apparently, she couldn’t understand Sina’s accent when she responded ‘Yes’ for yogurt and “screamed” at her.

After I got my smoothie-a friendly worker made it for me J-Sina asked me what my parent’s names were. She laughed when I said my dad’s name-Bobby-and said, “like the doll!” I guess there’s a bobby doll… Her mother’s name is Andrea, but she says she likes the way we pronounce it in America better.

I had another great dinner conversation with Sina!

Response: John Hughes's Vacation '58 (5th response)

          To start off with, I can only hope this is a fictional story. This was one of the funniest stories I've read in this class. This short story is filled to the brim with the misfortunes of a family on their way to Disneyland from Michigan. From the very beginning description of the six hour car ride in a station wagon, it didn't sound appealing. As the story unfolded, everything continued to get worse and worse! They had a late start due to everyone oversleeping, had to take their Aunt Edythe-described as a "Mummy with a wig on"-to her son's house, they fell off a cliff, had to sleep on the side of the road, stole money from a motel, were hit by missiles, and attacked by Indians, to name just a few problems they encountered. At first, I felt sorry for the troubled family but as I kept reading, I just had to laugh at the ridiculous situations they found themselves in. They decided to take the car trip because of their mother's insistence, but the end has an ironic twist. When they finally made it to Disneyland, they thought they were golden because there was no one in the parking lot and they had the whole park "to themselves." Unfortunately, there was a sign that said, "Closed for repairs and cleaning," at which the father became furious. They raced over to Hollywood and the dad jumped over the fence where a few men were sitting around a pool, chatting. He had bought a revolver at a convenience store, and now used it to threaten one of the men who happened to be Walt Disney! In his rage, he chased Disney and shot him in the leg, which earned him a spot in jail. Since he couldn't leave before his many charges were dissolved, the rest of the family took an airplane home. Ironically, the mom said, "Maybe this is the way to see the country" and it was she who was being stubborn in the first place.
        My family went to Disneyland and it was really fun, although I'm sure my dad wouldn't shoot Walt Disney if the park was closed! I thoroughly enjoyed this story and found myself groaning along to the ridiculous situations that this poor family kept running into.

Day at the Fair with Sina--5th 'meeting'

Today, my roommate Ava, her friend Sarah, Sina and I went to the Texas State Fair! Ava, Sarah and I left TCU around 9:30 but Sina couldn't join us until around 1:30. It was really fun, but I'll just tell you about the last 3 hours with Sina since I know that's the part you care about. :)
When she got here, we rode on a really cool roller coaster and right when we sat down, Sina noticed that there was German writing in the cars! She thought that was great. Then, we went to go get some food. She had fries with ketchup and mayonaise (she asked if that was what "you people" did) and asked if she could just pick it up with her fingers. Sarah, Ava and I split a funnel cake!
After that, it was time to ride the ferris wheel. We got many great pictures and got to sit in a purple car. Go Frogs. Then, we went to a Greenhouse (because Ava's an Environmental Science major) and there was a scary guy on stilts dressed like a tree with emeralds for his eyes! Sina and Ava took a picture with him, but I was too creeped out.
We went on a few more rides-one called the Crazy Mouse was extremely rickety, but fun-and after that, it was time to use up the rest of our tickets. Ava and I bought cotton candy, while Sina bought Fat-free Hershey's Chocolate Ice Cream and fried oreos. She was way more adventurous than me! We asked a kind lady in front of Big Tex to take a picture of us, and then we said goodbye.


It was a really wonderful experience to get to hang out with Sina outside of the school enviornment!

Sina: New York, tattoos, and boys--4th meeting

     Today, I met with Sina for lunch. It was our fourth meeting and I’m already getting sad about (possibly) not meeting with her for lunch every week, since I’m halfway done! She texted me because we couldn’t meet last night-I had Big/Little reveal-and she couldn’t because she had to “finished a presentation.” I don’t know if I’m overthinking the syntax, but “finished” sounds like it should work in that context! If you say, “Look, I’m finished” why couldn’t you say, “I had to finished a presentation” in that context? *sigh* English is a hard language to learn, but she’s doing well. She used a lot of hand motions to communicate her intention, like when she was talking about the two tattoos she has and flapped her arms while asking, “What do you call these on a bird?” and I replied “wings.” Sina told me that she is on a diet (in addition to working out at the Rec for three hours almost every day) because she wants “to train [my] stomach up.” She's already fit, but she said she wants another tattoo. The saying, "tattoos are addiction" is somewhat true, in her opinion. Sina has to pay every time we go to the BLUU, so I’m surprised she hasn’t suggested that we meet somewhere else! Today, they were handing out cotton candy, but she didn’t know what it was because it’s a referent object. (Sorry, what I learned in my speech path classes yesterday is coming out here…) I described it as something you eat that is pure sugar, but she still had a confused look on her face. When someone walked by holding it, she said, “Ahh, we call that _____ in Germany.” When I asked her if she knew what cotton candy was, I still felt like I was talking down to her-like-a child-and didn’t like it. I’m not sure how I can change, though. She told me all about her trip to New York this past week and how her aunts' workplace payed for everything! They got to go to fancy restaurants and Sina ate lobster for the first time. (she compared it to shrimp) She said it was "really delicious." She also went to the M&M store and a wax museum (where she took a picture by 'Daniel Kregg'...she was appalled when I said I didn't know who he was and she mentioned something about Fast and Furious. 

            We sat down in a booth next to Michael Zeiser and friends. When I introduced them, he pointed out that his last name is German sounding, and she smiled. His friend said something in German (it was supposed to be, “I’m a diver”) but she didn’t understand. After I explained what a diver was-she looked at me for clarification…it made me feel good J-she said, “Oh, you’re missing a word. It’s supposed to be ____ ___ ____ _____!” She then asked me how to get to Moudy South. There’s a 2:00 German level III class and she just wanted to sit in to hear how they speak and teach. Michael explained on a map, and I hope she found it! A guy in theater was sitting on the other side of us and when he got up to get more food, Sina looked at me and was like, “I think he’s pretty.” Just then, a guy who I think is attractive walked out of the BLUU.  This led to a discussion about crushes and how attraction is treated differently in Germany than America. Apparently in Germany, the attractive people (somehow) talk to you first! She said she would never talk to someone she thinks is pretty on the outside here, because they could tell that she’s from a different country. I tried to tell her that they might find her more interesting because of that, but she didn’t seem to buy it. We ended our conversation with me inviting her to SAC tomorrow night at 9:00 after explaining what an improv group was. It was a lovely lunch.