Conversation 1

I was a little bit nervous for my first meeting with Giovanka. The day of our meeting, I spent all day coming up with topics of conversation and questions I could ask her so it wouldn’t be awkward and boring. We had emailed and decided to meet at Barnes and Noble at 2:00. I had given her my phone number so that when she got to the bookstore she could call or text me so we could meet up.

            I arrived at the bookstore at 1:55 so, just in case she was early, she wouldn’t think I had forgotten about her. I sat on the couch in the Starbucks area of the bookstore waiting and waiting for her, but she never called or texted me. I even got so nervous that she would think that I forgot her that I got up and asked some “foreign” looking girl who was sitting alone if her name was Giovanka. It was pretty embarrassing when she responded by saying “No, I’m Sally.”  Once I had been there for 30 minutes, I decided that she must have forgotten about the meeting so I left. The second I arrived at the steps of Milton Daniel, I got a text saying ‘Hey natali’. I figured, by the misspelling of my name and the lack of punctuation, that it must be Giovanka. I responded by asking if it was her and if she was at Starbucks waiting. She told me that she was there and I told her I’d go back and meet her there in 5 minutes. When I got there, I found Giovanka. She is a tall and young with beautiful blonde hair (and she looked nothing like the girl who I earlier thought was Giovanka). I apologized for leaving and she immediately started laughing.

            Apparently, she had two Natalies in her phone and she had been texting the other Natalie, in Brazil, asking where she was and why she wasn’t responding. I could tell I was going to like this girl….she is really funny and animated when she talks and always has a smile on her face.

            Once we got talking, I learned that she is a freshman as well and wants to be a doctor, just like me! From that moment forward there wasn’t an awkward moment in the conversation. She is so fun to talk to and so interesting. I love hearing her perspective on America, school, clothes, people, guys, and everything! One of the conversations that kept coming up was food. She LOVES American food. Her favorite, she said, is breakfast. In Brazil they used to only eat a piece of bread with butter and a cappuccino. Now that she came to America, she said her favorite breakfast food is bacon, closely followed by waffles and bagels.

            Her English is really quite put together. She does, of course, have an accent but it is not that strong. She told me stories about her life in Brazil, about her goals for her time in America and about all of the things that she finds ridiculous that we do here. The thing in America that confuses her the most, she said, is fraternities and sororities. She said she thinks it’s silly that the guys have to dress up for class sometimes and that she would love to listen and see what they actually say in the meetings because it beats her!

            I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Giovanka and look forward to seeing her again. I can see us actually hanging out outside of our conversations and being real friends-she is SO cool!