Last week, I was able to meet with Nasser and catch up on our busy weeks...sorry this blog is a bit delayed!
Nasser is very ready to get out of Texas and move on to the next chapter in his life. He explained to me that he is lacking any sort of motivation and is ready for the summer, to travel around Europe with his family. Ha, I'm jealous! Nasser told me that, despite his lack of enjoyment in America, that we are much nicer and much more pleasant to be around than Europeans. I guess thats one positive that Nasser has found here in America.
Nasser has had a busy week with his cousin visiting that you could tell he was very distracted during our conversation... he was probably ready to get out of there and go have some fun. Nasser again had brought some of his philosophy books with him and he told me how much more he enjoyed reading those types of books, in English, than the ones he is required to read in his TCU English classes.
I understand that.. we all do have our own preferences, and that is nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed of.
Nasser and I talked about college sports, and he explained how he wasn't quite interested. He said football was a boring sport...WHAT! Don't sat that to a TCU football fan! He said most of the American sports were not exciting to him and that he did not understand why we, as Americans, invest so much and get so excited over a simple game.
I tried to explained to him that this was part of the American culture and that it is something we greatly enjoy. Coming together to watch our TCU Horned Frogs play football is one of the greatest southern traditions to take part in, but I suppose it is something that only an American football fan can really understand.
Nasser told me that at home, they fully support horse races and that is one large part of their sporting culture. He explained to me the scoring system, and even how people cheat, ha! But it was very interesting for me to hear about the contrasting differences in each country's sporting cultures.
Nasser had to cut our meeting short this week because he needed to spend time with his cousin, so I completely understood. It was great to catch up, and we planned to meet next week, for our final meeting.
until our next laugh,
amanda
Amanda,
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you and Nasser had a fun meeting talking about sports! I guess I can see how someone might not appreciate football if they hadn't grown up with it, but it's definitely one of those American things it's important to experience! Horse races sound very interesting, though, as a way of entertainment. It'd probably be strange though to not have specific players or teams to root for in the event since that's what we focus on -- maybe they have favorite horses that they look out for! Overall, it sounds like a great meeting for you and Nasser!
Madeline
Amanda,
ReplyDeleteI always find it interesting to learn about other cultures and the differences between them and our own. I'm glad that you and Nasser are getting to learn from each other, even if a little excitement over sports gets lost in translation. I think it's funny that he even explained to you how people cheat in horse racing, so hopefully you got a laugh from that too! It sounds like you two are having some great meetings, and I hope they continue to go well.
Kelsey
Amanda,
ReplyDeleteIt's awesome to hear about some American culture standards from Nasser's side. It does seem that there are a lot of things that we do that would truly seem strange if we hadn't grown up with them. The outside perspective is refreshing. On the same note it must have been really awesome to view horse racing and their taste for that sport from the outside, just as Nasser was viewing our like of football from the outside. It sounds like you guys had an awesome meeting, even taking its brevity into account.
-Austin