Ory part 6: Thanksgiving, Guatemala, and foreign languages

                Ory and I made it to the last meeting of the semester. It was bittersweet, as it had been nice for the both of us to be able to talk to someone outside of our immediate friends and family. It was easier in a way to talk to someone who knew nothing about you already.

                Ory had some disappointing news: he didn’t get his first American Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, he had to forgo Thanksgiving in order to get some of his research papers and projects done, or at least started. He had a nice week, though, waking up at 11 every morning and lounging around his room doing homework and watching TV. He said the campus was deserted and wished he had been in Mexico or New York with one of his roommates. But hopefully he’ll get a real American Thanksgiving next year at least.

                Ory said he is excited to go back home to Guatemala for winter break and lie on the beach the whole month. He told me I could come to visit Guatemala with him, but I respectfully declined. After all, who wouldn’t want to spend their break working in a book store instead of tanning on a beach?

                As things wound up between us, Ory asked why we had been meeting all this time. He said no one ever really explained to him the point of all of the conversations. I told him that it was a chance for both of us to learn about other people’s cultures. Also, it could help him with his English. Ory sighed and said it was hard for him to perfect his English even though he really wants to because Americans are so impatient and when he takes some time to get a point across, most people cut him off and don’t let him finish his thought. I think this is true for all languages. When you are a native speaker, sometimes it’s easy to forget that people are translating the language in their head trying to find the appropriate translated word. I will do my best to be extremely patient next time I speak with someone who is not native to the English language.

                Ory is looking forward to next semester at TCU, but said he is more prepared for the work load and is going to crack down on himself academically. He flattered me by saying he had a great time meeting with me and hopes we see each other next semester.

Ory part 5: Traveling and football

         

             Ory and I met once more before Thanksgiving break. Like before, this meeting was done under stressful circumstances since we both are overloaded with school work. Ory and I are both dealing with papers, presentations and projects, but at least we were sympathetic to each other’s stresses.

                Ory said he is really excited to experience his first American Thanksgiving. He has some family in Houston, so he is planning on traveling to Houston for some food and to give thanks.

                Traveling has become a familiar topic of discussion between Ory and I. Somehow or another, our conversations always end up in a different state or country. This time we talked about New York, Australia, and Belgium. Ory is going to Belgium over the summer.

I told Ory all about my ambitious plan after I graduate next year. I am going to travel to Europe, but I also am going to move to New York and live there. Even if it is only for a summer internship, I want to live in the city for a time. I know it is expensive and far-fetched, but since a lot of big journalism and book publishing companies are based in New York City, this is a goal I plan to keep. I have only been to New York once, but I fell in love immediately. New York is the only place I’ve visited that Ory hasn’t. Ory said he desperately wants to visit New York, so I was a little pleased with myself until he reminded me that he had visited eight other countries in Europe that I desperately wanted to visit.

                Though neither of us has been to Australia, I had a friend visit from the land down under. Ory and I talked about how he perceived America and Americans compared to how Ory views American customs. For example, I took my Australian friend to a football game because he wanted to see an American football game. While Dan (the Australian) got really into the game and was shouting and screaming like a true American football fan, Ory says he never makes it to actual American football games because he loves the tailgating too much.

                Ory and I have only one last meeting before the conversations and the semester come to a close. I’ve enjoyed learning a lot from him and about him, and he said (though hopefully he isn’t lying) that he enjoys talking with me too.

 

Ory part 4: Cars, Books and Hunting

It had been a month since Ory and I talked last. It was a mixture of fall break, his birthday, school work and conflicting schedules. But we were finally able to meet, albeit in the library surrounded by homework.

Our conversation was very sporadic, but smooth. Somehow I managed to carry on many conversations featuring subjects I knew virtually nothing about – Cars, racing and hunting. Needless to say, Ory kept up most of the conversation until we started talking about books.

After three meetings, I felt that I knew Ory really well, but once again I learned new things about him. One: he loves racing (watching or driving) and cars. His brother actually races for fun. Two: he enjoys hunting. He went over fall break, but didn’t actually shoot anything. Three: he loves reading non-fiction books.

Never having been interested in cars or racing, and never having hunted and shot any “Bambi’s” (as Ory so delicate put it), I wasn’t much of a participant in these conversations. However, being an avid reader, I jumped on the chance to talk about books.

I am more of a fiction reader myself, but Ory spoke so passionately about non-fiction, true stories, that I mentally added some new books to my reading list. Ory said he loves reading true stories because “we’re all human.” It reminds him that no matter who you are, a billionaire, an Olympic athlete or a neurosurgeon, we’re all human. He said the only thing that differs is how we think. He said he is inspired to work harder when he reads books about people starting with nothing and working their way up to the top. Or when he reads about millionaires who sell all of their property and donate all of their money to charity. He made such valid points that I could only nod my head in agreement and listen in rapture as he went on about how humans are similar, yet different.

Ory and I only have two more meetings left, but I hope we are able to fit these into our busy schedules as finals approach.

A sum of this semester

To sum up the semester as it comes to a close, I’ve learned a lot. Probably more than I’ve learned any previous semesters at TCU.

I’ve always been told that I’m only “book smart” and lack any form of common sense. But I learned this semester that this is not the case. I thought since I excelled in my classes at school and made ‘A’s’ that meant I was only “book smart.” But TCU has taught me that excelling in classes means so much more.

My classes this semester have all been extremely different, yet valuable in their own way. But mostly every class challenged me to open my mind and expand my thoughts beyond the books I read or the lectures I listen to.  School shouldn’t be about grades, but about increasing my capacity to learn.

Notably, Literature and Civilizations, Rhetorical Traditions and Buddhism have all centered on class discussions with no right or wrong answer. There should be no right or wrong answer in classes such as these. It’s not math.  There is no formula to learning. Every person interprets what they read or hear in different ways, and that’s what makes “book smart” irrelevant.

Working for the literary magazine, eleven40seven, has also provided me with new insight as to how the production process works. I believe there is no need to take a class with a really long intellectual title and subject in order to learn something. I can learn anything anywhere as long as I stay open-minded. By working on the magazine, for example, I’ve learned how different each person can be when it comes to art. Every writing style is different and each painting or photograph is seen through different eyes in a different light. This is a creative learning in which you learn not by books, but by experience and exposure.

My intelligence should not be measured based on a number in someone’s grade book, but by the thoughts and ideas floating around in my head. It should be based on the writings I produce and the questions I pose. There will always be much more to learn no matter how smart someone has defined me. I think as long as I am always aware of the potential knowledge waiting to be grasped, I can’t be boxed in by the term “book smart.” Knowledge isn’t handed out by books, but by the willingness of the mind to receive the knowledge and expand upon it.

I’ve learned to define myself as not simply “book smart,” but as educated and curious, colored with a desire to push my mind beyond the limits of textbooks and classic fiction into a world of my own philosophy shaped by my thoughts and opinions.

How I learned the arts of Haiku and Stalking

In the past three weeks, I’m pretty positive I’ve learned a lot. Whether I’ve retained that information, however, is up for debate. I wrote a 2000 word essay composed entirely of haiku poetry and prose, so at least I learned  one thing – how to write a decent haiku.

 Most notably, I’ve learned about boys. I really enjoyed Dave Barry’s Complete Guide to Guys. I can’t say for sure whether he is accurate in his exaggerations about guys, but he does make me laugh out loud – literally. It is interesting how easy it is to analyze comedic texts after reading about the tools of comedy from Vorhaus and Morreall.

I’ve also learned how to write seven broadcast stories in an hour and a half. My first real anchor segment was recorded an hour after that, so I’d say I’ve successfully experienced something close to the full extent of pressures journalists face in a time crunch. Also, despite my fears, reading off of a teleprompter is actually quite easy.

This past week I studied terministic screens relative to language. This concept was actually brought up in two of my classes – Buddhism and Rhetorical Traditions. Throughout the semester thus far these two classes seem to have a lot of overlaying concepts. In my rhetoric class, I wrote a paper about quality being the Buddha, and in my Buddhism class, we talk about the use of language. I think it’s great when you can apply different things you’ve learned from different classes because it shows that you absorbed something.

In my computer reporting class I learned how to effectively super stalk people. We went on about seven different websites and practiced performing background checks on various people and finding addresses, numbers, and a lot of other personal information. We even searched for people’s houses on Google Maps and looked at their pictures on Facebook. Need I remind you that my professor spent an hour doing this with us in a class? This is why I love being a journalism major.

Hopefully I’ll have more fun learning experiences like this to come – minus the creepy stalking.

Ory part 3: Mini Pumpkins and the Dead Sea

For the third meeting, Ory and I decided to mix it up a little. Well, I decided to mix it up. By chance, we met on a day when TCU was having two October Halloween events. We chose to go to the event in my dorm for pumpkin decorating and pie.

I was a little apprehensive that this meeting would be awkward since decorating mini pumpkins probably isn’t very high on a boy’s agenda, but Ory seemed to have enjoyed it. He concentrated harder on painting green stripes on his pumpkin than I did to paint a face on mine.

After accidentally covering our hands in paint and glitter, Ory and I finally completed the pumpkins. The creativity of the activity invoked some creative conversation. Somehow we landed on the topic of cool spots in Israel. Ory told me that he loves the Dead Sea. Of course, I have heard about the Dead Sea in various geography and other courses throughout my education, but it was different to talk to someone who had actually been there. Ory said he loves to float on top of the water and that it is a really cool experience. However, this conversation caused me to have the song “Dead Sea” by The Lumineers stuck in my head while at work later that night.

Next, Ory and I discussed food, naturally.  He asked me for the weirdest foods I’ve ever tried. When I couldn’t think of an answer, he casually threw in that he’s eaten snake and dog. I honestly didn’t even know that people ate snake. He didn’t like it. But to defend him against eating dog meat, he didn’t know at the time that he was eating dog and was told only after he had eaten it. He seemed really distraught about it. After that, I was embarrassed to admit that the craziest thing I’ve ever tried is probably lamb, and I felt really sad about it afterward.

My lack of food culture is probably due to the fact that I haven’t traveled much, which Ory doesn’t hesitate to remind me. He doesn’t do it on purpose, but he’s been to so many amazing places. He shares his experiences with me and makes me yearn for Europe. He tells me over and over each time we meet that I really need to travel and that I need to go to Europe and see the world. I remind him each time that I would like to, but it’s not easy to drop everything and travel around Europe on money I unfortunately don’t have.

Each time I meet with Ory, I learn something new about the world. I feel like I help him discover new meanings and words in English, but he helps me discover new things about cultures I’ve never experienced.

Time flies when you are studying...

This semester has flown by faster than any other previous semesters. My classes have me going 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day with homework breaks in between. Then, I work 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. at night. Let’s just say I have no trouble sleeping at night. In the past three or four weeks, I’ve gained more experience and knowledge which has built on to what I absorbed the first four weeks of classes.

 I’ve taped, edited and produced my first broadcast news package. It covered the Frogs for the Cure Music Video event and it was a great, chaotic first experience in the world of broadcast journalism. I’ve entered the realm of Microsoft Access, a program I had always assumed no one ever used, and have discovered that it is actually pretty useful when dealing with databases for news stories. For my Buddhism class, I have read two more novels by different disciples of Buddhism who have shown me that there are many different kinds of Buddhist studies. The Pure Land and Zen traditions are extremely different. In Zen, the monks beat each other with sticks, whereas in Pure Land, they don’t. So I guess that’s a big, kind of ironic, difference.

                While promoting eleven40seven, TCU’s journal of the arts, I discovered that students can be cruel and will ignore you if you stand at a table in front of Market Square trying to hand out flyers. My rhetoric class has taken me full cycle from Socrates to Plato to Aristotle and some Gorgias and Isocrates in between. There are a sprinkle of other classic philosophers and rhetoricians whose works I have read countless pages of that fly well above my level of comprehension. But for some inexplicable reason, I find myself actually understanding the timeline and arguments of rhetoric and philosophy as we slowly make our way to the medieval era. In Literature and Civilizations, I’ve learned that writing a satire is almost as hard if not harder than writing a serious essay. Props to Jonathon Swift for his creativity – it’s not too easy.

                And finally, though sometimes I do forget, I have one more class – environmental science. I recently decided to pass/no credit this course as I am not a science person and much prefer reading books to studying and regurgitating scientific facts and data. This class seems to get lost among the two books I read and five essays I write on average each week. I at least have learned that an energy crisis exists, air pollution is bad, and trees are good. But I have a couple more months, so I’ll probably ingest some new facts about the planet soon.

                Like I said, this semester is going fast and information is being thrown at me faster than I can swallow it. I’ve gained more knowledge thus far this semester than it seems like I did in the entirety of last year.

Ory part 2: A little bit of awkwardness, some dance, and animal noises

After a few weeks apart, Ory and I finally met again. We celebrated this with an extremely awkward side hug which we both laughed about afterward.

I discovered three very interesting things during my second conversation with Ory.

First of all, Ory loves to dance. I would not have expected him to love dancing so much, but he said it is one of his favorite things to do. Maybe I don’t expect that out of young men here at TCU because I grew up in Texas where boys played football and would never admit to salsa dancing in their free time. But Ory was born in Guatemala and grew up in Israel, so he was exposed to all kinds of dancing, including salsa. He said that he learned how to line dance and two-step at Billy Bob’s this past weekend and loved every minute of it. He is beginning to get into country music after watching Blake Shelton on “The Voice.” I’ve lived in Texas my entire life and still have no idea how to line dance, so his passion for dancing really made me feel bad about my complete lack of coordination.

Secondly, Ory made a very interesting point about international and American students. He asked me if I had any other friends who were international students. Reluctantly, I admitted that I don’t. He pointed out that the international students always seem to befriend other international students, while Americans have almost all American friends. We couldn’t figure out why that was. Maybe it’s the cultural/language barrier. All I know is that I would love to be friends with more international students because I get to learn about other places and virtually travel for free through their words and images.

And finally, and most importantly, I discovered that animal noises are interpreted differently around the world. This makes sense I suppose since there are different languages and sounds are interpreted differently. However, I had always just assumed a cat meows, a cow moos and a chicken bocks and clucks. This discussion was brought about after I showed Ory a funny video I had seen recently. It is a music video created by two Swedish men titled “What does the Fox Say?” It really did make us wonder what the fox says. Ory told me it was funny because the animal noises were all different in his country. For example, a sound to represent the chicken wouldn’t be bock or cluck, but somewhere along the lines of quirri quirri. I don’t think that is the official spelling.

                I really am glad I have the opportunity to converse with Ory. We are learning a lot from one another and about one another, and introducing each other to different kinds of humor. I told him to watch the movie Christmas Vacation and he made me promise to watch the MTV show “Ridiculousness.” Although I feel like we have learned so much about each other, I think we have more to talk about and I look forward to our future meetings.

An Unexpected Guest

Laughter is one of those contagious things like yawning. Once I see someone else, or hear someone, laughing, I can’t help myself but to crack a smile and emit some ridiculous high-pitched gurgling sounds from deep within.

After going out for a nice dinner with a couple of our friends at Sweet Tomatoes, my roommate Kelsey and I went back to our dorm on the second floor of Carter. We were already giddy that evening on account of it was Saturday night, our stomachs were full of good food and we were about to go out dancing with some people later.

Kelsey and I burst through the door of the staircase and almost ran into a guy who was walking just in our paths in the hallway. Naturally, he was in our paths, we weren’t in his path. That’s how it always works.

Kelsey and I chatted away and each gave imperceptible nods to the guy to acknowledge his existence and he did the same to us. We rounded the corner to go into our quad, and the guy followed a little ways behind us. I assumed he was going to the study lounge that was right next to our room. Maybe the trash room or to the vending machine – both of which are within view of our dorm room.

After much struggling and searching, Kelsey finally located her key to the room, as I couldn’t find mine quickly enough for her. She finally opened the door and stepped through as I followed. Suddenly, the heavy door I had propped open with my hand for the both us, was holding itself open without any effort on my part. Startled, I looked behind me to see the guy we had just previously acknowledged was standing in our doorway right behind me.

He had one hand on the door and my first instinct was to awkwardly attempt to hold the door open behind me so he could walk through. This was done out of habit of opening doors for people on campus, not out of habit of inviting random strangers into my room.

The guy said “Thanks” to me I guess for holding the door open for him. He started to walk into our room. Let me clarify again that I had no idea who this person was, and neither did Kelsey. But in that 10 second stretch of time, for some reason, my instinct was to let this guy come into our room.

It took us both 10 seconds to register what was happening. The guy finally realized he was walking into a random girl’s room. His face turned from shock to embarrassment within five seconds. He quickly murmured, “I’m so sorry! Wrong door.”

I guess he saw the smile creeping on my lips because then he said, “I’m just going to walk away and pretend this didn’t happen.”

I immediately turned to Kelsey who had witnessed the whole thing, and when our eyes met, we both exploded with an uncontrollable laughter. I think it was because of the awkwardness in the situation. Because I held the door for him to continue walking into our room. And because a random stranger just followed us into our room. But for a few minutes, we could not stop laughing.

Jokes and Cartoons

Danielle, Haley and I compiled some jokes and cartoons. Here's what we came up with...

The past, present and future walk into a bar. It was tense.

 There’s two fish in a tank. One turns to the other and says

‘You man the guns, I’ll drive’

 

Tom and Jerry 

 

You probably had to be there

When it comes to handiwork, I’m essentially inept. After moving into our new dorm, Carter, one of my roommates and I were attempting to hang posters and put together wooden shoe racks, etc. I must point out that we would never have accomplished these tasks had our friend Jett not contacted us earlier. Kelsey and I did not have any tools whatsoever. Jett brought over his toolbox and set it on the table in the same manner as he seated himself on the couch. I discovered the power of persuasion about 10 minutes later. After much coaxing on my part, and stubbornness on Jett’s, he reluctantly gave in and agreed to help us put everything together on the terms that I help him. So naturally I sat down on the speckled carpet next to Jett and watched him as he assembled Kelsey’s shoe rack alone. I explained to him that without the help of IKEA’s step-by-step illustrated instructions, I wasn’t able to operate tools.

A shoe rack, two hanging, framed posters and a shower curtain later, Jett was finished helping us assemble our room. Throughout his work, I talked at him, played (and sang along) to some Florence and the Machines, critiqued his placement of my posters and basically did absolutely nothing, while drifting from room to room. At about the time Jett finished, I was getting restless from doing nothing and wanted to talk to Jett. Except I couldn’t find him anywhere. Our dorm room is not that big. It consists of four bedrooms the size of a full-XL bed, two bathrooms and a living room with the minimum amount of space required to accommodate four people. I searched high and low for Jett. I checked my bedroom and Kelsey’s bedrooms to no avail. The other bedrooms were locked, which left the bathroom. Earlier Jett was hanging our shower curtain, and I just knew he was still inside the shower. My plan was to creep into the bathroom and scare him. However, I wasn’t able to execute because when I crept into the bathroom and threw open the shower curtain, the only thing I surprised was a couple bottles of shampoo.

Behind me I heard a giggle and a snort and turned just in time to see Kelsey spit up the contents of her water. She had just taken a huge gulp from her water bottle to swallow a pill and now the water was spilling from her mouth to the carpet – as was the pill. She was doubled over in laughter on the now wet carpet, searching for her medicine that had escaped. Of course, her frantic searching for a pill on the ground had me giggling, especially since she put it back in her mouth and swallowed after she found it. I think that made me laugh harder since it disgusted me so much. I still didn’t understand why she was laughing so hard until I looked past her to see Jett sitting in a chair in the living room. Suddenly, I found myself beside Kelsey unable to breath past my laughter. I’m not sure if we were laughing at my ignorance because I was unable to see what was right in front of me or if we were laughing at my stupidity because I just yelled ‘boo!’ at a couple of shampoo bottles, but it had us laughing for a good five minutes.

Meeting Ory

I was pleased when I learned that my conversation partner was male. Honestly, talking to girls I don’t know is a lot more nerve-wracking than talking to guys. Girls tend to be more judgmental. So when I met Ory, I was overjoyed to discover he has a carefree, relaxed demeanor.

The basics: Ory was born in Guatemala, but his family moved to Israel when he was eight years old. He has an older brother and older sister. His older brother received a business degree from TCU. Ory would like to study political science at TCU after he finishes with the IEP.

The conversation flowed effortlessly as Ory and I switched from topic to topic. From movies to politics to sports, there was always something to comment on. It was nice to bounce off one another, but I could tell I hit a hot topic when I asked what his interests were and politics was brought up.

Ory took me by surprise when he launched into the topic of politics. He leaned forward and started waving his arms around. His face lit up with passion as he outlined for me the patterns of history that could help predict the future of politics today. This just shows how little you know about people until you sit down and really delve into conversation past the superficial, “how are you?”

We did eventually touch upon the topic of humor. I learned that humor, although it can be different, has a very similar theme for everybody of all cultures. Ory asked me what humor I most enjoy, which I answered is sarcastic, witty humor. Ory agreed. He enjoys sarcasm as much as the next American. He also enjoys teasing and laughing at his friends, he said, but only to make them overcome their insecurities. What a great friend. Ironically, I feel as though Ory and I laughed more when we weren’t discussing the topic of humor, which is a bit funny in and of itself.

Talking with Ory seemed very natural. He seems to be a light-hearted, friendly person and we never ran out of topics to talk about. He’s only been studying English for three months, but I couldn’t tell. He seems to have grasped the language very easily and was a great conversationalist. I’m looking forward to what the next conversations will bring.

What I've learned thus far

Well, there have been four weeks of classes, and I can honestly say I feel I’ve learned a lot in those four weeks. My classes this semester have been unlike any previous semesters. I’ve had no tests so far, and my knowledge hasn’t been measured periodically by multiple choice questions in quizzes either.

Instead, I’ve been working hands on, such as in my Radio/TV Newswriting class, where my professor had us start writing and working with the camera in the first couple of weeks. In my Rhetorical Traditions class, I’ve engaged in deeper and more thought-provoking discussions than I thought was mentally possible for myself all the while learning much about Greek philosophy. I’ve expanded my spirituality in my Buddhism class by practicing meditation techniques and reading writings by monks such as Thich Nhat Hanh. I’ve learned how to utilize Excel for reporting techniques, which is great because I’m normally incompetent when it comes to things on the computer.

Most importantly, however, I’m learning the value of humor in my Literature and Civilizations class. But really, humor is universal, and it’s interesting to learn about how it differs in cultures around the world. I can’t say I’m absorbing the readings from Comic Relief very easily, but when it’s discussed in class, I’m able to understand Morreall’s theories a little better.

The start of the semester has been very promising. I’ve been promised a lot of work (mainly reading and writing), but I’ve also been promised a great educational experience. After all, if I’m taking seven different classes, I’d hope I can learn something!

What is humor? What makes you laugh?