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?