Meeting Meshal

So, two weeks ago I was told that my conversation partner Meshal had received my information at the beginning of the semester and was just procrastinating on contacting me. My initial thought was, “Well that’s rude.” But thinking more on it, I could see how a foreign student might be apprehensive about contacting and initiating a meeting with a student whom he or she had had never met, and I was nervous about the meeting as well. Last week I got a fragmented email from Meshal, in which he gave me his phone number for quicker communication. In short, a meeting was arranged for yesterday (Tuesday, February 19^th) to meet for lunch at 1 once he was dismissed from class; we met by the bronze statue of Super Frog…

…and woah, he had huge hair. Literally the biggest ‘fro I’ve ever seen!

We walked to Union Grounds to grab sandwiches, exchanging slightly awkward small talk as we grabbed drinks, and I instructed him on how to fill out the sandwich sheet by circling what he wanted. “What is ‘moonster’ cheese?” he asked. “Oh, Muenster cheese? It’s that one, there, in the glass!” I replied, pointing to the cheese behind the protective glass. “Yeah…I just want normal yellow cheese.” Laughing, I grabbed a water as he grabbed a Coca-Cola.

He graciously paid for my meal, which I was not expecting but was a very nice gesture. We then sat down and began our real conversation.

Meshal hails from the city of Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. He lives right in the city in a house, where he says he can’t sleep from the noise of cars (which he says everybody has in the city…his family has six). Meshal came to TCU because two of his brothers (he has five) came here before him: one who is ten years older and now goes to Texas Wesleyan and one who is a year older and still in the TCU Intensive English Program (IEP). It has been Meshal’s dream to come to America for six long years in which he tried to grasp the basics of the English language and writing and American culture, culminating in his arrival only three or four weeks ago. And as to why he had this dream of coming to America?

“Friends,” he said. “You know, Rachel, Chandler, Ross – the television show? I’m a huge fan! I saw Friends for the first time six years ago and now have seen every episode. I knew from watching Friends that I had to come to America, I had to!”

This launched us into a conversation about Friends and culture and family (since my sister has also seen every episode of that show). After realizing from Friends he wanted to come to America, he said he knew he needed to start contacting English-speaking people to practice his speaking, so he picked up online video games and Skype in which he could communicate via headset and camera, respectively. World of Warcraft was his favorite game, admitting he was pretty close to being addicted at one point even! However, this communication with Americans and other English-speakers helped him to practice his foreign language and allowed him to have  a decent sense of the language. Moving on to family I learned that in addition to his having five brothers (he is the second youngest) he has a sister who is the oldest of all the siblings. I learned little about his parents except that his father is a retired military general of some sort who now owns multiple businesses from a car repair garage to a hookah lounge that Meshal said is as large as TCU’s football stadium! Smoking hookah is apparently a big deal in Riyadh/Saudi Arabia, and much cheaper there than here in America, he made sure to tell me. He lives with his two older brothers in the Texas Wesleyan brother’s apartment, but he is planning on getting an apartment and car of his own soon once he takes a test to graduate the IEP program and actually start school. This would be possible because Saudi students have all of their college paid for on their country’s dime, plus receiving a stipend! No matter what school he attends, his country will pay for all of it through a scholarship, which he is planning to receive once he finishes the IEP. I don’t think it will take him too long to accomplish this, however, because he speaks English pretty well already (although he maintains that writing it is much more difficult for him).

Overall, our first meeting was funny and definitely thought provoking; I don’t think I’ve ever really sat down with someone from his culture like that and heard about Middle-Eastern culture from a primary source. He did make a funny play on words when referencing himself and his brothers coming to TCU, saying “we are invading America!” He realized how that would have sounded out of context, and we both started laughing as he assured me it was a joke and that a large number of people in Saudi Arabia truly wish they could come here and have a respect for our culture, including many in his family. I’m looking forward to our next meeting to see what all I can learn next!