Meeting with Meshal: Goodbye at Fuzzy's

     For our seventh and final meeting, Meshal and I met for lunch at a different place last week to commemorate/make special the last meeting. We went to Fuzzy's, which was a big deal because he admitted he does not like seafood the first meeting we ever had. But I convinced him on the grounds that A) if he was going to be a TCU student he had to at least try one of their fish tacos B) their queso is one of the most amazing foods near this campus and C) I was going to pay for it. Reluctantly, he agreed. We arrived and I proceeded to order my customary tempura fish sandwich (which is a curveball, but everyone needs to try it once it is an incredible sandwich) and chips + queso. He ordered a fish taco and a breakfast burrito, then we sat down for the last time (until next year, perhaps) and waited for our food to be ready. 

    

     Per usual, our discussion began with soccer. Mostly that my intramural team went farther than his in the playoffs last week than his team even though we lost to them in the regular season! He was quite unhappy that I brought this fact up, so we changed subjects to discussing American football instead. He said he literally knows nothing about the sport except that it is huge in the U.S. and somehow is more popular than soccer. So I explained to him the basic premises of football and some of the rules, how kids in Texas grow up worshiping football and the players, how I played throughout my middle school and high school years. I then told him how the process of getting recruited works (though I definitely had no personal experience with it) and college football. Then, I told him my opinions of how college football is WAY better than the NFL.

     "What's the NFL?"

     Yikes.

     We grabbed our food and proceeded to gauge his interest in the seafood before him. I watched as he took a bit and...success! He actually enjoyed it and bought another fish taco! Fuzzy's truly is an amazing place if it can do that. Lastly, we talked about our summer plans. I told him how I'll be studying for the MCAT all summer and doing lab research. He laughed at me.

     "That sounds awful, I'll be playing video games and sleeping...have fun being busy!" he retorted.

     He will be heading home for about a month though, so he is definitely excited to see his family back in Saudi Arabia. He hasn't been home since he moved here at the beginning of the semester and seems tired of living with his two brothers already, which is understandable seeing that he's the youngest of the three living together. He's also excited to get with his old soccer teammates and hang out and relax, but he's afraid that not using english on a 24hr basis will take away from what he's learned this semester. I told him he will always be able to call or email me if he needs to!

     Meeting with Meshal has been a very fun experience this year, as well as an eye-opening one. He is the first person from the Middle-East that I have truly gotten to know or speak to, and I'm glad I had the opportunity to become his friend. 

All Night Long, a Humorous Dancing Story

    Last week was a weekend full of red formals. Alpha Chi Omega’s formal, Red Carnation, was on Friday while Sigma Phi Epsilon’s formal, Red Garter, was on Saturday. It was a whirlwind of rushing to obtain tuxedos fitted, planning with multiple groups of people at multiple different restaurants, rushing up to Frog Fountain to take pictures while keeping hair up and dresses down in the gusts of wind, and dancing the night away. First was Red Carnation on Friday, and it was during this night that perhaps the most fun moment of the weekend occurred.

           

    After a delicious dinner with a good group of gals and their dates we arrived at the bus loading right on time for our age group to head to the venue. We waited. No bus. We kept waiting. Still no bus. Bus! We missed it. After waiting for a whole hour AFTER we were supposed to leave, the bus came and went with a bunch of line-cutters that left us stragglers extremely frustrated and angry. At the last second, before we threw in the towel on the evening, another bus showed up and gave us the means to get to the venue…not all was lost! And for good reason too, because the fun was just beginning.

           

    We got to the venue tired after the bus ride and honestly not too eager to deal with a sweaty mob of drunk, grinding people. So we did what we do and sat down at the table nearest to the buffet line. A group of us sat and chatted while the music boomed around us, then a girl approached us with a plate in one hand and a fork in the other.

           

    “You guys have GOT to try the macaroni & cheese at this place…they have SHELL NOODLES.”

         

    Everyone at the table leapt to their feet and rushed to the buffet table where a massive heated plate contained mounds of white-cheese covered shell noodles, one of the best kind of macaroni noodles in my humble opinion. I got two plates.

        

    The food did wonders for our weary souls, and we were reinvigorated to have a good time and hit up the dance floor. As our group made its way to the party a bus showed up to go back to campus. All of us were getting into the groove as seemingly half the people simultaneously left. This did not phase us even a little bit. We were all over the floor, pulling out all sorts of wacky dance moves out that should never be used in a public setting – the kind a dorky dad embarrasses his teen daughter with. And it was a blast. The fourteen of us or so shut down the place as we kept the DJ going strong until the venue kicked us out, long after the brunt of the party had left the place. Lots of laughs were shared and many pictures were taken, it was only the beginning of an amazing weekend but it got off to an auspicious start.

Food and Drink (Humor Post #3)

   Seeking refuge from the hectic college studying setting last night, Elle and I went to Railhead BBQ in Willow Park, Tx – my family’s restaurant – for dinner. Good for my family (and my college career) the place was very crowded with families and parties boisterous with laughter. The bar area in Railhead, in particular, always seems to be brimming with laughter whether during a thinner lunch/afternoon crowd or a packed, elbow-rubbing mob. Come to think of it, a bar (if full) usually is a place seen filled with laughter and friendships both old and new. People are comfortable with their friends, telling old jokes and remembering stupid memories. Or people are very uncomfortable and trying to branch out, resulting in stupid conversations and self-embarrassment, resulting in awkward laughter (either at oneself or at others). Alcohol gave rise to civilization (it was safer to drink than the water, hence the daily consumption of wine/beer in Rome, etc.) so it has had a very long history of helping people bond and live and, simply, have fun with one another. As the fizzy carbonation bubbles up out of the bottle or glass so does laughter bubble out of the people drinking it, releasing stress after a long day at the office – its own type of Relief Theory. Just an interesting thought, thinking about the effects of alcohol on laughter when it is already a predominately social phenomenon.

        

    Anyway, as we sat down at our table, we were much too excited about food (something common for us) and filled with giddy energy at the mere thought of our Railhead fish tacos that would inevitably end up in front of us. And by giddy energy I mean I was acting like a five year old in a restaurant, and I found it hilarious at least. I was shooting the straw wrapper off my straw at Elle, I was dumping out the sugar packets and stacking them into towers, I was drawing pictures on paper towels with the squirty ketchup bottle. Finally, our appetizers came to ameliorate some of the wild energy and open arteries, and we jumped right into the healthy assortment of fries, beer-battered onion rings, and buffalo chicken tenders. We tore into the food like we hadn’t eaten in days (when it comes to appetite, hours might as well be days to me) and annihilated the platter.

          

   “So, what’s new with you?” she asked rhetorically.

            

   “Did you hear about that Reese actress getting stabbed?! Ahh what’s her last name…” I replied.

           

   “Witherspoon?!” she exclaimed.

          

   “No, with a knife,” I responded matter-of-factly. She busted out laughing at the randomness of my corny word pun and could not stop for quite a while; needless to say I caught her extremely off guard. Her laughing eventually got so hard that, even though I had said the joke, I couldn’t help but laugh along with her, and from there it only became a crescendo of laughter.