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.