Last Thursday, I went to the English Conversation Partner Orientation. There I met my partner, Mengqiu, whose American name is Wendy and is a graduate student studying Logistics. She is from Suzhou, China, a city just north of Shanghai. I was so happy to be partnered with her, mainly due to her kind personality and excitement for meeting me.
We talked for over an hour about both Chinese and American cultures. She wrote her name in Chinese and explained to me all the different symbols. I explained the naming process most Americans use and the fact that my parents picked my name out for me, which she found very interesting. When we exchanged phone numbers, Wendy explained to me why she has so many 6’s in her phone number. In China, 6 and 8 are two very lucky numbers so when she picked out her phone number here, she included as many 6’s as possible. Wendy looked flabbergasted when I told her what 666 represented in America! When we departed for the night, she gave me Chinese bookmarks, which were full of Chinese characters representing several Chinese proverbs.
We hugged goodbye, both of us equally excited for our next meeting! Look for Wendy on Hav 3 sometime. I have a feeling she will be visiting a few times because we are already on our way to becoming great friends.
I had just as much fun meeting my partner who is also from China (and goes by Kate) during my orientation. She is a graduate student in Marketing. She's from a smaller city above Hong Kong. We talked about our families, life in the U.S., as well as how school has been going for the both of us so far. Last week we went to dinner at Noodles & Company and made plans to see The Shining at the Gateway movie theater.
ReplyDeleteI had a lot of fun meeting my English Conversation Partner as well! She actually ended up being in the Humanities Scholars program, and even lived right next to me on the second floor of Haverfield House! It has been fun going to different places with her, and to have discussions with her. I look forward to being able to do more things with her throughout the course of the year!
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