Scenes from a midnight premiere: Catching Fire Edition.

            As I mentioned in my last post about my conversation partner meeting, I attended the midnight premiere of “Catching Fire” last night. What a phenomenal movie. A fan of the Hunger Games trilogy for a while, I have been anxiously awaiting the film adaptations.

            However, if there’s one thing I love more than the Hunger Games, it’s people. People are so interesting. People are so funny. As strange as it sounds, I just love to observe people, and you can’t observe people without laughing at them. They’re weird, they’re quirky, and they each have strange things that are unique to them. What better place to observe people than at a midnight premiere of a movie with a cult following?

            The thing about midnight premieres is that you can’t just show up at midnight and expect to get a good seat. You have to show up early, sit in line, and hope that you get into the theatre before the other die hard fans so that you and all of your friends can sit together. My group and I got there at about 9:30 and it was clear to us that the people in front of us in line had been there for quite some time.

            So I sit down with my group and just start to look around. Who else shares my affinity for apocalyptic culture, Team Gale, and fashionable clothes from the Capitol? Judging by the amount of people there, many people.

            We have the couple at the front of the line, holding hands since they got to the theatre (probably around 7:00). It looks as if they’ve eaten a couple of meals since they arrived, taking turns holding down the pole position. The next group is a group of twenty something girls passing around an iPad, sharing The Game of Life (hey, you have to pass the time somehow!)

            Next is my group, which includes myself, two of my roommates, and our sorority littles. I would say we’re fairly normal, by my standards. Other people in line include a very large group of college freshmen, who have all taken off their shoes and camped out, playing loud games with their entire group. Madi even showed up with her dance team and they were all dressed up as different characters from the movie. Madi made a stunning President Snow, of course.

            As I looked around, I laughed. I didn’t laugh out of spite or out of hatred, but just because humans are so fascinating. I can’t sit here and say that I don’t have weird habits. I’m sure people laugh at me when I can’t sit still, my foot constantly tapping a rhythmic patter, or when I compulsively check my Twitter feed every two minutes, even though I know nothing has changed. I laugh because I wonder: how can all of these different people be here, in the same place, brought together by a love of a movie? Even now, as I type this, I’m laughing because I think about how cool the concept is.

            So next time you’re in a public place, whether it’s the airport on your way home for the holidays or the lobby of Reed before class, look around and see how funny people can be. And then think about it this way: all of these people are doing the same thing as you. They are flying home to cuddle with their puppies and eat turkey for Thanksgiving and they are studying for finals and cramming eight page papers into one night. Just like you. And then, I encourage you to laugh, because it really is cool. We are so vastly different, but we are also all the same.

Just a Phone Call Away.

I don’t know if y’all know this or not, but it is cold outside. It seems like just yesterday it was sunny and 75 (but maybe that’s because it was…). I went into the movie theatre just before the midnight premiere of “Catching Fire” last night and though rainy and windy, it was bearable. When I walked back out the same doors two and a half hours later, the thermometer read a bitter 35 degrees.

With that being said, you can bet I didn’t wake up feeling that well this morning. I went to my classes and my meetings and just felt miserable. However, I knew I had planned a meeting with Bayan (it would be our fourth… WOW!) and I didn’t want to miss that for anything. As fate would have it, Bayan was feeling under the weather, too. The thing was, I really didn’t want to miss this meeting with her. I really look forward to and enjoy our time we have together and it really brightens the end of my week.

So that’s when I struck a compromise: why don’t we have our fourth meeting via phone call? It’s not like she’s out of the country or anything… A phone call might be just what we need to get to feeling better. Additionally, this would be a great opportunity for me to continue to enrich myself with Bayan’s culture, and due to the nature of our conversation, Bayan would get to work on her English skills because we would be lacking all non-verbals (I’m sure your skin is crawling right now, Ashlyn).

I will admit: I actually hate phone calls. There is something so awkward about not being able to see someone’s face and visible emotions when you’re talking to them. I thought I had gotten over all of my fears with my conversation partner, but of course it never ends. Here’s to conquering your fears.

So I called her. We started with the basic small talk and I realized that this was going to be more difficult than I expected. I soon found myself wishing I had her non-verbals to give me some context for what she was talking about. But we soon got used to it and settled into a conversation like we were together and no time had passed since our last encounter.

Of course, our first topic of conversation was the weather. I feel like we always make some sort of mention of the weather because Bayan is never happy with the Texas climate. It never really gets below 70 degrees in Saudi Arabia so she just doesn’t know how to handle the rapidly changing weather of Texas.

We never stay on the topic for too long because we always have bigger and better things to discuss. As usual, Bayan always asks about me and about my week. When I told her about my trip to the midnight premiere of “Catching Fire,” she was so confused by the concept. Why do you stay up so late to see a movie? Why is the movie not until midnight?

Well, Bayan, I’m not sure I can tell you these answers. I’m still not sure why I thought that it would be a good idea. But talking about movies (one of my passions) helped me to connect with her. Bayan doesn’t really have time to watch movies but she loves the ones she does get to watch. Every interaction I have with Bayan amazes me. Though our cultures are extremely different, we are still so connected. This phone call just made me realize that no matter how far away Bayan and I are, neither of us is more than a phone call away.

University Days.

            Today marked my third meeting with Bayan. As these meetings become more regular, I’m beginning to find a deeper appreciation for our meetings and see the value in the time that I spend with her. Bayan is one of the most caring people I have ever met; before I can ever ask her any questions, she never fails to ask me about my week. What’s even more is that she is so intentional. She always remembers the things I tell her about in our previous meetings. This week, she asked me about my stressful week: how did my presentations go, how did my interviews go, what did I get on my test on Monday? I admire her so much, and because I know how much she loves meeting with me, it makes me love meeting with her even more.

            After we made it through the beginning small talk of how our weeks were and what we were doing for the weekend, she reminded me of something that I sometimes lose sight of in the mess of projects and tests: these years we spend in college are supposed to be the time of our life. Nothing can compare to the years we spend in college; this is where we make our lifelong friends, find our passions, and most importantly, discover ourselves.

            Bayan’s undergraduate experience was vastly different than mine, and she doesn’t hesitate to remind me of all of the opportunities we have as American students that she just didn’t get in her undergraduate experience in Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, they only have a few colleges with just a few majors, such as business, journalism (Bayan studied journalism!), and political science. Being a music major, the fact that I have the opportunity to study only music blows Bayan’s mind.

            She also reminded me of how fortunate we are as students at a university as great as TCU. She doesn’t understand why I don’t take advantage of all of the programs that TCU offers (i.e. the speakers, guest lecturers, and service programs) because that is something that you simply don’t find elsewhere. We are truly blessed to attend an institution like TCU; nothing quite compares to the 4-7 years we spend here.

            By talking about our passion for TCU, Bayan allowed me to talk about my passion for higher education. She doesn’t quite understand that graduate program I want to pursue (student affairs) but we were able to find common group in the preparation process for grad school. We talked about the GRE and GPA requirements and which schools had good programs for our desired degrees. She still wouldn’t let me forget that I am fortunate to spend my undergrad time here, with a beautiful campus, surrounded by intelligent friends and supportive faculty. At times, school can be stressful. Tests are difficult, presentations are nerve-wracking, and papers are tedious. But at the end of the day, we are immensely blessed to go to school in America, where people of different genders, races, sexualities, and backgrounds have (generally) the same opportunities.

            This particular meeting with Bayan really put things into perspective for me. I get stressed out very easily, but if I realize how fortunate I am, the stress can be easily controlled. Bayan thinks that she’s learning more from me, but the truth is that I am learning so much more than she could ever imagine. I love my time with Bayan. As always, we parted ways with plans to meet at the same time next week, and as always, I am counting down the days until we get to converse again. Bayan is becoming less of a forced contact and more of a friend, and that is in itself a blessing.

Y'all Want A Taco?

            My Saturday morning started out bright and early; I had signed up for LEAPS, TCU’s campus-wide day of community service. My group included several girls from my sorority, and we were paired with a fraternity (to remain nameless) with whom we really don’t get along with. Don’t ask me how this happened. Our organizations attract very different people so we knew that this would be an interesting experience, to say the very least.

            What was our first clue? The fact that at 8 AM, when we were all supposed to be there to load the buses, approximately five members of the fraternity were there. When asked where the rest of the group was, the men that were there responded nonchalantly, “a bunch of guys are at the house recovering from the bars last night. They’ll be here soon… Hopefully.” Well, alright.

            When the men finally showed up, our next clue came from the young man who boarded the bus, held up two large bags of Whataburger, and announced to the bus: “Y’all want a taco?” I think I’ll pass. However, I think it was this moment that made us all realize that we were in this together. We were all here to serve the community. Additionally, maybe I should have a little more respect for these men; yeah, they did go out last night and they still made it in the morning, no matter how bad the hangover they were battling was.  These men offered us tacos; I guess that’s an unconventional form of a peace offering.

            The site we were serving was Harmony Health Harvest, located at Harmony Missionary Baptist Church. It sits in a not-so-nice part of Fort Worth but the people that work at this church are some of the best people I have ever met. The church is in the process of developing after-school programs for area schools, but in order to do so, they must develop new buildings so they have places to hold the programs. We split up into three groups: one group (the rough-hands, AKA the fraternity men) were responsible for cleaning up the property, one group was responsible for planning a Vintage Christmas Fair in order to raise money for their building projects, and a third group (my group) helped to beautify the road the church is situated on by picking up trash. It amazed me that a group of college students got up early on a morning when they could’ve been sleeping in, and selflessly served the community without an ounce of complaint.

            The head pastor at this church introduced us to this idea of “communiversity.” In addition to my sorority and the fraternity we were partnered with, the church had been working closely with Tarleton State University and their social work program to improve this church for the after-school programs. Not only were we working alongside a fraternity from a different part of campus, but we were also working with a completely different school.

            Through this, I was really made aware of the fact that service truly brings everyone together. If we put aside all of our differences for just a few hours, we can make an impact on the community. In this service-learning experience (that was slightly uncomfortable at the start), a positive attitude led to learning important lessons. Love, peace, tolerance, and service are simple ways to bring everyone together. If we put our differences aside, everyone can work together to make a collective difference in the lives of people that need it.

The Melting Pot.

            Once again, I have had quite the busy week. So busy, in fact, that I almost forgot about my meeting with my conversation! I was recently selected as a director for academic orientation and we’ve been doing interviews all week long. Luckily, I was able to grab a cup of coffee with Bayan between a couple of my interviews on Friday.

            Though still a little nervous about meeting up with my conversation partner, I was extremely excited to catch up with Bayan and see how her week had been. I sat down at Union Grounds and waited for a while (Bayan was a few minutes late), but as soon as I saw her, both of our faces lit up. We were able to pick up exactly where we left off; our conversation didn’t even skip a beat.

            I could tell Bayan was a little frustrated so I essentially offered to be her sounding board as she voiced things that were upsetting her. Generally a role I reserve only for my best friends, I was honored that Bayan felt that she could talk to me about things that were bothering her. She told me that she was bothered by her lack of desire to continue with the English program. She knows that it will be beneficial in the long run but she simply does not love it right now. She also confided in me that she has several desires that her husband kind of stifles, indicative of the patriarchal culture in Saudi Arabia. She wants to travel and explore the world (Texas, to be specific).

            This led us to discuss how travelling is such a valuable experience. I have such a passion for travelling and exploring the world, so it’s exciting that Bayan and I can bond over this love of the world. You can learn so much for experiencing different parts of the world. By coming into contact with different cultures, you become a much more open-minded person; you begin to understand humanity as a whole and see how these different cultures are essentially cogs in the machine that is Earth.

            This made me think: I guess this is essentially the reason we do this conversation partner experiment. Just by meeting with Bayan once a week, I am opening my mind and beginning to understand a culture that I previously knew nothing about. This understanding of different cultures promotes tolerance and peace, something this world could definitely use a little more of.

            Bayan finished our meeting by saying that she was so glad to be meeting with me because she was genuinely learning so much. I could’ve taken this as a token of self-satisfaction, but it really made me think. She may be learning so much from me, but I am honestly learning so much from her, as well. This experience that I was so nervous about has turned out to be so gratifying and beneficial.

            To finish, in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I want to express my gratitude for this experience. Even though this is only my second meeting with Bayan, I can already feel our relationship growing. Bayan wants to go to Arizona after she finishes the English program here and I can easily say that I will be genuinely sad to see her leave. Through this forced interaction, a friendship has blossomed and from this friendship, I am learning so much. I don’t have to leave the country to experience different cultures; TCU is full of people different from me: international students, out-of-state students, students of different faiths. TCU is a melting pot and I can learn from everyone as I have learned from Bayan. I look forward to learning even more from Bayan as we continue to meet.