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.