Conversation Partner Meeting #2

Today, I met with my conversation partner Paula for the second time.  On this occasion, I was much more confident going into the meeting.  In our first get-together, I learned that Paula is quite sociable and personable.  We established a solid rapport in our original meeting and I was looking forward to continuing that.  This time around, we met in Chik-Fil-A on the first floor of the BLUU.  We began the conversation catching up on what had been going on in each other’s lives. 

Paula started off by telling me about a trip she took to Las Vegas, NV last weekend.  She made the trip with her husband to celebrate her birthday, which is on this coming Friday.  This was the fourth time Paula had been to Las Vegas.  I could tell it was a place she was mildly obsessed with.  Paula enthusiastically described her entire weekend to me in vivid detail.  She clearly had quite the time on her trip.  Paula and her husband arrived in Las Vegas last Friday afternoon.  While in Vegas, they did quite a bit together.  The first night they were there, Paula and her husband went to see a couple of the many shows that are frequently put on in Vegas.  Paula saw shows about both The Beatles and Michael Jackson.  She ranted and raved about The Beatles show, which surprised me.  I found it intriguing that she would like The Beatles and their music given her background. 

Paula also did a little bit of gambling while in Sin City.  Fortunately, she won around a hundred dollars on the slot machines.  Her husband on the other hand, was not so lucky.  Paula laughingly told me that he lost upwards of 500 dollars.  I noticed that she has a little competitive spirit in her.  Outdoing her husband in the gambling department seemed to be a mini victory for her.  During the day, she spent her days hanging out and relaxing by the pool for the most part.  She also got to see a dolphin exhibit while in the city.  Paula described how dolphins are her favorite animals and proceeded to show me the countless pictures that she took of them.  I could tell Paula had quite the weekend.  We talked about her trip for a majority of the conversation.

In the last 15 minutes of our powwow, Paula requested my help with some grammar.  She has a test this week and is fairly worried about it.  We went over a few tenses and I gave her some pointers to keep in mind.  In our first meeting Paula told me that she tends to struggle with grammar so I was glad to help her out.  I’m hoping she will help me brush up on my Spanish next week in return.  Paula also told me about a presentation she has to give this week for her classes.  She is giving a five to seven minute presentation on Mother Teresa on Thursday.  Paula was a little bit stressed about giving the presentation because she is still working on perfecting her English.  I assured her that she would do fine and told her to let me know how it goes. 

Towards the end of our meeting, I could tell that Paula was beginning to warm up to me bit by bit.  In our first meeting she was talkative, but still a little skittish in certain instances.  I could sense that she was becoming more confident in her ability to hold a conversation with me for an extended period of time.  There is no doubt in my mind that our relationship will continue to get better and better over the course of this semester.