Final Meeting with Harry

Harry and I met for our last time this Thursday, and with that, Harry seemed to be the most chatty with me today. He had a lot to say today and I'm sad to say that I wish every conversation had gone more smoothly and naturally like this one did.

To really kind of wrap up our 45 minute discussion, I'll just hit some of the high points. We talked a lot about internships and work again. I asked him what his plans were since he already knew about mine, and he said he would just like to have something that would pay him. Unfortunately, it's difficult for him to get an internship, much more a paid internship in the U.S. Not really sure why, but it seems like countries give priority to citizens and not international students or others that have obtained a working visa. I asked him if he could get an internship where would he get it, and he said he wasn't sure at all. He knows he wants to do business but, as of right now, he doesn't know what direction he would want to take his business degree.

Whatever Harry does though, it must involve a lot of money, he definitely made that clear. He has an obsession with luxury vehicles and plans on buying a Lamborghini sometime in his life. His parents own a Jaguar and Mercedes (which he clarified to me that imported cars like that cause more than double what we pay for them) so, allow your minds to wander freely as to what they do. Harry said his parents own their own companies and constantly working to branch their businesses out. Harry has discovered that, although he doesn't know what they particularly do (which I found a bit odd), we doesn't want to do anything that they do... confusing, but I guess makes sense when you really think about it.

While talking about business, he mentioned that the United States has ridiculously cheaper products than China. In China, they tax all luxury imports that are unique to China in order to encourage spending on domestic goods, another aspect of the country that Harry isn't too fond of. He has already purchased his own Mercedes while being here and was excited tell me that when graduates his father will give him 100,000 Chinese dollars to purchase whatever car he'd like... now that, my friends, is a kind father! He doesn't know what he'll buy just yet, but he's excited for the day.

After our long discussion about money and cars mixed with a bit of laughter, Harry and I gave our final goodbyes. I wished him a safe trip home and he wished me a happy break. I think we'll still stay in touch.. I still need the name of that software...

Meeting number 7 with Harry

*My original post was saved over by 8th meeting post, so I'm rewriting this*

Harry and I planned to meet at our usual Tuesday time slot of 2:00 at the Barnes and Noble. Unfortunately, for Harry he couldn't meet at 2 and moved our time slot to 5:00. That definitely changed my plans up for the day, since my days are usually so filled with meetings and lately, interviews for this and that.

I came into our meeting a bit late and flustered and sat down so out of breath. He knew that I was definitely struggling a bit and asked me what was going on. I explained to him that these past few weeks have been more than exhausted with projects, meetings and interviews for potential internships I'm just at a total peak as to how busy one can be and have plateaued since I've reached that spot. He felt for me but still didn't quite understand. He only is taking about 9 hours and had nothing but projects to deliver for his finals, which he even claimed were easy. Today, he had just given his final presentation for one of his English classes about himself and he was ready to head home.

I, once again, asked about home for him and today his response was more than enthusiastic about going home. He's really beginning to get excited about heading home to his friends and family, although he's still not thrilled about the traveling to Australia and he's decided not to fly to Denmark. What's really got him excited for home was the food. I absolutely felt for him there. Having studied abroad in London this past summer and being there for a month, I had left behind me fajitas, briscuit, refried beans and a variety of other tex-mex, San Antonio goodness behind in the United States. I came across numerous places that took their own twist on my culture's food or they obviously hadn't had authentic food native to South Texas and made the food into their idea of what it would taste like. Harry explained to me that in China the food is a bit fresher, and more focused on chicken instead of red meat. Here everything is deep friend, and while he's not against the food here, he really wants to get back to the food he has grown up with, and speaking of that, he scoffed at the idea of Chinese food here. It's nowhere near as good as it is in China, and he's only found one place that comes close to it here in Fort Worth, but the one thing he has found that he likes are chicken wings... I laughed and said that was interesting choice out of all foods he could like in America.

After a long discussion of foods, Harry got me thinking of food myself and realized I hadn't eaten that day. I told him I had a meeting to get to, so I could grab some lunch beforehand, and we left it off there. Until Thursday, Harry!

Meeting number 6 with Harry

We met for a short time today in the usual spot and thankfully we got the comfortable seats in Starbucks, our conversation felt much more natural than planned thanks to that addition.

We began conversation with how his week was looking, and boy does it feel like we both have it easy this semester. He has a few projects and presentations to make before he lives this Saturday and I only have two written finals. We both agreed that our lucky definitely won't last, especially discussing our classes for the coming semester. Harry will be diving deeper into his courses that are focused towards his business degree while taking more hours than just the twelve he's in currently enrolled and I'll be taking a whopping a 18 hours plus an internship (being a triple is such a joy sometimes). We both agreed that I would win in what schedule screams "death" the most contest.

After discussing that information I noticed that he was on that website that allowed him to download songs and movies for free. I was literally so in awe with it, we stayed studying that program for a good 15 minutes. He showed me how to browse, and let me tell you... working Chinese programs is not an easy task. From the layout to the language, it's all so complicated. He even says he struggles with a lot of Chinese made software. He searched for the movie Skyfall, and sure enough it was on there! High definition and all, and not a bootlegged copy. It absolutely blows my mind that this kind of software is available. Harry ended up giving me the information to download it myself, too bad I have no idea how to pronounce that program because the only way to identify it is through two Chinese symbols... Joy.

After our software discussion, Harry had to take to off. We planned to me Tuesday and chat again over coffee.

Meeting number 5 with Harry

Well, Harry and I have really discovered that our schedules really have not matched well this semester. We met this past Thursday and decided then and there that we would hammer out the rest of our meetings this coming week. I thought, "Oh, wow. What will have to talk about if our meetings are so close to one another." Surprisingly though, meeting so many times in a short amount of time really forced us to stray from the usual, "how was your week?" and "what are your plans for the day?" type of questions.

Harry and I met at our usual Starbucks spot inside and had a bit of an interesting conversation about our usual weekend activities. We talked heavily about what we do socially, our life outside of the academic world. We chatted about our usual routine and I briefly explained what event I was going to this coming, I think it was a mixer I was telling him. I had to explain to him how fraternity and sorority events pan out; We have to board buses and transport to a location that nobody knows the whereabouts of (to prevent drunk driving). He thought it was a really interesting that we plan events like this for just one night out. I laughed and told him that's not all we do, that sometimes I just stay in or go to a friends house to relax after a long week or rough day.

He began to tell me that one of the things he missed the most about China was the small amount of regulation there is when it comes to going to bars and alcohol. While he's 20, in China he has the ability to go to any bar or any type of establishment where alcohol is served which is one of the most appealing aspects of China that he finds to be better than the United States. Most of his weekends spent in China are spent gathering at a local bar and just chatting and drinking with his high school friends. In Fort Worth, he enjoys that he still gathers at friends' houses but he finds the social scene lacking a bit here due to the fact the legal drinking age is 21 and most bars are 21 and up. He can't wait to get home and finally have a large drink after this semester. We both started cracking up.

We wrapped up the conversation and said our good byes and went our separate ways.

My Fourth Meeting with Harry

I really enjoyed my meeting with Harry today. Our meetings having seemingly become much more authenticated lately. With just a few quick texts, we're able to meet up at any place we choose and it doesn't seem forced. We recognize each other's busy schedules and have kept up one of our own for our meetings. It's really exciting to see the connection that him and I are making and today we had a lot to catch each other up on since the break.

We began with the ever common, "How was your break?" question. His trip to Miami was a definite hit for him and his girlfriend. The weather was warm, yet still cool and the culture was fantastic, he said. The only con he could find there was the spanish language that was so fluent for most people in the city. He's still new to learning English, but when people are throwing in Spanish to the mix, Harry's caught really off-guard. He asked how my break went and I replied with how great of a time I had in Austin for the game and that I was able to spend my vacation with family towards the end.

Harry then asked what my plans were for Winter break. All I'm really doing is going home to be with my family and friends with maybe some side trips to Austin or Fort Worth in between. Well, Harry blew me absolutely away with his plans... He'll be going to China, then in a week be leaving for Australia to stay for a week, then he'll head back to China to get ready for a flight to Denmark. I told him how exhausting that sounded and he didn't sound too thrilled about the trips either. "Yeah, we have family over in those places but I can't handle how long the flights are," he said. I wouldn't blame him either. 10 hours to Australia, then who knows how long a flight to Denmark would be... He told me he plans on staying back in China for the trip to Denmark.

He also isn't too thrilled about seeing his parents either, but then again, who is really excited to have to be with their parents for an entire month? He wouldn't be spending an entire month with his parents though. Although he's said before that his parents aren't really very controlling and have supported with most decisions he's made in his life, he doesn't actually spend much quality time with them since they're constantly working on the growth of their businesses.

Finally, before Harry had to go prepare for a project of his, we chatted about the Chinese government and how controlling they are of the internet. I saw that he was using a chinese version of what looked like Facebook. He told me that it had all the functionality of our Facebook but it was more regulated. He didn't really understand why there was a need to have separate social media sites if both chinese and the actual Facebook site mirror each other, but the chinese Facebook is more catered to the chinese in both language and regulated content (which is regulated by the government). Also, he mentioned to me that the chinese are allowed to download any song and movie they want for free through an approved chinese computer application. This was just beyond me knowing that piracy is such a huge issue in America, I couldn't believe that things like entertainment were offered to China.

Well, until next time, Harry. Can't wait.

Harry and I Meet / Part 3

Harry and I met on Tuesday at around 1:00PM, which seems to be the only time the he and I don't have a conflicting moment in the day. We found ourselves sitting in out in front of the Barnes and Noble tables, once again. I was starving this day, so I suggested we move this conversation to Dutch's for a burger; He seemed happy to come along with me!

Of course, I'm the only who is actually ordering food. I find it quite awkward when I'm the only eating at any sort of event. So as I wait for my food we begin to chat about how are week has been. Harry he seems to constantly be busy with school, because for the 3rd time he's told me that he has multiple one-on-one meetings with his professor in the coming week. It seems that ESL students really have the opportunity to have personal meetings with their professors, but I'm just assuming that they're more like "check-ins" that provide them information as to how they're progressing through their requirements and what not, I'll ask him about it on our next meeting.

Once my burger arrived, we began discussion about what makes each other laugh. He didn't quite seem to know why I was asking this question, I told him about what our class was about centered around and he started to grasp the concept of what he thinks is funny. He's amused by many things: jokes, television and movies. All very general answers, so I decided to delve just a bit deeper and ask specifically what aspects of each of his answers made him laugh. He didn't really have an answer for jokes besides the fact that jokes are usually funny, we shared a bit of an awkward laugh about that. Entertainment media, however, definitely seemed have more depth behind it. I can't remember the name of his favorite actor, but he was quite obsessed with this certain comedian and he had a passion for various films that I had never heard of.

As conversation began to die down, I asked his plan for his Thanksgiving break. He was heading to Miami with his girlfriend and some friends. He laughed about no plans on seeing his family until much later into the winter. I asked him where is girlfriend went to school and she's in school a smaller liberal arts school in the Mid-West. I thought it was remarkable that he was able to keep connection and an emotional relationship with his girlfriend through the process of moving to America and attending different schools, I don't think I could even do that. However, they've been together for almost a year and he likes her quite a bit. I laughed a bit and told him I was pretty jealous of his love, and he scoffed right back at me and said I could a get girlfriend no problem. We both started laughing a bit and I said, it's a bit harder than you think to just get into a relationship, but he has quite a bit of confidence in me to get myself into a relationship.

It was at the end of our relationship talk that I had to end our conversation for a meeting I had early in the afternoon. I bid him farewell and told him we would meet again after Thanksgiving.

Tales of Juha p. 1 - 41

Splashed across about 33 pages of the reading were stories filled with this character called, Juha. An interesting character that takes the form of various emotions, entities and people. I, personally, was very absorbed into the short bits of comedic storytelling. This Juha character seems to be the center of Arabic humor taking advantage of every type of joke that seems possible to tell. From sarcasm to physical humor, Juha is seamlessly fits into each form of humor.

It's odd to me that Juha is such a present form of comedy for Arabs. Seems a bit to me like the "yo mama" jokes in America, focusing on one comedic aspect of somebody's mom and making a joke of them. I know, horrible example, but it seems to fit the mold of Juha, perhaps? Focusing on one element and putting that element in different situations, but Juha isn't just placed in various situations, Juha changes character again and again. It is said the Juha is rich and a pauper, old and young, hero and thief. Is Juha an actual character or is it just an idea? That what the text even questions to us. Juha is fictitious and reality, a representation of societal norms and strife? So many questions come from this Juha humor, but what I did recognize was that Juha was always found in perplexing situations that always ended with witty dialogue. Juha would find a way out of a situation or twist the words of others to manipulate the story into how Juha saw fit.

I can't really describe my true feelings towards this humor, but I was drawn to it, absolutely. The jokes were short, light, fun and sarcastic, at times. The humor dug into representations of real life struggles, slice-of-life type of settings but ended with a comedic twist due to the presence of Juha. Juha would step in, in some form and fashion, and would take these realistic trifles and manipulate them into whatever Juha wanted the outcome to be. Sometimes saving the poor, sometimes helping himself (in not so heroic ways).

To me, Juha wasn't laugh-out-loud type of funny, but I see where Juha has developed many other types of humor. From punchlines to the use of wit, Juha seems to be an older version of humor that has branched out to mesh or begin many types of comedic elements in humor. Because Juha is this omniscient character that has flexibility in form, it looks to see that this type of Arabic humor traveled the world through storytelling to help shape what humor we have today in a way unknown to the creators of Juha.

As I think through again and again about this idea of Juha, it seems that Juha itself is a variety of types of comedic elements. Juha is the epitome of humor. However, I may not find this to be the funniest form of humor, but I see where Juha has helped to develop the humor we recognize and use today. We've unknowingly used Juha to create our own humor, and in that, Juha still exists today. We laugh at our own humor because we've made Juha our own.