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.