Last meeting with WeiRan

Weiran seems very excited about going back to China. He will have many friends waiting at the airport for him in Shanghai, where he will stay for a few days before going back to Beijing with his Father. He told me he really misses his mother deeply, which I found very sweet. When I asked him about if she was excited, he laughed, telling me she had joked with him that the second he was back she’d have to “be bailing him out of trouble all the time!”

From all of our conversations until now, WeiRan and I have many things in common, two of which is that our favorite things to do are eat and nap. We spend a good chunk of our time talking about food. Just call us a couple of foodies.

When I asked him what things he found fun back in China, he told me that one of his favorite things was magic shows. He told me he likes simple magic best, such as card tricks and stuff. He told me that his American friends have showed him many tricks, and he can’t wait to go back to Beijing and impress all of his friends.

It’s funny, WeiRan and I have only had a few conversations, but from the beginning until now there has been a huge change. In the beginning, we were two random people who knew nothing about each other, and it was incredibly awkward. I had no clue what questions to ask or what to talk about. But by this last meeting with him I realized how quickly we became friends.

WeiRan is only waiting on his Speaking Test results, and then if he did well he will have completed his Intensive English program here. He won’t find out until he returns to China.

Even though WeiRan is leaving for China early Friday, we agreed to keep in touch. He introduced me to this phone app, since Facebook isn’t the same in China as it is here. (I never had thought about that before, but I guess it makes perfect sense.) I’ve very happy I got to have this experience with interacting with someone from such a completely different culture, and am happy to have gotten a friend out of it.

Not that it will be long before I see him again. In fact, he says that his very first choice is to come back to TCU for university! That means he will be my classmate in the engineering program! I am very excited that he will be coming back, and also very happy that he has enjoyed it here so much.

This has been quite an experience over the past few months, and I’m very glad that I was placed with the conversation partner that I was. I’ve not only gained some great experience, but a new friend and classmate as well.