My First Lunch With Debora!

              When I finally received the email notifying me of my conversation partner, my eyes quickly scanned the email to where they listed the country. Debora from Brazil, yes! I honestly would have been excited with a partner from any country around the world, but Brazil seemed exotic, foreign, and has a spot in “Hailey’s Top 10 Places to Travel” list. Not only did Brazil fascinate me, but Tobias, my good friend from high school, lived in Rio de Janeiro before moving to Oregon. I knew that if Debora and I ran out of conversation topics, I could at least find something to relate to her from what Tobias told me about Brazil. I immediately emailed her in anticipation of meeting a new friend different from my “everyday friends” at TCU. However, after a week of patiently waiting for her response and another week of trying to coordinate a time to meet, I began to worry about our meeting. Her English over texting was rough and each message took a few minutes to decode. I had already experienced studying abroad over the summer and trying to converse with people who knew almost no English, and I did not want relating to Debora to be that challenging.

              Once we finally found a time to meet and decided on the BLUU, which she called “the restaurant,” all of my apprehensions vanished upon introduction. Even though I occasionally had to help with her with words, her spoken English was much clearer than her written English. Right away I realized that Debora is the twenty-seven year old, Brazilian version of myself. After the customary small talk such about our hometowns and studies, we dove right into conversations I have had with some of my closest friends. We talked about weddings and how girls in Brazil and girls in America both start planning at a ridiculously early age. She married a man from Michigan three months ago, so we scrolled through all of the beautiful photos of her Brazilian-American wedding. She gave me advice on planning a wedding and opened up about how she believes in love at first sight and sometimes you just know you are with the right person. We discussed all of the places we have been so fortunate to travel to and how being on your own in a foreign place have been some of our scariest, but most rewarding adventures. We laughed about our love for soccer or futbol and our confusion with American football. We talked for over an hour, but we both could have sat there for longer if we did not both have prior engagements.

              As we discovered differences and similarities about ourselves, we could not help but laugh. I had no idea what to expect from Debora, so I created my expectations on what I have heard about Brazilians and I am sure she based her expectations of me on her idea of a typical American college student. Throughout lunch, we constantly broke the expectations we set for one another. She laughed when I told her how sororities are actually not like Legally Blonde and how Hollywood negatively portrays them. It fascinated me to learn about Carnival and how even though the rest of the world views it as a big crazy party, Brazilians hold the traditions close to their hearts. I believe that people naturally create expectations of one another, but we must be willing to let go of those expectations and just laugh. Yes, I felt awkward when Debora leaned in to kiss my cheek goodbye and I head dodged the contact, but I laughed. When I embrace differences no matter how goofy they may be, I become open to creating deep and meaningful connections. I am already counting down the days until my next lunch with Debora!