Convo 5

I met Guilherme again that Friday. Yes, Friday was the third time that week that I met my conversation partner. When I wrote that I was going to try to finish these meetings and posts before the semester was up, I meant it. However, meeting with Guilherme isn’t the chore I thought it was going to be at the beginning of the semester. It’s actually kind of fun. I think it’s exciting because he is someone kind of outside of my usual circle. I usually hang out with friends from my fraternity or my girlfriend. We all have similar tastes, and even similar backgrounds, so it’s kind of refreshing to talk to someone with a different point of view.

            This time, although we met in the Rec as usual, we decided to go grab some lunch at the Chick-fil-a on campus. That meant that we had to walk across campus, which wasn’t fun because it was ridiculously cold outside. To make things worse, it was raining. Texas weather is just plain crazy. Thursday, it was around 75 degrees and not raining. Friday, it was in the 30s and raining. And when I checked one of my weather apps, it said there was a chance of snow on Monday! Unbelievable! I miss warm weather already.

            But this post is about my conversation with Guilherme, not weather. However, we did talk about the weather for a little bit. I asked Guilherme about the weather in Brazil, and what he described makes me want to go to Brazil pretty badly. He said that in the summer Brazil could get into the 90s, but rarely over 100. Then he said that the temperature in his part of Brazil during winter usually stay around the 50s, possibly 40s. He also mentioned that snow is pretty rare there. I’m pretty sure I could get used to weather like that.

            Then I talked about my experiences with snow. I lived in Texas for the first eight years of my life, but only once do I remember any significant amount of snow on the ground during that time (and by significant, I mean about an inch). I moved from Texas to Maryland when I was about 8, and on my first day in the state there was about four to six inches of snow on the ground. It was crazy! I had no idea what to do with so much snow! To make things worse, I didn’t really have any effective winter clothes, since I hadn’t needed them in Texas. That first week was really fun though, and it’s something I’ll never forget.

            We talked about guns for a little bit because he is debating the use of assault weapons in one of his classes. Then we talked about hunting. My extended family has land right on the Red River where we go deer and duck hunting. Although I’ve been out there plenty of times, I’ve never actually killed a deer. I think I’m bad luck in the deer blind.

            Guilherme said that the government in Brazil basically outlawed just about all hunting. Plus, it’s super difficult to get a gun there. So he hadn’t really been hunting before. I don’t really think hunting is that great anyways, so I told him that he wasn’t really missing anything.

            I only have one of these meetings left, but I’m kind of going to miss it. It has been a lot of fun getting to know Guilherme and getting to know more about Brazil.