Lunch with Nasser

For my last visit with Nasser we decided to mix things up a little bit and go somewhere off campus. We had talked about getting lunch somewhere before so that seemed like the logical thing to do. Nasser suggested that we go to Terra, a Mediterranean restaurant on west 7^th street. Apparently it was one of Nasser’s favorite restaurants and had some of his favorite dishes from home. I hadn’t eaten Mediterranean food in a long time so I trusted Nasser’s opinion and got what he suggested, I really enjoyed the food, plus it was a buffet so you can never really go wrong with that.

Technically this was my last required visit with Nasser, but as we will both be living here this summer I plan to keep in touch with him and hang out with him over the summer. We have learned a lot about each other and our different cultures. Who knew that I would have a friend from Saudi Arabia? There is no end to the things that we can discuss and compare from each of our lives. It really is fascinating to be able to learn firsthand about a person from a completely different side of the world and what its like for them to live in my world for a few years. We always learn about places from textbooks or professors, but there’s something about being able to have a discussion with someone who has the experience rather than just the information. I think its great that we are able to talk to our peers, not just someone from a different country, but also someone whom we can identify with more closely because of our age and our common experiences.

Looking back to a few months ago to our first meeting it seems like its been much longer than just three or four months. I have really enjoyed getting to know Nasser and I hope he feels the same about me. Every time we meet his English gets better and better, I think this last time I only had to help him with one or two words, and we didn’t have any misunderstandings at all. As much as I would like to take credit for this I don’t think I can. I would like to think that I have at least helped him in some small way though, introducing him to new experiences that might be unique to being an American. Its really fascinating to see Nasser learn about something for the first time, especially when its something that he is amazed by. I remember when we went to the TCU baseball game and he finally started to understand the game, it was great to see him watch something for the first time that I have grown up with all of my life. I'm sure that I would be just as awed if I traded places with Nasser and visited Saudi Arabia, which I hope to do someday. But, until then I plan on keeping up with Nasser and continuing this friendship that we have formed.

My Uncle

My Uncle has always been a fun person to hang around. When we still lived in Lubbock I used to spend much of my summers living with him and my cousins on their farm. Although my cousins were much older than me (about 10-12 years) they still enjoyed hanging out with me and would always include me in their plans. My uncle lived in a small town called Plains, Texas which literally had two stoplights. His farm was about fifteen minutes outside of town and he grew cotton and peanuts and raised cattle.

My uncle has always been a very smart person; he has two degrees from Texas Tech University, one of which is engineering. My mom always thought it was a waste that he spent his time farming, but it was something that he really enjoyed and that he was good at. He was always at his shop building some new piece of equipment that would make his life easier. I remember one summer that he bought an old truck of some sort and converted it to help him in harvesting his peanuts. He would usually include me in these projects and give me some small task to do such as drilling some part or assembling something. He even taught me to weld when I was eleven years old. Then he would just give me a bunch of scrap metal and tell me to build something out of it. It was basically like Legos on steroids, I could build anything I wanted and if I needed something cut a certain way I would explain it to him and he would cut it out for me. I used to spend hours on end welding up awesome objects and I still know how to weld today thanks to him.

As I mentioned earlier he also had a farm where he grew cotton and peanuts. What’s cooler to a young boy than getting to drive heavy equipment all day? Not much, and that was the coolest part, he would let me sit on his lap and steer the tractor while we were plowing the fields. As I got older he would even let me drive the tractors by myself, probably not the best decision he ever made, but I never broke anything. He also had four-wheelers that he would let me ride around and herd the cattle with. I don’t know if you’ve ever chased cows on an ATV but I'm pretty sure it would still be fun today, in fact I don’t know that it ever gets old.  He even taught me how to drive his truck, again something most people would probably not do, but it seemed that he trusted me and knew what I was capable of. This was probably the main reason I liked hanging out with him. He would just about give me free rein and rarely said no to anything I asked. He was much like the father figure that was missing in my life since my mother and father were divorced.

Sadly, when we moved from Lubbock to Graham most of my visits to his farm ceased. Now we were six hours away instead of one, so it made it hard for my mom to take me so often. I really have some great memories from my time with him and he taught me many lessons. I don’t get to see him as much as I like, in fact I don’t think I’ve seen my uncle since my graduation. I am hoping to be able to visit him this summer and again spend some time at the farm. Who knows maybe it will be the same as it used to be.