Ben - CP #6

For my final conversation partner meeting I hung out with a young man from Venezuela by the name of Jonathan. Jonathan was actually a friend of Daniel's (the last guy that I met with), and Daniel was the one who suggested that we spend some time together. Like Daniel, Jonathan told me that he has a tendency to hang out with other students at FSU that speak Spanish because he is still isn't confident about his English speaking abilities. I told him not to worry at all about that because it is hard for some people, regardless of what language they speak, to go out there and meet new people and that eventually everything has a way of working out for the better. Hanging out with Jonathan was a great experience because I had the chance to share some of my own interests with him. I took Jonathan to a musical theatre showcase last Wednesday night. Originally I had planned to meet with Jonathan and hang out for a little while at Atomic coffee. This was nice, we shared things about our cultures (Jonathan told me about a particularly delicious Venezuelan dish called arepas that they eat for breakfast, I totally need to try that at some point in my life), and I had a good time talking about school and whatnot. Eventually it came up that I was a theatre major and I explained that actually after we were hanging out I was going to go to a musical theatre showcase that a few of my friends were participating in. In the moment I asked Jonathan if he would like to come along and he said "why not?" He told me he did not know that much about theatre, he was more interested in video games (no judgement from me, video games are awesome), but he would definitely be up for trying it out.
Turns out Jonathan had a great time at the showcase. It was really nice because afterwards I introduced him to my friends and he seemed to have a great time. He said he was particularly impressed by the students' abilities to sing and dance, sometimes at the same time! I encouraged him to seek out theatre in Venezuela if he ever has the chance. Of course, we talked a bit about the tumultuous environment over there right now. Mostly though he did not seems to want to discuss it, which is understandable because it is such a troublesome subject. In the end we had a great time hanging out and like my time with Daniel I wished we could hang out some more.