Meeting someone from Everlasting Spring City
As a way to broaden my scope about world cultures and to spend some summer time in a constructive, air-conditioned manner, I signed up as a conversation partner for the Culture and Intensive English Program at UNI. I made a commitment to converse with my partner for an hour a week and to share my culture as my partner practiced English.
My assigned partner is Gloria, and I received only her name, her date of birth, her country of origin, her level of English ability, and her email. So, I looked up Colombia for a crash course on the political system, which is bicameral like our own, also with executive and judicial branches, the geography, culture, and history. Even with several hours of reading, I felt my inadequacies, which is why this opportunity is so cool for opening me up to more global thinking.
I got to meet Gloria last week, and I learned more about the culture of Columbia 
and in an hour and a half of conversing than I have in any reading I’ve done, any information I’ve learned in classes, or any news viewing to this point. Gloria, a theater major, with the equivalent of a Master’s, is animated, telling me stories about how people determine their salaries by the month, pay into their pension and health care funds, and how she and her husband got married on their lunch breaks and how she couldn’t remember her wedding anniversary when she applied for her visa.
She is very proud of her city and plans to tell me more about
