Second Meeting 9/8

            In my second meeting with Denily, we talked a lot about sports and her home culture. I had several stereotypes overturned during our conversation; first, I learned that Venezuelan food is very mild, and almost never has anything spicy. This was a little bit of a surprise, since I thought most cultures would have at least one spicy thing in a meal, but Denily assured me that she doesn’t enjoy spicy food at all. I tried to do a little research (Wikipedia!) to see if any region had spicy food, but came up with few results, although the article did mention one spicy food. Maybe she is just in the wrong part of the country for spiciness. Another stereotype that was overturned was that soccer is the most popular sport in Venezuela. I always thought that Central American countries tended toward baseball and that South American countries tended towards soccer. Apparently though, according to Denily, they are both about equally popular, although the internet says baseball is generally more popular. A final misconception I had about Venezuela was that it was a hot country, temperature-wise. Thinking this, I figured the Texas heat was pretty typical to her, but she told me she couldn’t stand the heat. In fact, I compared the temperature data for her city to some of the “perfect weather” cities in California and was surprised to find that the temperature in her city is even more consistent than most of California.

            We met again on Saturday to watch a football game; she and a friend from Venezuela both came to the game against Grambling State (yes, this is being written much too late), where I tried to explain how football is played. As I did this, I realized how complicated football really is to someone who has never really watched it. Even the basics of it were difficult to explain. On certain rules, I actually realized I had no idea why certain things happened. Denily asked why the play clock sometimes counts down from 25 seconds and at other times from 40.

            It was a good second meeting. I’m enjoying learning all about another culture. That’s one of my favorite things about college, the ability to hang out with people from all over the world. More meetings to come soon enough!