“I have met other international students from my roommate… They’re all pretty cool.”
Hold a Conversation
In addition to the questions below, please see How to use the questions for reflection.
Clarifying Questions
- Why does the speaker have so many “foreign friends?”
- What does the speaker mean by “orphan Easter,” and why did he feel so at home even though he wasn’t?
- How does the speaker feel about his roommate?
- In talking about international nights at the Gandhi-King Center, the speaker says the students “serve their foreign, er, their native food.” Why does he switch from “foreign” to “native?”
Interpretive Questions
- How close do you think the speaker is to his “foreign” friends? What leads you to that conclusion?
- How would you describe the tone of the speaker? How does the tone impact your impression of him? of his story?
- What do you make of the speaker’s use of the term, “foreign?”
Let us know how the conversation or self-reflection went. Email us or discuss the experience in our comment box.
Transcript for BFFs: Best Foreign Friends
I live in Brandt, I do feel at home in my community at Brandt. I’ve made lots of close friends. My roommate is from Germany. He’s pretty cool. He’s gay. He’s a cool, gay kid, one of the first homosexuals that I’ve ever been friends with and we get along very well. The rest of the people in Brandt are pretty cool, people stop by all the time, we have a good time, lots of friendships forever, BFFs. I have met other international students because of my roommate, people from Brazil, Spain, Germany, Sri Lanka, China, they’re all pretty cool. Valpo’s diverse with different foreign people, but not like there’s not many black people around here. There’s lots of foreign kids, that’s about it.
The time I felt I belonged here? Easter. I didn’t go home for Easter so we had a bunch of people that didn’t go home made a big ole dinner, like twenty five of us and we all went over to the German house and had a big ole three and a half hour dinner together and played games and whatnot. Had an orphan Easter. It was pretty fun. I felt at home, even though I wasn’t at home.
I hang out with all the foreign kids, so they have in the Gandhi-King center in the top floor of the Union they have cultural nights. I think it’s like once a month where different cultures put on presentations about their countries and they serve their foreign or native food and that’s pretty fun. I go to those. Intramural sports, I do. I have played soccer, basketball, and floor hockey. Hockey was just all of the foreign kids that have never played and don’t know the rules, we got them all together and we played floor hockey and had a good time. They didn’t do too bad for a bunch of foreigners. Just a bunch of people running around not knowing what they’re doing, and not knowing the rules to hockey, horrible at the start of the season, but actually got to the second round of playoffs.