Saturday was a day full of surprising adventures. My girl and I had made plans to see the Devil Wears Prada. We get to the theater, buy the tickets, but then discover the theater is packed ridiculously for the 1:45 pm show. We decide to get a refund and browse through the mall instead. The initial plans were to hang out at Barnes & Nobles after the movies to catch up some free reading. While heading to the car my friend suggested I call this guy I met last week and see what he was up to. Since the guy did call me the previous night, I decided that was a good idea. He invited my friend and I over to hang out at his place. We chilled there for a few hours, ordered take out, bought some drinks, and just had a lot of good and interesting conversation.
This guy is originally from central Africa (I can’t remember the country). He spent some time in France as well and his primary language is French. After listening to stories about his childhood and family culture, I became very intrigued by his life experiences. In fact, I felt a little culturally deprived. Like most immigrants to this country his family moved to take advantage of the lucrative opportunities America has to offer. It amazes me how foreigners can come to this country and make a better living than the natives. But that’s because they come to the states with a passion for more and work ethics that put most of us to shame.
After a few hours of hanging out with this guy he invites my friend and I to his uncle’s house. Evidently their cousin died; and it’s tradition when they have a death before the burial they meet at a relative’s house. The women prepare all of the food and the men bring the drinks. My friend and I didn’t really have anything else lined up for our Saturday, so we were game. Besides, I have never tried any authentic African food before. We arrived at the house which was in a popular suburb area of Dallas. Once the family arrived they did a tribute like ceremony for the deceased and said a prayer. Then we ate, the food was incredible! It was a bit spicy (I’m a wimp when it comes to spicy food) but it was so good. We got there around 7:30pm and didn’t leave until about 12 midnight.
But the day was delightfully good. I enjoyed experiencing the African culture and learned a lot. His family was extremely kind and made my friend and I feel very welcomed. Saturday was a great day!
Today I saw this guy again. We were initially going to see my movie again. But for some reason something more interesting seems to keep replacing the plans to go to the movies. I was invited to accompany my new male friend to his friend’s house to watch the World Cup championship. I was actually thinking about not going, considering I am not a fan of soccer. But something told me I would have a good time if I went. We get there during the half time, and the guys were amped up talking loud (normal sports trash talk) but it was in French. They were all from different countries in African, but they all spoke French.
The game seemed pretty interesting especially with the help of my friend’s Soccer 101 tips. But I was intrigued by watching the guys yell in French. Come to find out France is the only team in soccer to have a team that consist of all Africans which explained why the majority in the house was going for France. It was amazing to me to sit and watch this international sporting event with a room full of people who wasn’t born in the states. The only bad part of the visit was when my allergies started bothering me. There were about 7 cats and 1 dog in the house. And that was enough to start the sneezing fest for me. But I remained a good sport and the lady of the house gave me some Benadryl. We did have to leave immediately after Italy won, because I truly couldn’t stay in the house much longer. But today was definitely another great day!
I guess I will continue to hang out with this man. I enjoy being in his company and I love that I never know who I’ll meet or what I’ll learn when I am with him. My girl also showed up and met a nice guy while there. So we’ll see what happens to those two. I am now about to drug up some more and calm down my allergies. But cheers to a great weekend…
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