I swear it wasn't a date.

I’ve never been on a blind date before, but I imagine it would be somewhat like what happened to me this afternoon. There I was, sitting in the bright afternoon sunlight outside of 1873, nervously fidgeting and moving around in my chair. 

What if it's just really awkward? What if they can't speak English? What if I make them feel uncomfortable by accidentally offending them? What if one of my friends walks by and thinks I'm on a date at 1873? And most importantly, how will I recognize this person I’ve never met, especially if I can't identify their gender based on their name? 

Thaigo Franca, Brazil. 

That’s all I knew, and that’s all I was looking for as my eyes darted around the commons, waiting to spot my foreign friend from afar. Suddenly, my eyes locked in on someone and I knew instantaneously that it must be Thiago, and Thiago must be a guy. Call it intuition, call it fate, call it why else would an older ethnic man be walking toward my empty table, but I just knew.

Shoot. Now it's really going to look like we're on a date. 

“Sarah?”

The first words out of his mouth, and I immediately jumped up, not quite sure how to respond because I was not quite sure how to pronounce his name.

“You must be Thiago!” I chirped, and anxiously stuck my hand out for a shake.

“Oh, you mean Chi-ago,” he said, shaking my hand and sitting down.  “Like Chicago.”

Well this is off to a good start. My first words and I butcher his name. I blushed and apologized, to which he responded quite nicely, and went on to explain to me the “th” in Portugese is pronounced like “ch” in English. So, after learning that, I promptly said goodbye and sprinted back to my dorm room to type this. 

Only joking. 

We sat in the sunshine and flew around many different topics, touching down here and there to better understand each other. My previous worries melted away in the Texas sun, and I didn't even care that it looked like I was on a date. 

It wasn't a date, okay? 

I learned Thiago is 26, and in the Intensive English Program here at TCU. His homeland is 5,000 miles away in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and he comes from a family with two sisters, Isabella and Bruna, a mother named Clidea, and a father named Antonio. He has three dogs- two pit bulls and one poodle, respectively named Lucia, Sofia, and Floquinho. I had to ask him to spell that last one for me, which lead to another quick lesson of the Portuguese language. When placed together, the “nh” sounds like the “ñ” of Spanish, a sound for which English has nothing. The different noises and sounds that form together to form language fascinate me. I inquired further and learned that he can speak Portuguese, (obviously) Spanish, and English quite well. His acquisition of English began as any 21^st century boy’s would- through video games, music, and the internet. From there he learned by immersion, because according to him, English is everywhere. He is extremely proficient at speaking, and is taking classes here to perfect his fluency. We discussed some of the nuances of the language we all know and love, and how some sentences and phrases don’t make any sense. For example, why do we say “the gun went off?” Shouldn’t it be “the gun went on?” This reminded me of a website I had seen before, and I immediately responded with the imponderable: “Why are they called apartments if they’re spaced together?” Or perhaps “Why do we recite at plays and play at recitals?” There were countless statements that I could have gone off on, (that’s one in itself, how does one go “off on” something?) but for the sake of brevity, and his sanity, I stopped there. After this brief lull in chuckles, I decided to cut while I was ahead and say goodbye. 

We finished our conversation with formalities and me promising to have better questions lined up next time, and we packed up our respective bags and went back to our respective worlds. It’s interesting to think how completely different our worlds are, even though we have the same vantage point. We walk the same streets, glace up at the same yellow brick buildings, feel the same Texas sunshine radiate on our faces, but at the same time, our differences stack up higher than the TCU Christmas tree. 

I’m excited to continue these conversations, and learn just what it is that makes him smile, because no matter what country you’re from, we all laugh in the same language.