Sixth Meeting With Hashim

Finally, I was able to meet with Hashim again. Despite taking a few efforts to meet him, I received a text back that he would be available to meet. I was worried it was going to be awkward due to the somewhat forced circumstances to meet. Luckily, it wasn’t awkward at all.

Hashim opened the conversation by asking me about Thanksgiving Break. Being from Saudi Arabia, this is a holiday he didn’t celebrate or know much about. He asked a couple questions about what I did for the break. He was really surprised that I even went home for the break. I told him about my break and the time spent with my family. My mom starts to preparing the dishes on Wednesday and my sisters and I help cook the food Thursday morning. My grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins come over and bring different dishes for a late lunch. Hashim didn’t realize that Thanksgiving is a large family gathering. He expected that only immediate family gathered so he was amazed that my extended family came. He started laughing when I told him that even more family comes over for dessert. I’m not sure if it was the amount of family or the fact that they came over during dessert. Either way, I was glad to give him more information about Thanksgiving and how my family celebrates it. Then, Hashim told me how the IEP program put on a lunch for the students. The IEP program put on a traditional Thanksgiving meal for the IEP students in one of the BLUU ballrooms. I think Hashim enjoyed seeing the traditional Thanksgiving spread, but I don’t know if it is anything he is interested in doing again. Also, one of his teachers said that for Thanksgiving, everyone goes home happy and leaves angry. I was a little taken back by the teacher saying this. I understand family events can always bring up past turmoil and drama but I didn’t realize their teacher would share that about Thanksgiving.

Talking about Thanksgiving led us to talking about Black Friday. Hashim wanted me to explain what Black Friday was and if I went. I told him all I could about it (decent deals, lots of people, long lines). His group of friends decided that Black Friday was worth checking out. I’m not sure where all they went but they started out at Walmart. He couldn’t believe how long the lines were and how many there were. He definitely thought it was an experience. But, Hashim seemed to look down on Walmart. He said Target was much more organized and better in general. I agreed because I love Target and can spend hours in that store.

We talked more about the break and caught up in general. I was glad Hashim could meet again and we set up the next meeting to make sure I could get all eight in!