My Third Meeting With Angela

Angela and I have started to form a great friendship through our meetings. She loves learning more about the culture in the United States and it is interesting for me to learn about her life back in Colombia as well as the cultural differences she has faced since moving to the United States. During our third meeting I wanted to learn more about her family back home. There are five members of her family, herself, her mom and dad, and she has one brother and one sister. Her sister is 23 and her brother is 21. She is extremely close with both of her siblings, her sister especially who is coming to the United States to visit her in two weeks. When she is in Colombia she lives in the capital city with her brother and her sister which is about a half hour from where her parents live and where she grew up. We talked a lot about family traditions as well. Her dad is an amazing cook and so every Sunday she goes home with her siblings and her dad cooks a big meal for everyone. She loves that the Sunday evening meal brings everyone together even though she and her siblings no longer live with her parents. This is a tradition that is similar for me and Angela because my mom is also an awesome cook. When I was growing up my family had a home cooked meal together every night which we treated as a time to get caught up on what had happened at school for my sister and I and at work for my dad. I always loved having that time to relax with my family and share what had happened in our days. Now whenever I go home for break my family still has home cooked meals together every night. Angela and I also talked about holiday traditions our families have. Her favorite holiday is New Year’s Eve because her entire extended family comes to her house and everyone is responsible for bringing a different type of homemade food and then they have a big dinner to celebrate. She said she loves being together with her family and reflecting about the highs and lows of the previous year and sharing their goals for the New Year together. The part she misses most about Colombia is the quality time spent with her family and friends. I shared with her my favorite holiday tradition which is Christmas Eve dinner with my family. Christmas Eve is the only time that my entire extended family is together so it is a great time to get caught up with my cousins, aunts, and uncles. In my opinion, there is no better way to celebrate a holiday then surrounded by your friends and family. Angela and I communicate with one another well and have found many similarities between the two of us. We are both extremely close to our families and are coping with being away from them since she is from Colombia and I am from Nebraska.  It has been really enjoyable to make a new friend that I have so much in common with.