It's one of those "Oh, my God!" surprising moments
Life is strange that way.
So background story on my moment(s):
Back in January, Vivian told me about a volunteer opportunity called "Conversation Partners." It's a language exchange, but the purpose is to help UCSD Extension students learn English, with the added bonus of learning the students' native language. Basically by applying/replying, they'd put my name and contact info as well as the language I'd like to learn on a list and people would contact me. So, after e-mailing the woman in charge about the first week of January, never got a response, and never got any e-mails as requests, I assumed she didn't put me on the list :(
To be fair, though, the "deadline" to be put on the list was in December.
But as soon as this quarter started, April 2, I got 2 e-mails. Amazing! But soon after that, I got a flood of requests, and I was getting upset that my schedule wouldn't allow me to help them all. I knew that I could help at least one person, and because this girl was the first, I decided it was fair to meet with her first.
Her name is Ami. She's my age. I was a little nervous about meeting her, because I'm socially awkward like that, and asked Angela to come along if I bought her dinner :D We went to OVT. It was Ami's first time getting food from one of the dining halls on campus. She said she was in the US for only 2 weeks... I thought her English was amazingly good for having been here for such a short amount of time. But she lived in Canada for a year because of her father's work. I must admit I still felt a little shy with her, but I hope I could have hidden that well. I really liked her! Several other Circle K people passed by and we introduced her to them.
She said the reason she was probably the first to send me an e-mail was because she was so lonely. At the UCSD Extension, it mostly has adult students from 30 and up. So... being a 19-year-old seems like she'd be intimidated or not able to connect with someone. Her roommates are also really old... comparitively. I mentioned Angela and I were in Circle K and we met a lot of people, and that she would too if she wanted to join. I felt my meeting her was more significant this way if I could help her make a lot of friends.
Our conversation with her lasted for 3 hours! I'm glad I have nothing to do on Tuesdays. Haha. It went in all sorts of directions but somehow it got on the topic of birthdays.
Now here's the "OMG" Moment:
I had mentioned that I never got to celebrate my birthday while in school because it's right after the school year ends (I'm therefore always the same age during a school year.. *sigh*). Angela asked me when my birthday was, and so I told her "June twenty-fourth." Angela turned to Ami and asked the same question. She quickly responded "June twenty-fourth." I thought I was hearing her wrong, and Angela looked as though Ami was just repeating what I had said. But in actuality, it is the same day! For further clarification, Angela asked, "wait which year?" And she said "Nineteen eighty-seven." Sure enough, I said the same. There were double-takes and lots of laughter. It was the first time I had ever met a person with the same birthday, not to mention the same year (the one exception was long long ago before I had an AIM screenname and I used to use chatrooms on... I don't even remember. He and I had the same birthday [and no, he didn't scam me into revealing mine since he said his first]).
I took this as a sign that our meeting was fate! I seem to be strongly influenced by strange signs like these. I'm very excited about how our quarter will go. She says she will be applying to a community college in the LA area in September, so I hope I can make the most of my time while she is still in SD.
And so went my OMG day.
So background story on my moment(s):
Back in January, Vivian told me about a volunteer opportunity called "Conversation Partners." It's a language exchange, but the purpose is to help UCSD Extension students learn English, with the added bonus of learning the students' native language. Basically by applying/replying, they'd put my name and contact info as well as the language I'd like to learn on a list and people would contact me. So, after e-mailing the woman in charge about the first week of January, never got a response, and never got any e-mails as requests, I assumed she didn't put me on the list :(
To be fair, though, the "deadline" to be put on the list was in December.
But as soon as this quarter started, April 2, I got 2 e-mails. Amazing! But soon after that, I got a flood of requests, and I was getting upset that my schedule wouldn't allow me to help them all. I knew that I could help at least one person, and because this girl was the first, I decided it was fair to meet with her first.
Her name is Ami. She's my age. I was a little nervous about meeting her, because I'm socially awkward like that, and asked Angela to come along if I bought her dinner :D We went to OVT. It was Ami's first time getting food from one of the dining halls on campus. She said she was in the US for only 2 weeks... I thought her English was amazingly good for having been here for such a short amount of time. But she lived in Canada for a year because of her father's work. I must admit I still felt a little shy with her, but I hope I could have hidden that well. I really liked her! Several other Circle K people passed by and we introduced her to them.
She said the reason she was probably the first to send me an e-mail was because she was so lonely. At the UCSD Extension, it mostly has adult students from 30 and up. So... being a 19-year-old seems like she'd be intimidated or not able to connect with someone. Her roommates are also really old... comparitively. I mentioned Angela and I were in Circle K and we met a lot of people, and that she would too if she wanted to join. I felt my meeting her was more significant this way if I could help her make a lot of friends.
Our conversation with her lasted for 3 hours! I'm glad I have nothing to do on Tuesdays. Haha. It went in all sorts of directions but somehow it got on the topic of birthdays.
Now here's the "OMG" Moment:
I had mentioned that I never got to celebrate my birthday while in school because it's right after the school year ends (I'm therefore always the same age during a school year.. *sigh*). Angela asked me when my birthday was, and so I told her "June twenty-fourth." Angela turned to Ami and asked the same question. She quickly responded "June twenty-fourth." I thought I was hearing her wrong, and Angela looked as though Ami was just repeating what I had said. But in actuality, it is the same day! For further clarification, Angela asked, "wait which year?" And she said "Nineteen eighty-seven." Sure enough, I said the same. There were double-takes and lots of laughter. It was the first time I had ever met a person with the same birthday, not to mention the same year (the one exception was long long ago before I had an AIM screenname and I used to use chatrooms on... I don't even remember. He and I had the same birthday [and no, he didn't scam me into revealing mine since he said his first]).
I took this as a sign that our meeting was fate! I seem to be strongly influenced by strange signs like these. I'm very excited about how our quarter will go. She says she will be applying to a community college in the LA area in September, so I hope I can make the most of my time while she is still in SD.
And so went my OMG day.