After not being able to meet for a while, I was excited to see Maram and catch up on things. This was my first time seeing her since Thanksgiving break so I was excited to see how her break went. After sitting down in Union Grounds, she began to tell me all about her break.
She said that she spent most of it with her brother. Since her and her brother live together, they usually spend their free time at home. She said that she was able to watch movies and start on How I Met Your Mother. She had wanted to watch it ever since we talked about it with her friends and this break was her opportunity to do so. Although she said that she has taken a break from it as school has started up for her, she said she plans to keep watching it when she is home in Saudi Arabia.
She then proceeded to ask me about San Antonio. I told her about everything, especially what food I had for Thanksgiving. She seemed interested in that and I completely understood. She then explained that she doesn’t celebrate that in Saudi, so she was curious as to what I had done for it. I then continued to tell her about all the exploring I did in San Antonio. I told her that although I have lived in San Antonio all my life, there are still things that I have not seen of my city. I also told her about the “haunted” train tracks in San Antonio. The story is that once there was a bus full of kids that had gotten trampled by a train after they had been stuck on the tracks. It was said that the souls of the kids still roam around the tracks and if you keep your car in neutral while on the tracks, the kids will push your car to the other side. Over break, I tried this with my friends but unfortunately, we found out that night that the story was definitely not true. It was still a fun experience and since I was not able to spend Halloween in San Antonio, this worked just as well. Maram seemed mortified then laughed when I told her that it was all made up. I then asked if they have any scary stories like that in Saudi, but she said that she has not heard of any.
Maram then asked me about my favorite place in San Antonio. It seemed like such a loaded question that I wasn’t sure how to answer. After some thinking, I replied that my favorite place was the Quarry Market. The Quarry is a plaza type place that has a movie theatre, restaurants, and retail stores. I especially love that place because it was such a big part of growing up for me. I remember I used to always hang out there in middle school. As I went away for school for high school, it was a place that I always cherished when I was back home. It seemed like a place that always stayed the same no matter how much time had passed since I last visited.
I asked Maram what her favorite place was. She quickly replied that it was her home. After knowing what a homebody Maram is, it seemed understandable. She then went on to explain that having her family all in one place is such an amazing thing. Being especially close to her family, she loves being able to hang out with them all the time. She then went on to say that her family always has awesome talks about life at her house. She told me that she has learned a lot from them and that this conversation was making her that much more excited to go home. I know that the semester is closing in and that I will miss Maram, but that it makes me so happy that she has a place back home that makes her so happy.
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