Julia Kist

Indiana State University

Writing Assignment 3

I am an international student and missing my home country it is something that I

will always feel. Whenever I have the opportunity I try to do things that I would do if I was

in Brazil. Two months after I got at the U.S I met around twenty Brazilians, they all study at

ISU. As expected that girls usually are friends with other girls I got really close to the three

of the Brazilians girls, Catarina, Nicolly and Amanda.

Last Sunday the four of us decided to go get dinner together at the commons at 7

p.m. The girls went to Jones Hall where I live and then we walked over to the commons.

When we met outside of my dorm I hugged each of them, according to chapter 3 in the

book, this is an example of communication influenced by culture. In the Brazilian culture,

we hug our friends when we meet with them and it does not matter if the friend is close to

you or not.

Each part of Brazil features people depending on what state they live. Nicolly and

Cataria they both have blond hair, green eyes and tan skin. With this first visual description

when I first met them I could tell that they were probably from the northeast of Brazil, there

people usually have tan skin and blond hair. When I heard them talking I was sure about

that because they use a lot of different slangs. Amanda has black curly hair and white skin

and because of that I assumed she was from the southeast area.

We sat at a table in front of Taco Bell, when were eating the conversation starts with

Nicolly saying that her parents sleep in different beds because her father is too fat. That
leads Amanda to say that she would sleep with her mother from when she was 7 to 12 years

old, because she could not sleep alone, what made her father always mad. Then, Catarina

says that her father would always be angry with her mother because Catarina and her sister

would also sleep in their bed when they were little.

After that, Nicolly starts to talk about her half-sister that would only call her dad

when she was sick and needed money that’s why Nicolly does not treats her like a sister.

Amanda, Catarina and I we all agree that what her half-sister does is not right. This means

that we all grew up with similar ethical values in our society.

Then I start to talk about the surgery that I had on my knee and telling them about

physical therapy. Nicolly uses a lot jargons to explain me why I tore my meniscus, she is an

athletic training student. The other three of us were lost in the conversation until Nicolly

realizes it and starts to use slangs and common words to exemplify.

It was around 8 o’clock and Amanda starts to say that she will leave soon because of

her homework. Catarina interrupts Amanda because she needs to tell us something

important. She says that at the Halloween party she kissed a guy that was dating Bruna, she

is also Brazilian. Catarina asks us to do not tell anybody. According to chapter 6, it shows

that our friendship has reached the stabilized phase; we trust each other and share private

information.

At 8:15 Amanda starts talking again that she wants to leave because of her

homework. Then Nicolly says “let’s go”, at that point we all left. I think it represents that

Nicolly has a leadership style because she took the decision and she would always start
most of the conversation. When we got in front of Jones Hall, I hugged them all and we

made plans for the next day, we will meet at the Towers at 12pm and get food.