Chris H. CP 4/5

This unfortunately was the last conversation partner meeting I had with Marcel, as I was unable to get a hold of him in the weeks following. However, on the other hand, it was a double date evening and a lot of fun! Marcel called me as he promised midweek, and we agreed upon a time and place to meet with our female companions for a dinner out on the town. Unfortunately, my girlfriend, Chelsea, and I were slightly late, ten minutes or so, and met Marcel and Stacey, already seated, at Sakura Sushi and Grill. During dinner, we talked about school. Marcel told us how he decided he wanted to go into business with his father after getting a degree in international business and German studies. His father owned a car parts manufacturing plant outside of Arnhem, and he mentioned that his brother already was an understudy for a management position there. I noticed discreetly that Marcel’s vocabulary was certainly improved from the first time I met him, and he relied less on word substitutions from others and more on finding alternative ways of expressing the same idea. Stacey seemed unaware that Marcel wanted to return to Berlin prior to this moment, and the two exchanged nervous glances during the conversation that Chelsea and I purposely spoke through. Stacey wanted to become a nurse, and to ultimately graduate from the FSU school of nursing. Marcel joked that it was the best job besides an animal caretaker for someone with her compassion. Chelsea asked Marcel about his sister’s wedding plans, to which he described an elaborate weekend planned in a cottage in Belgium. He said that most of his family was from Holland but that his sister’s fiancé was from Brussels and wanted to have it there. The ladies got into a conversation about honeymoons, and Marcel and I turned our conversation towards English competency and the direction that he wanted to go with the language. He told me that ultimately, if when he returned to Europe over the summer, and felt his English still needed some work (which in my opinion, his grammar certainly could use some more practice) he would return to Florida and enroll in a university here. I encouraged this, but told him that there are also many different states within the United States and other countries that are ideal to form a base for practice and working towards a TOEFL, and that if he needed any assistance, I would be happy to help. At the end of the dinner, I gave him my personal e-mail address and told him to call me when he next wanted to meet. Chelsea and Stacey said goodbye and, following, have kept in touch. Overall, it was a fun night out, and a great chance for Marcel to speak vibrantly and in a relaxed setting about his past, present, and future ideas and goals.