Today, despite the dismal weather, Cheng and I met up in Union Grounds (our usual meeting place). He told me all about his debate, apparently it wasn't as bad as he thought it was going to be. He said it was really hard to listen, understand, think, and then respond quickly in English. He has never done debate before, let alone in english, but it sounds like he did well! He's not excited that school is back to session since spring break, but is looking forward to the summer and seeing his friends from home.
He did seem upset though, and when I asked he told me it was about his roommate. His roommate is from Venezuela and he's on the tennis team. It's hard for them to communicate because neither of them speaks english well. He says they've learned to communicate in other ways besides speaking, but that doesn't mean they get along. Apparently his roommate has girls over a quite a bit, and never asks Cheng if it's okay. I can see why that would be really frustrating, especially when he's trying to sleep. The pinnacle of his frustration came when a girl came stumbling to their front door at 2 in the morning on a friday night. Cheng was trying to sleep but she was pounding on the door and demanding to be let in. Imagine a person who doesn't entirely know english, and is also half asleep, answering the door to an intoxicated girl at two in the morning. It's quite the comic sight. She pushed her way in and asked where his roommate was, and lo and behold, he wasn't there. She insisted he told her to come over, so she decided to sleep in his bed instead. She slept in his bed and when he still wasn't there in the morning she left. His roommate came back around 10 am the next day and Cheng explained what happened, to which his roommate replied by just laughing and saying that girl was crazy.
Apparently stuff like that happens all the time in his room. His roommate is gone for days at a time and never tells him wheres he's been or what he's doing. His roommate is quite the playboy, which is extremely different from Cheng's docile personality. This has caused tension between them, but Cheng is keeping a level head and just keeps reminding himself that it'll be over soon! He plans to travel all over China with his friends when he returns home for the summer.
I have to say I feel pretty badly for Cheng. It would not be easy to have a roommate who speaks a completely different language from you. On top of that it sounds like they have pretty different ideas of how to be roommates. It can be tough for roommates who speak the same religion to have conversations about roommate problems and roommate norms. I have to say I hope that that his roommate comes to a bit of sense and decided to not tell girls to come over at 2 in the morning particularly when he isn't even there. I feel badly for Cheng and hope his roommate situations turns around. Luckily he only has about four weeks left of real school then exams!
ReplyDeleteThis is pretty hysterical. I'm a little insulted you didn't tell me this story sooner though because I enjoyed it thuroughly. Poor Cheng. As you well know, I've had quite the roommate experiences the last two years neither one is quite as bad as Cheng's though.
ReplyDeleteThis whole scenario could honestly be turned into a short story or their relationship could be adapted into a movie. The part where the drunk girl came banging on the door demanding to see the roommate reminded me of a scene in She's the Man when Monique goes knocking on Duke's door looking for Sebastian. That alone could make anyone laugh but add on a sweet foreign student who barely speaks english and just wants to sleep and you have comedic gold.
It sounds like your conversation was a great reminder of how prevalent humor is in every day life. Who would've thought meeting with a student for English class would lead you to this funny story?
I hope in the future Cheng can find the humor in this situation and even moreso I hope his playboy roommate learns some respect!