What if you could relive a moment as if it was the first time all over again?

I wouldn't say no.

Remember the first time you did something, and remember that rush of excitement (or fear) that filled you? Remember trying that same thing again, and although it might be exciting, that 'first-time' feeling is gone?

I had the chance to relive a first-time moment (a little differently even) with international students, something that to all of us we might find is part of our common Saturday night tradition or just the sport we participate in because we signed up for it. I experienced bowling differently and in a more enjoyable way than ever before.

As part of my interpersonal class, we are assigned 'buddies' or classmates we've never met or talked to, and build a friendship with them over the course of the semester. While building that friendship, we have to analyze the phases of that friendship, like how we slowly 'open-up' to each other. However, to make the project more interesting, our professor suggested we 'analyze' a friendship that we build with an international student.

As part of our project, me along with my other friends from my interpersonal class, decided to take a Chinese international student along with her three other friends bowling since she never went bowling before.

Although it was a simple plan, some of us carpooled and some of us will ubered there, and we met up at the bowling alley only a couple minutes away from our school, it didn't go as expected. You might have everything laid out and mistake free, and you could have the uber driver drive four international students who were here for the first time in America to a completely different address. Luckily, after one wrong turn they made it at the right place.

The whole idea of teaching someone how to bowl and the excitement on their face when they get it right, or knock even one pin down makes the bowling more thrilling than it is.

Our goal was to show our international friends our American lifestyle that they might have never even heard about or only briefly heard about. They explained to us that they have tried some American foods like burgers and pizza, but when we mentioned if they have ever tried a hot dog, they were puzzled.

"What's a hotdog?"

"A hotdog is a sausage placed inside of a bun, and you can put lots of condiments on it or you can have it plain," was my answer, and even though some people could get a basic idea from that, they were still puzzled.

"What's a sausage? What's ketchup, or mustard?"

Explaining the taste of ketchup, or mustard and how it looks is not as easy as it looks. Finding the words to explain a sausage is not as easy either; it's one of those moments where you just have to see it and try it and not really explain it beforehand.

We took them to Gene and Jude's, Chicago's most popular hot dog and arguably one of the best hot dogs. They tried it and they loved it, even mentioning that it wasn't that spicy with the pepper that they had it with.

Why did I share this story, you might ask?

So far, I only spent one complete day with them, but we hope to get together again and they are hoping to introduce me to their culture and get me to try their foods (like their authentic foods). I encourage everyone to go out and talk to that international kid in your class and introduce them to your culture. Why not experience something with an international student for the first-time all over again?

Photo Credit to Lauren Hiatt-Wilson