Conversations with Linh

I met with my conversation partner Linh for the second time yesterday. She's Vietnamese and one of the sweetest people I have ever met. She speaks a lot of English, so we get along great and can talk about a plethora of topics. Occassionally, we stumble over a couple of words and we have to try to explain what we mean.
I knew from our first meeting that I would like Linh and probably look forward to our conversation times. Our first meeting, we paid attention to the time because we were both busy bees and we left right on time. During this second meeting, we went past our hour and didn't even notice. Linh had a packed schedule again but a girl has to stop and eat, so she asked me to take her to one of my favorite places in town. I assured Linh that I'm a safe driver, so I picked a frozen yogurt place on Hulen street instead of the typical places around campus and drove us there in my old mini-van. The frozen yogurt shop is called Yogurt Zone. It's a little place with 10-14 flavors lined up on a wall, and then a toppings bar. Everything is self-serve and priced by weight. I had already been there often enough to know what flavors I wanted, but Linh had no clue. I got some sample cups for her and she tried as many as she wanted before settling on kiwi-strawberry and peanut butter. When we started putting on our toppings, I found out that Linh and I have the same favorite fruit- kiwis!
Linh and I sat down with our frozen treats and talked about our days since our last visit. I told her about the rough week I've been having and she sympathized. We talked openly about personal matters. I even told her about my younger sister being admitted to a psychiatric hospital this week so she would understand why I seemed so drained. She was sweet about it- mostly curious and sympathetic. We moved on to a light-hearted subject and talked about Halloween. Linh loves Halloween and gets just as excited as I do. In America, Halloween is just something that most of us celebrate and love. For Linh, it's a new experience. She's lived in Texas for 2 years and had never celebrated Halloween before that. Linh thinks that buying an entirely new Halloween costume is wasteful and too expensive, so we talked about all the ways she could make her own costume this year. We made plans to go shopping together next week so she can meet some of the people I work with at the mall and maybe find a costume. I think we'll have fun.
It's amazing to me how openly Linh and I talk to each other even though we've only met twice. We've spent a little over 2 hours with each other and we're from two different countries with different cultures and ideas. Her family has different traditions than mine, but we value so many of the same things. She and I enjoy a lot of the same things. We talk about the same things that I would talk about with any of my friends- hair, guys, relationships, food, clothes, etc. We have completely different backgrounds, but we want a lot of the same things. I'm excited about getting to know her better and I'm glad we're doing this.