Intercultural Communicative Competence Blog #8


Going into this trip I didn't know anyone and knew I would make some friendships in the process. The first friendly interaction was formed during our first initial Spice meaning. I sat next to Dan and didn't really know what to think of him at the time. Once we introduced ourselves to the class we all seemed to have common interest in the places we wanted to go to. Having common interest is an important part of the friendship making process after that class most of the social interaction was via texting. Through texting there were suggestions of specific places we wanted to go to. Since we didn't know each other very well I think it was hard to schedule permanent trips, but that was okay we thought on our feet which ended up working out and this was entertaining, since we were spontaneous. I had different interpersonal conversations with everyone on the trip. My conversations with Taylor and Sarah were mostly about our futures and what we want to do after school. I think this was a good similarity to have. We would build off each other’s confidence in to getting to where we wanted. We all wanted to be very successful and we knew there was going to be struggle and lots of hard work to be done. This was the initial conversations we had to find out more about the other person. Once we started to get to know one another we I had a strong connection with Ashley and Darius in the video game museum we all loved video games and when everyone left we played on for a few hours more. I remember playing the pain game with Andrew that seemed to last a lifetime because it was only a matter of time before I would get shocked, whipped or burned again. It was very easy to relate to Andrew because we both went through physical pain and because it was such a strange game, it would be a memory that would last a life time. When I went to Switzerland alone it was an interesting but exciting experience! I ended up befriending a Californian guy from USC who I met during a hiking trip in the Alps It felt good to have someone to interact with and appreciate the beauty of the Swiss mountains. We talked about things we wanted to do after school our personal interest including hiking and future things we wanted to do in Switzerland. I also met these British girls who were traveling from London to see the Alps and they we shared our similarities politics. We both had things to say about our President/Prime minster and how we disagreed with some policies they had and funny impersonations. Another person I met on the Switzerland trip was this girl from the Washington DC area and she was originally from Pakistan. We could relate on their food because I love middle eastern food. She was also traveling alone and we talked about how good it felt to be independent and having the freedom to do what you want. 

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