Humor 1: Scared by a Little Girl

Before I begin this story I should say I am not afraid of the dark. I am not afraid of snakes or spiders or cockroaches. I am not afraid of clowns. I don’t believe in ghosts, demons, or the supernatural. I don’t ever go see horror movies because I find them boring. That being said, I will now disclose to you the story of how my friend and I were put into a state of sheer terror from a seven year old girl and subsequently laughed about it uncontrollably.

The other day, my friend and I were casually driving down Berry Street on our way to get lunch at Chipote on Hulen. We were both in conversation, I forget what we were talking about but I remember we were into a conversation about something. At this point we pull up to a stop sign. In front of us is a car with its blinker on turning left. At first glance, I nothing caught my attention, however something just wasn’t right. I then heard my friend next to me mutter frantically, “oh my god. Oh my god. Dude… Dude... oh my god”. I then turned my head back to figure out what it was. In the rear window staring back at me was something out of a horror movie — a girl, no older than 7, red hair, dark rings around her eyes, and a look of pure hatred for the world and everything in it in her eyes. As I said before, I do not get scared easily, but his look of hatred was so intense that my first reaction was that I jumped a little in my seat, it was so intense that I could not avert my gaze, so intense it transformed my perception of a little girl who, in all likelihood was completely innocent, into something purely evil. As the look continued as the car took a slow turn left, I could not avert my gaze. The look of hatred intensified as the girl’s eyes continued to be locked in on our souls as the car continued to turn.  At this point we were both actually in a state of sheer terror. As the car veered away and we continued along Berry Street our hearts were still pumping steadily and quickly, our bodies pumped with adrenaline from fear. Within seconds however, we both started laughing. I was still significantly disturbed by the event but once I felt we were safe and no longer under the girl’s icy gaze, the situation became incredibly funny. I believe this is due to the relief theory and also incongruity. We definitely were not expecting to have this encounter on the way the Chipotle. I mean it came out of nowhere. However, that in itself did not make it funny, in fact, that aspect contributed to my surprise and subsequent fear instilled from the situation. However, following relief theory, once the “danger” or situation resolved itself and  there was no more unknown, we felt relief and all of the fear and uncomfortableness we previously felt turned into laughter.

Learning Partner: 3rd Meeting — Ping-Pong with Winslen

Winslen and I discovered in one of our earlier meetings that we both had a hobby of ping pong. Because of this mutual interest, we decided that our next meeting would be in the recreation center so that we could play table tennis. There’s really not much to say. While we hardly spoke at all, I felt that it was our most productive meeting yet. We were able to compete with each other and it was a lot of fun. After about 30 minutes of playing we were both pretty tired and decided to call it quits. There was no clear winner because we both just rallied the whole time and didn’t worry about keeping score. We did at one point have a crowd of about 20 people watching us because there was a tour group who came through the rec center and they stopped to watch us play for a while. We both thought that was pretty cool. Afterwards, I feel that Winlen and I felt much more comfortable around each other. In some strange way it is almost as if we communicated more by competing against each other for 30 minutes than we ever could have by making small talk for an hour. A wise man once said that you can learn more about a man in an hour of play than in a year of conversation. I agree.

Learning Partner: 2nd Meeting — Culural Perceptions and National History

I met with Winslen again last week at the Barnes and Noble and we discussed stereotypes and historical events that impact the way people view our culture. First we discussed Pablo Escobar and how he impacted Winslen's childhood in Cuba. Winslen seemed to be bothered by the fact that many people associate Colombians with drug trafficking because of their history. He said this would be similar to associating Texans with the K.K.K and confederate history. I was actually surprised at how bothered Winslen was with the stereotypes people give Columbians because of their history. I always found Columbia’s history surrounding Pablo Escobar extremely interesting because it has a certain appeal to it. I asked him if he had ever seen the movie ‘Blow’ starring Johnny Depp about George Jung and his escapades in the drug trafficking industry and eventual encounter with Pablo Escobar. He said he hadn’t. I agreed with him but also stated that my interest did not stem from associating all Columbians with drug trafficking but moreover an interest for the history of it. In fact, Winslen told me that his father worked in the military for several years and therefore he heard many things about Pablo Escobar’s impact on Columbia as a child. Later, he told me how Pablo Escobar almost single-handedly stimulated Columbia’s economy by bringing in so much money. When he was killed, Columbia’s economy was hurt. I found this to be very interesting that a single man could have such influence over a country even when outlawed by the government. Winslen told me that, despite his status as a criminal, the people loved Pablo Escobar. This is because of all the things he brought to Columbia — money, power, opportunity, and even a world-class futbol (soccer) team.