Saturday, May 17, 2014

Background of my one Brazilian student.

The other day I popped by the one professor I work for’s office hours to take 20 minutes and go over some stuff with him, but I had to wait since like 4 students showed up to talk about their upcoming papers with him.

2 students were on one bench in the hallway outside his office, and then the 1 Brazilian student in my section was on the other, so I sat down by him.

I chit-chatted a bit and asked him about what high school he went to, World Youth Day, how he ended up at this university, and then I asked him what his parents did for a living.

“My father is in exports,” he was like.

“You mean like arms?”, I was like.

“No, not really, general exports,” he was like.  “But he did export tanks during the Nineties.”

“No shit,” I was like.  “Where?”.

“Cuba, and the Middle East.”

“No shit,” I was like.  “Like what countries?”

“Iraq I know for certain,” he was like.


“Now that’s an equal opportunity exporter,” I was like.  “Dictatorial governments on both the right and the left.”

I didn't ask him if he morally approved of what his dad did, but I do wonder.

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