Hello

Student Diary: August 29, 2016

A strange, deflating moment on campus today. I saw the fellow I had such a wonderful time playing beer pong with just last night. He walked right past me in the hallway, and he didn’t even give a nod or a hello! I thought, “Wow, he must be so deep in thought, probably preparing for his classes already!” Everyone here is so wonderfully focused and serious about their studies. It’s inspiring!

I’m still in the pre-arrival dorm, waiting to move into my main housing for the year. My new roommate showed up this afternoon. He walked in hauling a massive travel bag, a young man with an Indian look but with these incredibly wide, fixed eyes behind his glasses. He just... stared.

Then he opened his bag.

Right on top, I could see a couple of transparent cellophane packages filled with a green, leafy substance. He gestured to them.

“Do you want some?” he asked.

I was confused. “What is it?”

“It’s weed,” he said, as if it were nothing.

My jaw must have hit the floor. “You traveled with that? Into America? Wasn’t it dangerous, crossing the border?”

He just shrugged, completely casual, and explained there was no danger, that no one would ever find out. “In my country of Pakistan,” he said, “people smoke this every day. Like a cigarette.”

Unbelievable. The absolute last thing I wanted was to kick off my LLM studies by getting high on smuggled weed from Pakistan. I declined, of course. Why in the world would I trust this guy?

Later this evening, an invitation came through for a home party at one of the assistant professors’ houses. On a whim, I asked my new roommate if he wanted to come. He agreed. We decided to walk — neither of us had the Uber app, and we didn’t want to blow $10 on a taxi.

It was a bad idea. We walked. And walked. The road seemed to stretch on forever. I had the location pinned in Google Maps, but I had no real sense of how much further it was. He kept asking, “How much longer? Are we close?” and I had no answer. He got agitated; I could feel his patience wearing thin. Finally, he just stopped. He said he was done walking and was going back to the dorm. I had a strong feeling he couldn’t handle the ambiguity of it all — just following me into the dark, to a place neither of us knew. God knows what he was thinking.

So I went on alone.

The streets were something straight out of an American movie. Cobbled roads, two-floor houses with big porches and balconies, and no fences anywhere. And the trees... they were wild, scary-looking, looming over the sidewalks. In the dark, they looked like something a maniac could hide behind before dragging you into a torture chamber. I felt a weird thrill. This was it — a wild American adventure. Yo hoo!

I finally arrived, armed with beer and crisps. The party was already underway, packed with young men and women. I didn’t latch onto anyone specific, just floated between groups, trying to join in. The beer, at least, kept me company.

But the real highlight of the night was the beer pong.

And, as always, I got way too into it. I’m pretty sure people were a little bothered. I could feel it.

Still, it was a good night.