Funny how..

I have to run for a CEOT breakfast and dry run in less than ten minutes, so I will have to write this story very briefly..

So, after the wonderful stretch of summer doing Princeton in Beijing, I am back in Amherst College, ready for the upcoming fall semester (well not quite, but). For one reason to another, I decided to participate in the international students' orientation this year, becoming one of the orientation leaders. The international first year students are a nice bunch, actually. Although as Adrian predicted, at least half of the kids won't talk to us anymore after orientation has ended, but at least we had fun in the process. (Why not? Well, probably they think that they are cooler than we are)

Anyway, I am grateful as the orientation training and process made the international orientation leaders bond (there are roughly eight of us, including me), so much so that one afternoon, after interviewing our potential International Student Director (yes, we don't have one at the moment right now), we decided to have an ISO pre-game. Wonderful. I just turned 21 a few weeks ago, and I coincidentally wanted to get some red wine for myself, so I had my passport with me. Jennifer and I volunteered to get drinks at the local liquor store, and the rest of the gang got cups and prepared the venue.

Trust me, it wasn't much, we had hard apple ciders and white wine. Nonetheless, what happened next was what made the experience interesting. So the crowd got quite high with the alcohol, the ladies in our group being ladies, started gossiping about the cute freshman in the international orientation. So there's this Singaporean lad with a mustache, and apparently he would look even cuter if he would shave it, and the ladies were so intense about it to the extent that they wanted to play a dare game and the loser would have to tell Stefan to shave off his beard. hahahah

Anyway, one of us suddenly decided that it would be amusing to tell our most embarrassing stories (or craziest) that happened in Amherst, and we had to go around in a circle telling ours. I am ashamed to say that my stories are not probably one tenth, or heck, even one hundredth as wacky as my friends'. One of my friends got drunk and climbed a fence in Mt Holyoke College (a sister college of Amherst) during her freshman year, and for her 21st birthday, got really drunk and smoked a lot of pot. (she had a rough breakup, so I couldn't blame her) What happened next made it really insane: She took a shower to cure her hangover the next day, and it backfired as she fainted in the shower.. Therefore she was drunk, hungover, stoned, naked, and hospitalized at the same time.

Another dude told how he went to the socials after a lot of drink, took off his shirt and spun it around somewhere, danced in a strangers' table, and then waking up the next day next to one of his female friends only with his pants on. He just left awkwardly, and apparently another upperclassman found his shirt a few days after.

I honestly don't quite have a "crazy" story to tell myself, and I am being honest, as I haven't had much adventures with alcohol as of today. Honestly, at one point I was somewhat sad and/or ashamed to admit that my life at Amherst was comparatively normal than theirs.. But afterwards I realized that I am free to be who I am, and I will continue to be. I will have fun in my own way, and of course I am open to interesting experiences too, but it definitely doesn't have to be that way. (man, who wants to be hospitalized naked?) But of course, that night made me realize the importance of telling good stories ;)

Truly Indonesia's Finest,

反省一下普北班项目

我现在正在一个飞机上，默默的考虑和感激我在北京的经验。你就问我，什么是普北班给我最大的获得呢？这个问题实在是有待讨论。两个明显的好处就是我中文的进步以及我交往的扩大。前者应该感谢普北班的语言誓约和个别谈话。虽然我的中文还没有那么好，可是我相信，我的发音，声调，和语法有所进步。至于后者，我可以说我靠自己的努力来交朋友。但是，我不可否认，这次的朋友们即热情又好玩。换一句话来说，认识新的朋友们是个必然结果。然而，我认识的朋友并不限于普北班的学生们。我也认识了几位北京的当地人，几位在北京打工的老外(这些人从事新能源的行业，在Beijing Energy Network认识的。我觉得他们很有意思，比那些金融的工人有热情和激情)  

除此之外，我也可以说通过普北班，我加以了 解中国的文化与社会问题了。从户口制度，人口问题，甚至于到“海龟”，上课的时候我都讨论过。我也了解了美国其他大学的同学们，实在是个少有的机会!现在如果我在美国旅游，说不定会有朋友们提供一个房间!呵呵。

可是，可能我最享受的获得就是爱情的感觉。什么爱情呢？也许其实没有什么爱情，那我就把它看成热情吧。这两个概念不容易区分起来，可是，我想，与其说是爱情，不如说是热情，关心，和友谊。好吧，是个姑娘。是个特别可爱的姑娘。表面上可能有点随便，但骨子里她又温柔又耐心。她爱笑，也爱开玩笑，好欺 负，我就爱抱她。她不但成熟，而且脾气也不大。。。  

然而，普北班一瞬连就结束了，我和她的缘分一转眼就没有了。缘分是否是个爱开玩笑的孩子呢？让我冒昧抱怨一下吧。我一年在安城所找不到的八周在北京就找得到了。这样的感觉就是哑巴吃黄瓜，有苦说不出来。   

哈哈，你看，我变成这么悲观。我想她，好想她。可是，没问题吧。反正我相信，不久我就能够找到比她好一些的对象。无论未来如何，我只想说谢谢，因为她给我带来了这么温暖的 感觉。   我不晓得她毕竟会不会看这篇文章。假如你看了，知道我正在想你。我愿你天天幸福，万事如意。托你的副，以后再会吧。

Be right, or be left

I have a mechanism built in my body that rewards me for making social contact and punishes me for abandoning my social circles too much. The result? I have plenty of friends around me, but sometimes I drag myself (or let myself be dragged around) too much.

It is a price to be paid though, and whether it is worth it or not, it still deserves to be debated! So amidst all the hubbub in my life, I find one event worth mentioning: A night in a Korean bar with friends!

How did I get tangled up in the mess?

So there I was, feeling that I need to be more spontaneous, and I decided to do some sort of a Yes Man game, but not really, since I forgot that I am playing that game real quick! Hehe.

So in essence, one of my Korean friends broke up with his girlfriend, and he asked if I would like to accompany him for a drink on a weekend. I can tell you very honestly that I am not that big of an alcoholic, so actually deep down I was like "ugh, ok". But hey, I am bound to say "yes", right? And also, as a good bro, I have this obligation to drink some of his sorrows, right? ;)

So after a trip from 王府井 (best jasmine green tea ice cream ever, I swear!) Jaeho and I went to 五道口 to team up with John and Peter for dinner. At that point, I was getting nervous, because it seems that it's gonna be a K-Night without any mandarin or english spoken (not true, Jaeho became a very good translator, hehehe). We had bulgogi (五花肉) for dinner, while waiting for the two remaining members of the party.

Alright, alright, it wasn't quite a guys night's out as a 老师 and another third year Korean lady joined us. And thing is, these two are probably among the prettiest ladies in PiB, amazing what sort of luck I am in lol. Although I am guessing (and I was half right) that these ladies are taken, it's always good to soothen our eyes, right?

The dinner ended around 8pm, and the night started awkwardly, really awkwardly. First of all, I don't speak Korean(duh) so I had to rely on Jaeho's translation half of the time to keep up with what was going on. Moreover, I have just met Peter and Ji Won, and it was kind of an awkward meeting (I'd like to blame it on the alcohol they drink before they came over) and I don't really know what to say to Huang 老师, so I spent most of the dinner talking to Jaeho (and John, the broken-hearted guy).

So I have heard that alcohol is a friend making tool, and from that night I learned that while it wasn't quite a miracle potion, it really helped breaking down barriers between people. It's as if the frozen walls of doubt, fakery, and angst, built one layer after another, are melted away by the warm kindness of smiles and laughters, blanched with alcohol. (PSA: increased alcohol intake has been associated with car accidents and pregnancy, please consume with discretion)

In the middle of laughter, teasing, and trash talking, I was quietly taking note of how much I was drinking. I had eight shots of soju in total, and quite frankly, I have never drank that much in my life. I also probably did the closest thing to drunk-texting... another 老师!

These sinful things aside, I really enjoyed the night with these people. I gained an insight on the "drinking culture" of the Koreans. They start off by shaking the bottle of soju (traditionally done to get rid of impurities), and begin pouring it to everyone, with the youngest helping out the older ones. The younger ones would drink away from the older ones out of respect. We also played Korean drinking games, from twisting the "tail" of the soju cap and flicking them off, and also the guessing number game. An interesting part is the fact that the winners of the game will eventually have to drink to compensate the difference of what they had compared to the losers of the game. In other words, everyone gets home drunk.

It was quite a night; although I had to end it while enduring a painful stomach from the chilli I had during lunch. It's all good, though :)

-Truly Indonesia's Finest