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,