Party!

Saturday night was great! There was a welcome party held at Tanya's (bottom right) apartment to welcome all the Singaporeans and Malaysians in UCSD. I almost didn't go, because I didn't like the idea of an exclusive organisation based on nationality... but what the hell!

Met quite a random mix of people. Only one Malaysian, whom I remember meeting. So many names that I can't remember now, and I always feel bad about this. But I'm so terrible with names and I can't help it. No matter how hard I try, names slip from my head like greased eels.

I remember these few people I met for the first time: Margary (?), Ee Tsin, Don (and I forgot Don's elder sister's name, damn... ), Han Liang, Keira (?), Ivan. Interesting people. I remember meeting two Indonesians (what were they doing there?), a brother and sister pair, named Don and (I forgot). Met an interesting girl who was an exchange student from Melbourne University, doing a double major here, and she had a cute tongue piercing and black stockings. I remember these, but not her name...

The food felt really local, which I miss terribly. Everybody brought food, or brought a joke. The party ended with me telling my giraffe, elephant, aeroplane joke. I should have thought about the joke before hand, because I made a mistake and I said the elephant came before the giraffe, and I had to change the joke quickly while telling it, but I think I pulled it off.

Tanya proclaimed I was a 'flirt' during the party, which I am quick to deny, cause I certainly don't think it's true. She, Keira and I went to the International House after the party for MORE parties. International House is really a vibrant community, as it houses so many international students, mostly exchange students: Germans, Danes, French, Japanese and more. Wow, I was really impressed by the cohesiveness and vibrancy of International House. It felt amazing, just mingling and mixing with representatives from so many countries. It's impossible to replicate this feeling in any other kind of party - this curious mix of intellectual excitement and pride and sense of belonging. Wow.

I met a Dane Christopher (Kristopher?) who proudly proclaimed that the Danes drank the most in Europe. Of course, I HAD to enter a drinking competition with him. We drank his Jack Daniel's while being scrutinized by the group surrounding us. In the end, I got very pleasantly high, but not drunk. Certainly, I impressed people with my alcohol threshold. For the rest of the night, I was walking and talking with this pleasant buzz and feeling of lightness in my being. I loved it. This doesn't happen often enough. THAT has to change.

I feel it. It's starting to happen. I feel like I'm being sucked inexorably into the vortex of college life. Slowly and surely, I'm feeling more and more comfortable with my surroundings. I think it's going to be fine. More than fine, actually.