Our two lovely winners tell us all about their first encounter. We see lots of <3’s in their future!
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SHE SAYS
// BY KRISTEN DOWLING
As we arrived at Thali Too, she seemed slightly disappointed that it was a vegetarian restaurant since she is a self-proclaimed carnivore. So she asked our waiter for suggestions and we ended up with two great curries, a beer for her (in celebration of a hugely successful day at her lab) and a mango lassi for me.
After Allie (the Yale Daily News photographer) came by to be our paparazzi, we got to talking about our lives on campus — our gripes with balancing a science major with extracurriculars, and our hometowns, which really couldn’t be more different. She’s a California girl who can’t stand a cloudy day, and I’m a hearty New Englander partial to the four seasons.
The conversation carried on easily; we ended up talking about our respective summers abroad in Europe, and our shared interest in history of science. She even asked my opinion on the Darwin-Wallace debate (swoon!). Towards the end of the meal, she tentatively asked if I was interested in dessert, to which I answered with a resounding “of course!” since I have never in my life turned down an opportunity to indulge my sweet tooth.
We didn’t want to stop chatting after we were done with the meal and the restaurant had already emptied, so we con- tinued at her apartment right around the corner. We discussed feminism, queer politics, our experiences in Catholic families (things that are completely out of line on a first date, I hear), but she was such an easy conversationalist and had such interesting opinions that it seemed to work quite well.
Before (what seemed like) very long, I looked at my watch and realized that it was 11 p.m. and I hadn’t touched my homework yet, so after a quick exchange of numbers and a promise of raspberry margaritas, I headed back to Timothy Dwight.
SHE SAYS
// BY ANALISSE MARQUEZ
It was a cold Monday night. One in which I had been trapped in a lab for several hours, and so I was not looking forward to the chilly walk back to my apartment. When I looked up at the clock after running my last experiment, I realized that I was already late.
On the way over, I realized that it was probably not my dread of the cold so much as my fear of meeting someone completely new that caused this tardiness. Would we have stuff to talk about, or would dinner be filled with awkward pauses followed by the general questions ingrained into every Yalie’s social arsenal since freshman year? After quickly showering, I ran off to find out.
When I arrived, a few minutes late, Kristen was standing outside, under the shadow of the Apple store. We introduced ourselves briefly, and she held the door to Thali Too open for me as we went inside. The waiter showed us to our table, and we tried to decide what to order. Neither of us had been to Thali Too before, so we decided to get recommendations from the waiter, both of which turned out to be delicious.
As the night went on, we talked about various topics, from Darwin to how Celine Cuevas ’15, a mutual friend, is an unbelievably productive person. We finished up with dessert and then walked down Broadway.
When we stopped in front of my apartment, Kristen had just been in the middle of what seemed to be a long story, so I invited her up because of the freezing cold. There, we talked for a few more hours until she finally decided it was time for her to head home and start work. She asked for my number, and then I showed her out. I thought about walking her home, but figured the walk would give her time to decompress from our long night. She told me she’d call me; I told her that I had a great time and that I would be down to hang out again.