NOTE-This article has been corrected.
As much as Yalies like to belittle their rivals to the North, Harvard students really are a lot like us: overachieving and perhaps socially awkward young people looking for a good time — and someone to have a good time with. And as Yale students in years before have learned, when you meet someone you like at a party, it doesn’t matter if they are wearing Harvard crimson or Yale blue.
This weekend, those who are tired of their romantic options in New Haven have a prime opportunity to explore another pool of eligible singles. But some Yalies have already found romantic success in Cambridge. Whether Yalies are using this weekend to reunite with a significant other or to find one, there’s more than football on many people’s minds as they enter enemy territory.
Goran Lynch ’06 has been dating his girlfriend, Harvard sophomore Mirosia Kishenyuk, for over a year now. He said he does not care at all that his significant other attends Harvard, and said the rivalry has no effect on their relationship.
“I am dating her specifically because she’s beautiful and amazing and makes me really happy,” Lynch said.
Kishenyuk is equally indifferent to the fact that her boyfriend happens to go to her rival school. In fact, after spending weekends at Yale visiting Lynch, she learned why Yale students might be appealing to single Cantabs.
“People at Yale are more fun,” Kishenyuk said. “The stress level may be just as high but Yale people deal with it better, releasing the stress in more fun ways than at Harvard.”
But Lynch’s roommate, Zach Dennett ’06 disapproves, albeit sarcastically, of his roommate’s choice of girlfriend.
“It’s disgusting that you’re dating the enemy,” Dennett said to Lynch.
Harvard student Judy Greenberg met Ayalon Eliach ’06 on a trip to Israel last summer organized by Harvard Hillel and Yale’s Slifka Center, and the two have been dating ever since. Greenberg said the only real problem with dating a Yalie is the distance between the two schools. Because of the cost of transportation, she does not get to visit as often as she might like.
She is, however, very excited for this weekend, but mostly because she gets to consort with the enemy.
“The Game? What game? We’re just using the weekend to see each other — screw school spirit, I want to see Ayalon!” Greenberg said in an e-mail.
But for every relationship that does work out, there are also plenty of failed attempts. Harvard senior Patrick Kelly had high hopes when he arrived in New Haven last year the weekend of The Game. Faced with the prospect of sleeping on the cold, hard floor of the Silliman College common room, Kelly decided to seek out a more appealing option.
“I figured it would be a good idea to find a Yalie to spend the evening with,” Kelly said in an e-mail. “It was simple: I could sleep with a Yalie in a warm bed, or I could sleep on a cold floor.”
However, despite the best efforts of several Yalies who had the same idea, Kelly was unsatisfied with his options and ended up on the floor after all.
“Having received five offers for beds to share, I decided that not one of them was better than the relatively unheated Silliman common room,” Kelly said.
Though he is excited to attend his first Harvard-Yale game, Lucas O’Connor ’08 said he is not particularly interested in starting a long distance relationship while in Cambridge. But he said he is keeping an open mind and would date a Harvard student if an adequately appealing opportunity presented itself.
“Despite whatever feelings I may have about Harvard, I am excited to see what kind of people they have there and see how they are similar and dissimilar to us Yalies,” O’Connor said.
So as some Yalies struggle to find last-minute Friday night housing, some Cantabs may be more than willing to oblige. Off the field, this weekend might be a good opportunity to see that the enemy is not so bad after all. They might even be kind of cute.
CORRECTION: This story in the Harvard-Yale Special Issue incorrectly assumed Harvard senior Patrick Kelly’s sexual orientation in its original version.