Meet the gang (Episode II)

I know, I know. Babson is over, but I will not leave Boston without introducing the rest of the gang to you. There are more people, of course, but these are among my favorites and constant companions on campus.

Everyone, meet...

Lysiane (left):
This Swiss chick is all about mountains, chocolate, and cheese fondue, but there is so much more to her. Her laugh attacks are incredibly contagious, and she likes to blame the fact that she laughs about jokes about 5 minutes after everyone else on her nationality ("I am Swiss, we are a bit slow!"). She has the best accent - a mixture of Swiss German and French - when she speaks both German and English, and really enjoys catching up on the latest gossip. Her and the Spanish girls are inseparable, and she even seems to understand when they speak Catalan.

Tere (right):
Where do I start? She is blonde and blue-eyed, but a real Spanish live wire. However, she is very strict about not being called Spanish - she is Catalan. Very Catalan ... the type that demonstrates on the streets against the Spanish government. Nevertheless, when she hears flamenco music, she starts clapping her hands, and her eyes sparkle and she can't help but dance. She developed a very close relationship to her school-supplied laptop, to the extent that she almost burst into tears when she had to return it at the end of her stay. Tere had the hardest time getting used to being away from home - but no one cried more than her when she left. Oh, did she cry. For three straight days.

Antonio:
The best-dressed man on campus, he never left his dorm room without a fresh button-down shirt and polished shoes. He did buy a Babson hoodie halfway through term, but even that looked like right out of a Barbour ad with his impeccable side part, sweater tied on his shoulder and his clean looks. He is the ideal son-in-law by daytime, but was also the biggest club-hopper of our little group by night. When someone commented that his hairdo was kind of like mine, he only replied: "Well, my side part is straighter." How right he is.

Aaron:
He's from El Paso, Texas, and he likes to tell you about it. If he weren't such a sweetie, I would have really been taken aback by some of his stories. For example, he and his friends sometimes hang out at execution tailgate parties: When someone on death row is executed, people bring out their grills and have a BBQ party in the prison parking lot. YIKES! On the other hand, he supplies half the college with original Texan beef jerky, calls his girlfriend every night and spends his Tuesday and Thursday afternoons driving inner-city grade school kids to fun afternoon activities. He is one of the few transfers that just stuck with the exchange student group. And he's really taking on the cold New England weather - the school ice rink is his favorite hangout spot!

Ee-ling:
The other Ozzie apart from Cameron, he is all smiles - I don't think I have seen him grumpy once in four months. He is always there for a chat in the library or the dining hall, and is true to his Asian heritage by learning Japanese (although he is Chinese). We didn't see much of him during the weekend, unfortunately, because he visited his girlfriend who was on exchange at NYU.

Now you have a little taste of the people who surrounded me every day. They will be missed - in fact, I find it hard to get used to one-on-one dinners in quiet kitchens and the lack of noise on the hallways. Campus life has its disadvantages, but one of my favorites was always being able to find someone to talk to wherever I went. Good thing I will have two cats to keep me company in January!

Tomorrow is my last day in Boston, and I am sad to leave. The past days have been filled with errands, last coffees and meals with leftover Babson exchange students, walks around beautiful corners of Beantown (and taking pictures), and cookie baking and movie watching with Meaghan.
And on Thursday, I will be off to the next part of my American adventure.