It is hardly surprising that the quiet and warm walls of the ancient building in which the Cosmopolitans live and party provide a perfect shelter for on-campus romance. Every beginning of the semester, hundreds of caffeinated, single and attractive international students flock to our renowned Coffee Hour to absorb some culture. And they find culture and love.
This is a story about two couples who met and fell in love at the Cosmopolitan House! And to make the storytelling more pleasant and exciting for me, as well as in order to protect the guilty and the innocent, I'll tell them both in the first voice intertwined, as I was there falling in love twice at the same time.
Imagine a large hall, dim light, twelve tables in the middle of it. A group of around 20 people is standing next to a wall, quietly whispering to one another. They are the spectators who showed up too late to be in a team, but are still curious to test their knowledge. In the center of the room, behind each table, there are exactly six players locking eyes and thoughts. A sweaty and menacing moderator asks each team in turn to answer a devilishly tricky question. The Cosmo team is defending its trivia crown, and by the looks of how things are going, we are about to win it for the third consecutive time.
Which of the following facts are true?
- Ostrich's eye is larger than its brain
- A cockroach can live for a month without its brain, at which point it dies of starvation
- Left-handed people live an average of 10 years less than the right-handed people
- Starfish has no brain
- All polar bears are left-handed.
- An octopus can squeeze itself through any crack larger than its eye
I am one of the spectators, and next to me is standing an Indian girl. She's gorgeous, and radiant, in my mind, I'd love to call her Bombei Bomb. I have no idea what the answer to the question is, and it's a perfect excuse to introduce myself to her.
“Hey,” I whisper in her ear.
“What?”
“Hey, do you know the answer to this one?”
“Not really”
“My name is Stas”
“Bombei Bomb”
“I like that name. This is exactly how I wanted to call you the first second I saw you. Nice to meet you, where are you from?”
“I'm from Bombei”
“I think that ostrich's eye can be bigger than it brain, that makes sense to me”.
“This is hardly surprising, I know some people like that”.
“I believe that the cockroaches can live without a brain too”.
“This is hardly surprising, I know some people like that too”.
“What about starfish having no brain?”
“I know some people like that too”
“What about the octopus?”
“That too”
“You're very smart, I like you”
“Thank you, you know how to give compliments. I like you too.”
I looked into her eyes and I knew she is the perfect girl for me.
Imagine a kitchen, long rectangular stained table, piles of dishes towering over the sink. The Brazilian Coffee Hour is over. I as tall skinny Dutch girl with vesnushki on my face and I look like a giraffe. Even in this campus, where 70 per cent of the students are male engineers, nobody likes me. I've just tried to talk to all the guys at the Coffee Hour, but nobody seemed to like me. I particularly liked a German civil engineer. He was short and looked like Max Biaggi, the famous Italian racer I used to love. We talked about how German and Dutch educational systems are different even though our cultures and languages are so similar. Or rather, I spoke. He listened. When I stopped, he went on to talk to his friends. Now the Coffee Hour is over. Everybody has left, leaving me alone to deal with the mess. Today is my turn to clean the kitchen. Fabian, a short Balinese guy who never tells me 'hi' when I see him in the house was supposed to do his kitchen duty yesterday. But he did not, and now I have to do it for two. I feel like eating something, I'm really hungry, but the kitchen is such a mess that I feel grossed out to cook in it. So I take a carrot, pour some ketchup over it, and take a bite. It doesn't taste as bad as it sounds.
I start cleaning the huge pots in which the Brazilian guys cooked the potatoes for the Coffee Hour. And as I'm cleaning the second pot who else nobody but Fabian enters the kitchen. I'm telling him “hi”, but he ignores me, as usual, and walks straight towards the wall where the kitchen duty schedule is posted. He looks at the schedule, turns to me and asks
“What day is it today?”
“Thursday”
“Shit, I thought it was Wednesday.”
“No, we always have the Coffee Hour on Thursdays.”
“Well, I'm sorry I didn't do my kitchen duty yesterday... you know, since I came down here to clean anyway, maybe I will as well help you?”
“I'd love that, thank you.”
We start cleaning the pots together, and this is pure torture, I'm so tall that I have to bend almost in half to reach the sink and my back feels terrible. Suddenly I feel a chair put behind my legs. I sit on it and I feel so relived. I feel so comfortable. And most amazingly, I feel that after a long, long time someone is attending to me, cares for me and understands what I need even better than I understand myself.
I think you'll be more comfortable like this,” I hear.
I look at Fabian with amazement
“You're actually a nice guy... excuse me, I must confess, I thought you're a jerk”
“What? Why?”
“You know, you're never in the house, you're never telling me 'hi', I don't know”.
“Oh, weird, I'm just busy, and I never tell you hi because I'm just kind of shy.”
“What?”
“Yea, I mean I don't know what to say next”
“Just tell what you think”
“Ok, I like you... I missed my kitchen duty yesterday on purpose so that I could help you with your kitchen duty today.”
“I see... I was right, you ARE a jerk”
“I guess.”
“Stop being an idiot, kiss me already.”
Karin and Lev munch carrots.