The MUSEX party was pretty fun.  It was at Turf Club, which is a local bar right next to RMIT Village (where a bunch of study abroad kids live), about a minute west of campus and less than a five minute walk for me. The coin-flip drinks were fun, too.  As statistics would dictate, I only paid for a couple drinks (heads every time), not including the one I bought for a certain cute female.   Everyone was having a great time.  We got pretty rowdy, which didn't make the bar owner so happy.  Whiskey ginger has been my go-to drink lately (thanks, Asher), which is pretty nice when they make it with Red Label or Jameson.

There was a minor setback at the end of the night that I feel is worth mentioning--for the sake of learning from it, and not for the sake of dwelling on it.  A kid, who up until now I had been nothing but cordial with, started chewing me out for going to Princeton, assuming and insinuating that I'm a spoiled rich prick who somehow thinks he's smarter than everyone around him.  I'm not sure what I did to provoke this antagonism, but I should have known the conversation wouldn't go well when he started out of the blue with "have you ever been punched in the face?"  He seemed fixated on the financial connotations of my Ivy League school, and assumed money must not have been an issue when I applied to college.  It's safe to say I've never been misjudged so badly in my life.  As it turns out, his dream school was Cornell; he got accepted, but he couldn't afford to go, and now he goes to Ithaca College and has to deal with Cornell students always thinking they're better than him.  Funny thing, that is.  When I explained to him that Cornell had been my dream school too, and that had I been accepted I also probably couldn't have afforded it, I think he started to realize he was talking out of his ass.  I explained as best I could my situation at Princeton, that I am, in fact, extremely sensitive to the financial aspect of my education, and that I don't believe for a second that I am smarter than him (as is evident by the fact that he got accepted to Cornell and I didn't).  Anyway, we both were a bit tipsy, and we managed to make up (although somewhat insincerely) at the end of the night and shake hands.  We'll see how it goes the next time I run into him, but I do hope we can get past it and become friends.

I must be honest, I left the bar pretty upset about having been misjudged like that.  (I was also not so thrilled that the aforementioned lady friend went home with someone else.)  For a bit I wished Princeton never happened, because it seems to brew up all sorts of resentment and preconceptions, but hey, then I would never have had the opportunity to come here to Melbourne.

Some things I learned in the few couple days:

• I'm not as good at pool when I'm drinking
• "Free" is a really tasty flavor
• I've never been punched in the face
• Princeton has been a sweet blessing, but in some ways also a bitter curse

Anyway, tonight is another MUSEX party at a music club that I'll probably check out.  Goon and a movie is the usual pregame...