Kevin
Second-year College student
What extracurriculars do you participate in?
Marching band, wind ensemble, rushing PSP
What do you like to do in your free time?
Listen to Coldplay, watch “The Office,” read ghost stories
What are the physical and personality attributes you are looking for in a date?
Good smile and laugh, sense of humor, long hair
What are your religious affiliations?
I grew up Lutheran; now I have something like a Zen life philosophy.
What are your favorite TV shows?
“The Office,” “Brothers and Sisters,” “Life,” “The West Wing,” “Mythbusters,” “Scrubs”
What are your favorite movies and actors?
“Crash,” “I am Legend,” “Into the Wild,” the Bourne Series, Don Cheadle, Martin Sheen, George Clooney
What music do you like?
Almost anything but rap; Coldplay, OneRepublic, Death Cab, Ben Folds, Chicago
What are your favorite foods?
Omelets, lasagna, almost all Thai food
What are your favorite books and authors?
Stephen King, Edgar Allan Poe, Da Vinci Code — but I prefer short stories
Describe your ideal date.
Dinner, walking around somewhere (like sightseeing, the Downtown Mall, etc.)
What are deal breakers?
Won’t date a smoker — otherwise I’m pretty open
Are you outgoing or shy?
Shy
What do you want to do when you graduate?
No idea. Possibly teach or grad school...?
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
In Italy, or rather, that’s where I’d like to be...
If you were a member of the circus, who would you be and why?
I would want to work with tigers. I’d probably be deathly scared of them but I’ve always wanted to get one to jump through a ring of fire!
Describe yourself in one sentence.
I tend to be somewhat shy and quiet around people — especially in large groups — but once I get to know someone, we can really go on talking for hours.
Jasmine
Third-year College student
What extracurriculars do you participate in?
I have two jobs, so naming extracurriculars is kind of hard... but U.Va. activities include Persian Cultural Society and several pre-medical clubs. Outside of that, I like volunteering at the SPCA.
What do you like to do in your free time?
Relax. I just have way too much on my plate to be entirely active outside of the norm. Although, when not in school, I enjoy movies, soccer, snowboarding and spending time with family/friends.
What are the physical and personality attributes you are looking for in a date?
Tall, handsome, medium-build, charming, witty, open-minded, motivated, understanding and logical. (What a list... no wonder it’s so hard!)
What are your religious affiliations?
I have none. My father is Muslim and my mother is Catholic.
What are your favorite TV shows?
“Monk,” “CSI,” “Psych,” “The L Word,” “Arrested Development,” “Home Movies,” “Mr. Show,” “Tim & Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!”, “Will it Blend?” and “Chappelle’s Show.”
What are your favorite movies and actors?
Too many to count... Movies: “Léon (The Professional),” “The Fifth Element,” “Pineapple Express,” “Amélie,” “City of God,” “Super Troopers,” “Donnie Darko,” “The Boondock Saints,” “Fight Club,” “Requiem for a Dream,” “Love Me if You Dare (Jeux D’Enfants)” and “Femme Fatale.” Actors: Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, Jean Reno, Mathieu Kassovitz, Audrey Tautou, Steve Carell and Ralph Fiennes.
What music do you like?
Again... too many! Radiohead, Bob Marley, Coldplay, Gotye, Sigur Rós, !!!, The Beatles, Yes, Massive Attack, Aphex Twin, Benny Benassi and DeVotchKa.
What’s your favorite food?
Tough one... generally, any Persian dish!
What are your favorite books and authors?
“Fahrenheit 451” and “The Martian Chronicles” by Ray Bradbury, “1984” by George Orwell
Describe your ideal date.
First things first... I prefer for someone else to plan, so uh, this question is kind of hard. I guess cooking dinner and watching a movie or maybe going out to snowboard. I am pretty open to ideas, though.
What are deal breakers?
I do not date narrow-minded, rude, unappreciative, greedy or foul individuals.
Do you smoke?
Socially
Are you outgoing or shy?
I would say outgoing (although I switch sometimes).
What do you want to do when you graduate?
Take a year off to work in a clinical environment abroad, then come back to the U.S. for medical school.
Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
In the middle of my medical residency somewhere in the U.S.!
If you were a member of the circus, who would you be and why?
I would be the person who breathes fire. Why? Do you even have to ask?
Describe yourself in one sentence.
I consider myself somewhat of an awkward individual (but always with the best intentions) and thus do not expect anyone else to be perfect — they should just be honest.
Date: Sunday, Jan. 25
Time: 6 p.m.
Location: The Virginian
Kevin: I was nervous before the date, but not so much about the date itself. I was more nervous about what would show up in this article, actually. I was worried that we would have felt two completely different ways about the night. One of us might have had a completely horrible time and the other would be looking for a second date.
Jasmine: The thing I thought most was that I don’t really do dates in general. So a blind date was just way out there for me. And plus I had a friend who did this, and the people didn’t really get along. I was worried I would be stuck. I was really worried he was going to be a Republican. Happily, he was not, so we were fine.
Kevin: Two minutes after I left, she called to offer me a ride. She knew it was really cold outside. So I told her where I was and she came and picked me up on Beta Bridge. I got into the car and it was really smoky. That was my first impression. It was weird because I put that as one of my deal-breakers. But she explained that one of her friends was smoking in there, so it wasn’t as bad as it first seemed.
Jasmine: As I was leaving the library, I asked where he was and if he wanted a ride because it was really cold. So I went and picked him up on Beta Bridge. I felt really bad, too, because I had been partying with some friends over the weekend and they smoke a lot. I’m not a big fan of the stench of cigarettes so right after I introduced myself I said “Sorry about the smell!” That probably made him back off a bit because he thought I was a tobacco-chewing farm ho.
Kevin: I didn’t have any expectations as to what she would look like, so there was no way I would be surprised. I can’t remember what she was wearing. I shouldn’t have said that. OK, she was wearing a coat, a purple coat. She looked nice. I didn’t compliment her on how she looked but I felt like I should have. I also probably shouldn’t have said that.
Jasmine: He’s a really sweet guy. A lot of people aren’t good at first impressions, they continually talk about themselves, and he didn’t do that, so that was good. The point of a date is to meet someone and find out stuff about them. He’s a good-looking guy. I can’t remember what pants he was wearing. He wasn’t wearing gym shorts or anything. It wasn’t like he just got off the couch from watching football.
Kevin: We went in and got a seat and we talked as we looked over the menus. She’s a vegetarian so I told her that if she couldn’t find something on the menu we could go somewhere else. I got a steak and cheese, and she got a macaroni, which she thought was the entrée but it wasn’t when they brought it out. It was this really, really tiny dish of macaroni and cheese and it looked more like a side dish than anything else, so I felt kind of guilty that I had a whole sandwich in front of me and she had a wimpy side dish.
Jasmine: On the menu it came as an entrée, $13. But when they brought the food, they brought a little bowl and I thought it must be a side dish. But it was my main dish. We checked the menu and couldn’t find a $4 macaroni anywhere on the menu, which is what they charged us. It was weird. It was awkward. The cool thing was at the end of the night we looked at the bill, and the macaroni was so cheap and the water was free so we looked at the menu for dessert and there was a really good sounding chocolate cake, and I told him I liked chocolate and he ordered the cake. It was really good. Much better than the macaroni.
Kevin: She was really nice, we started out talking about school in general, what year we were, how we applied and crazy mascots schools have. We also ended up talking about computers for a while. That part of the conversation went a little bit longer than I would’ve liked. But I wouldn’t say it ever got really dull. We could at least relate to each other, each other’s interests. I mentioned my favorite movie, “I Am Legend,” and we talked about that for a while. Even though it’s not one of her favorites, we had at least both seen it and we just talked about it.
Jasmine: I didn’t feel like we had any awkward pauses at all. I think we had a good time joking about the fact that it was such an awkward thing to be on a blind date. I don’t think we actually had a lot of things in common, but that was what made it so interesting. It was nice to know that I could socialize with people who are different in a lot of ways. It could have gone a lot worse, like if Kevin was a different individual, aka a Republican, or something as daunting for me. I had a good time though.
Kevin: Afterwards, she drove me home to Lambeth. We said good night and exchanged last names so we could look each other up on Facebook. We both established that we text so we decided we would text eventually. And that was it. There was no hug or kiss good night.
Jasmine: I felt that if it went badly for him he would be like “Time to go!” But he didn’t and we talked for a bit and grabbed our coats and I drove him back to Lambeth. I’m kind of awkward anyway, so I didn’t want to make it more awkward by potentially molesting my date. I would say overall it was a 6 or 7. First of all, he was really easy to get along with. It wasn’t like I ever told him something I liked and he was said “Oh, that sucks.” He listened and empathized with a lot of stuff. It could have been a lot worse. We’re already Facebook friends. We had each other’s numbers so he texted me that night and said he had a good time, but I didn’t see the text. So I responded the next day and said we should go see a football game.
Kevin: I would say it’s an 8 out of 10, which I feel is really good for a blind date, but there wasn’t any kind of spark. It could have been better but as far as a blind date goes, it was good. It went pretty well. I texted her a couple hours after I got back home saying I had a good time and that we should hang out again sometime. She texted me back the next morning, and said that eventually she’d like to see a football game and so maybe she’ll see me at one. I thought it was weird that she responded like that because football games aren’t until next semester. And I’m in the marching band, so the most she would see of me would be when I’m on the field. So I’m not quite sure how she would go about finding me at the football game. But I guess she has a plan for that.
After the interview, Jasmine texted Kevin to let him know that she didn’t realize there weren’t any football games in the spring. Besides being Facebook friends, they’ve texted a couple times and talked on the phone once.
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