East meets West when two freshmen, Sriram from California and Gillian from Massachusetts, are set up by The Hatchet on a blind date. It happened at Foggy Bottom’s T.G.I. Friday’s on their second night living in the District.

Gillian: I’ve never been on a blind date before, so I didn’t expect to click. He was suave looking, very friendly, and we never had an awkward moment. But, he was late!

I ordered chicken parmesan, and he had a cheeseburger. We talked a lot about everything. The usual stuff – mostly college, and he was a really interesting guy. I assumed he would be a friendly guy, and he was friendly. And seems to be a lot of fun, too.

He was really smart. He’s a DJ which is cool. But the club scene isn’t really the big thing I’m into. We really just talked about him the whole time. Not that much about me. But it’s ok. I still had a lot of fun, and really interesting conversation. But he’s not my type of guy.

I would give the date a B+. I wouldn’t go out with him on another date, but I would definitely hang out with him sometime.

Sriram: This was my first blind date, and I didn’t expect much at all. I thought it would be awful and that the chick would be ugly. But she was gorgeous. And we hit it off as soon as we started talking. I knew from the beginning that we’d have a good time.

We talked about everything, basically. Especially school, partying, high school, getting into the club scene and I shared a few stories of my own. I felt like we had a lot in common, for example, we both like house parties a lot.

I would give the date an A-. I’d go out with her again. I might even call her up, who knows?

Dater Bios

Name: Gillian White
Year: freshman
Age: 18
Hometown: Melrose, Mass.
Major interest: political science

Name: Sriram Prakash
Year: freshman
Age: 18
Hometown: Northridge, Calif.
Major interest: economics, computer science
What would be your ideal date?

Gillian: I’d love to do something ridiculous. It would be cool if we could do something like play kickball with a lot of people and then have dinner alone afterwards.
Sriram: It would be awesome if she and I could go paint-balling and play beer pong together.

What characteristics do you look for in the opposite sex?

Gillian: Humor, smartness, being tall, because I’m not that short.
Sriram: Besides looks? Humor, an interesting personality and being adventurous.

What are your own personal interests?

Gillian: Tennis, tennis and partying.
Sriram: Politics, partying and sports.

“GW Blind Date” is a new regular feature in the Life section modeled after Washington Post Magazine’s Date Lab. If you would like to be set up on a blind date with another GW student, e-mail [email protected] and tell us why you want to get set up.