The First Game ... and the Last Match

With Ross Leadership Program wrapping up, the UMBSA (University of Michigan Business Students Association) threw a party to celebrate on Thursday evening at the infamous Hill House. The Hill House is basically the "business" fraternity house. They had beer pong, tons of kegs, and a luge set up. After the closing speeches, I came home with my roomate, took a shower, changed, and then started in on the party circuit. I first went to a friend's BBQ and goodbye party, then walked over to my section's preparty, and then finally, after what seemed like hours later, found myself at the hill house. There were so many people there when we first walked up to the lot, I almost wanted to turn back. Nights at the Hill House are interesting... they are always full of drinking, dancing, and lots of random confusion. I can't say that this night was much different. There was a little additional excitement celebrating Agassi's victory that evening. Before I realized it, most of my friends had disappeared... and it was nearly 4am. I managed to find someone I knew to walk me home and then went home to get some well deserved sleep.

Friday was pretty uneventful. I tried to get as much work done as possible, but still reeling from the previous night's events, it was hard to really get focused. I picked up my course packs, navigated the school library a bit, and then made it back home to sleep some more. We had our section party at Connor's on Friday evening. It was fairly quiet, as a lot of people seem to have gone out of town for the weekend. I got to meet a lot of the second years, who managed to come out that evening. I went home around 10:30pm. I was just too tired to have another night out... and the Michigan - Vanderbilt game was on Saturday.

Some of the partying for the game started at 8am. I barely made it to the B-School bus by 10:45am. Everyone is so curious about the bus... basically, a bunch of students in the class of 2004 got together, purchased a bus, and painted it Blue and Maize. If you want to be part of the bus (actually buy a share), it costs $500, and then you get to party on the bus for every single home game and two of the away games. For those of us who are not members, it's $5 to drink all day. The bus provides keg after keg of beer for the morning, and afternoon. The fesitivites manage to continue until about 10pm. After our win against Vanderbilt, all the B-school students joined together for the UMBSA tailgate, which was not that exciting. After eating a veggie burger, I headed back to the bus with a few others, where we continued to drink and dance and have fun for a good portion of the afternoon. The party ended around 7:30ish, when we all went home, and then reconvened at the Hill House. I discovered some new-found abilities at flip cup. I never thought would really get into the whole beer drinking culture, but to a certain degree, beer almost gives a better buzz than hard liquor... the buzz is slower to take on, and because you have to drink so much beer to feel anything, the buzz is not as strong either. The lines to get into any of the bars last night was ridiculous, so we just called it a night and got home.

This morning, I managed to catch Agassi's last tournament match ever. I admit, I cried. It was so hard to watch, especially as we could see him continue to struggle through each set against Benny Becker. It was a good game, and one that will be remembered for a long, long time.