Flyby Matchmaker Part 1: ‘That’s Not a Duo I Was Expecting’

Marianne Wang ’28 is a first-year student planning on concentrating in Economics and Government with a potential secondary in Theater, Dance & Media… or Mind Brain and Behavior? Maybe it’ll be a Stats secondary, instead – it's complicated, almost like the date she was set up on, courtesy of the illustrious Flyby Matchmaker. Praneel P. Khiantani ’28 is also a first-year student, planning on concentrating in Computer Science and Economics.

They both like the arts, yet could not agree on whether the dress was black and blue or yellow and gold. (Praneel is definitely right here, it was blue and black.) While Marianne would not jump in a bush for us (sigh), we still decided to send her along with Praneel to Ten One Tea House yesterday. They both put on their right sock first, and they submitted our flovely form within minutes of each other, so you can’t blame us for thinking this pairing was natural.

Marianne: So I pulled up to Ten One at 5:05 p.m., unfortunately slightly late.

Praneel: I waited for her for a few minutes.

Marianne: Right before I went into Ten One, it hit me [that this was a blind date]. I was like, How am I going to figure it out… and then I saw that the other guys in Ten One had people they were with, so I was like, Okay, probably not that one. And at the door, there is one lone guy standing, looking at his phone, so I was like, Crap, I think that is the one! And then I looked at him, and it was my friend.

Praneel: We were in the same Expos, and the way that I met her was that I offered her a Diet Coke. We became friends from that… and then she transferred out of my Expos class.

Marianne: I was like, Why do you have so much Diet Coke… and that was how we became friends.

Praneel: She’s like, Oh my god, no way. We were like, oh wait this is great; we can just get boba and catch up because we haven’t seen each other in a while. We started ordering, and she had never been there before, so I just told her what was good… and then I got the brown sugar boba and she got the oolong one… And then we were like, let’s dip and go somewhere where we can just chill and talk.

Marianne: We got a pudding [jelly] thing that we brought back to Berg for dessert, and it was like impossible to eat! Half the dinner was just us stabbing the pudding to try and cut it up.

Praneel: We were trying to excavate it because it’s, like, this tiny container. We could not open it at all. We ended up putting it in a bowl, and it was so funny.

Marianne: We were just catching up. I asked him what classes he was taking last semester, how it was going. He was talking about his Linguistics class and how that was pretty interesting.

Praneel: Because she switched [Expos classes] I was like, Okay, how did it actually end up going? It was great — it was nice to, like, catch up after a while. Honestly there were really no awkward parts.

Marianne: When we sat at Berg, like, some of our friends were like, that’s not a duo I was expecting to be eating together! So, like, that was interesting.

Praneel: [The Flyby Matchmaker] did a good job; I did not expect you guys to actually do a good job, to be honest.

Marianne: I think that it is pretty thrilling to, like, pull up — to not know who you are going to see. But I’d be curious to know how you guys match people behind the scenes.

Well, Marianne, a real Matchmaker never reveals their secrets! But, if you would like to become a part of the magic, fill out our form here.

So, what does the future look like?

Friends! This ex-Expos (?) friendship was rekindled over boba, and honestly, for a first shot at this pairing business I think that we did a pretty good job. Praneel said, “It’s good to have this sit down, to deepen the connection.”

If you’re single (or just want to maybe be paired with your old friend, we suppose), want free food, and are interested in meeting someone new on campus, fill out this form! Obviously we’re doing something right!

XOXO,

The Flyby Matchmaker