Reuniting in Vegas

Las Vegas was a perfect venue for old friends to get together after 14 years! A few weekends ago, I met with former classmates from AIS/D (American International School/Dhaka). I lived in Dhaka, Bangladesh from 1992-1996. (Ten points to those who know where that is - without looking at a map!) That was 7th through 10th grades for me. I complained a lot when I lived there. We all did. There was "nothing to do!" Social life consisted mostly of school, school-related activities, the American Club, and each others' houses. That's about it.

This is the view of the Strip form me and Elizabeth's room.














Our class was the biggest in the school, and we had about 40 students. What made it extraordinary was that we came from all over the world. I had classmates from the US, Canada, Costa Rica, the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, France, Italy, Korea, the Philippines, Vietnam, Australia, India, Bangladesh, and more. We were incredibly diverse. And because it was so small, we really got to know just about everyone. It doesn't mean we were all best friends. In fact, there were a lot of people who - dare I say - hated each other. But we knew everyone in the school, and we shared a special bond. The bond of living and experiencing middle and high school together in one of the poorest and most densely populated nations in the world. Looking back, those were my best adolescent years. I had great friends, tremendous memories, a fantastic education, and lots of opportunity to travel.

Now that we are adults, we figured it was about bloody time to meet up again. After reuniting on Facebook, we decided on a date and Treasure Island Las Vegas. It wouldn't have mattered who decided to show up. I think we all feel that despite any history, skeletons or indifference, we would've loved to see anyone from Dhaka. I would have! I wish more people would've come to the mini-reunion, but we ended up with 5 classmates meeting in Vegas. Hey, that's about a whopping 12%! It was a great group of friends…me, Elizabeth Nach, Rizwan Sattar, Hangil (AKA Samuel) Jung, and Genna Garrett. Genna brought her husband James, so there was really 6 of us. Apparently Hangil now is called Samuel. That's just weird to us who knew him as Hangil, so we kept calling him Hangil. Sorry dude.

Genna, me, Elizabeth, James, Rizwan and Hangil












It was great to see each other again. Everyone looks so amazing and is doing well! I saw Elizabeth 1 year ago in DC where she lives. I also saw Rizwan 1 year after I left Dhaka. Other than that, I have not seen these people since 1996. It is so crazy to me to see how everyone has changed so much, but really we are all just the same as we always have been… Elizabeth is mellow, smart and sweet as ever. Riz is still the techie brainiac and has maintained his super crazy contagious laugh. Hangil is calm, philosophical and quite the physical Marine machine. Genna is fun and carefree. To me, we're all the same people with more experiences to our credit and maybe different perspectives on life. To me it confirmed people don't really change all that much. (At least that's been my experience.)

We met on a Friday afternoon/evening. We had a late dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant in our hotel called "Pho." Since Elizabeth is half Vietnamese, we wanted her to order for all of us, but she refused. We were on our own! After dinner, we hit the strip and walked to a casino/bar. Gambled a little. (I won $3.20!) Drank a little. (Don't worry, I had water!) Hangil had is palms read for a mere $40. I guess he is going to meet "someone" by the end of the year. Yay! After this, Genna and James split, and the rest of us went to piano bar. I had never done this before. It was so amazing. Two performers take tips and requests to sing and play any song you want. Super talented. We enjoyed a little blast from the past music (Journey, Guns n Roses, Queen, etc) and didn't enjoy some random country music. Luckily there were only a few of those. Phew! After that we went to our hotel casino and played some Black Jack. I won $5. I'm not generally a gambler, but I do like that game.

The next morning, Elizabeth and I worked out in the hotel gym. It was quite impressive for a hotel gym. Then we talked and met the guys for lunch at the buffet. Had some yum food and amazing desserts. Since each meal we had seemed to take at least 2 hours due to chatting it up, we didn't go out again until about 3 o'clock. We headed toward Paris. There we gambled some more (I lost $30), walked down the shops of Paris, and then met Genna and James again to go to the top of the Eiffel Tower. Since I gambled and lost my $10 to go to the top of the tower, Riz gambled to win me $10 back. Good thing he was lucky! At least there was a breeze up there (however hot it was), so it felt good. I tried to find a good Elvis to have my photo with, but I could only find super creepy old ones, so maybe next time! We had dinner at Kahunaville in our hotel. Our waiter, it turns out, was Mr. Las Vegas 2000. That's a body building competition. Since I was so impressed with his biceps, we posed in a photo together, and he gave me his card with his number on the back. haha. Nice. One of the highlights of the trip was seeing the Mystere Cirque du Soleil show at our hotel that evening. It was amazing. Definitely worth the money to see something like that. It is so incredible what people can do. I enjoyed every minute of it, but I was tense in my seat the entire time. I was so afraid someone would fall or something. Of course, everyone performed brilliantly!

Me and Nery, Mr. Las Vegas 2000. Impressive (him, not me)!















Hangil's room was double-booked when he arrived in Las Vegas. Luckily, they upgraded him to a pretty sweet suite to make up for it. So since we were tired after the show, instead of partying more we spent the next 6 hours until 4:30 am in Hangil's suite talking about Dhaka, our friends there, and other experiences that we have had since then. This was great. We watched YouTube videos, like Ninja Cat, David after Dentist, some Bollywood music video with English subtitles (haha - "I put a papaya there!"), and some "really funny" Captain Planet thing. Anyway, we had a ton of laughs, and Elizabeth took a little nap. Then she woke up, and we laughed more. It was a memorable night.

We slept in until 11:15 the next morning. I NEVER sleep that late! Good thing cause check-out was at noon. We met for lunch and went to the Mirage. We took our time eating. The night before Riz and I were talking about how much we LOVE Nutella. So ironically this restaurant had a Nutella milkshake! Yessss! Riz and I each ordered one. It was damn good! That was by far the best thing I ate on the trip! A good thing to end the trip with, because it was then time to leave. I was so sad about it. It's hard to let a good thing go, I guess, and I cried like a big fat baby. I hate that, but I guess I should accept the fact that I am an emotional girl, and I wear it all on my sleeve. So, there it is! I MISS YOU GUYS!

I can't wait to have another reunion. More laughs. More memories. More secrets revealed. But you're never going to know, because what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas!

Here's me with each of my friends.


















We were really good at being crazy, as you can see. I think that's the best part of being with friends!


















I thought I should share an old photo. This one is from 10th grade prom. I know Elizabeth's not in this (she moved after 9th), but it's the only one I have with ALMOST all of us in it. Except 9th grade class photo - which I can't share because a few peoples' faces are destroyed (don't worry, none of you from the trip!!), and now I am feeling bad about it. lol.