Andy and Anna met at the Rotunda on Friday at 7 p.m. and went to The College Inn on the Corner.
Andy: There were a couple of people in my residential college who did [Love Connection] and said that I should try it. It's a fun way to put myself out there and just meet someone new and that was the main goal — to meet a new face at U.Va.
Anna: My friend told me that it was one of the things you have to do before you graduate from U.Va., so I decided to try it and thought it would be fun.
Andy: I was surprised [I was chosen] since I sent my application in on Wednesday and got a response that I got matched on Thursday. I was surprised how [quick] it was.
Anna: [When I first got to the Rotunda], we said hi to each other and he asked me if I had eaten dinner, then we went to the Corner. … He was nice and friendly. He was open to the idea of going out for a date so it wasn't awkward.
Andy: She was very friendly and nice. We went to the College Inn. We sat and talked for several hours — three, I think.
Anna: I feel like he already planned where to go but just wanted to know if I had eaten dinner already. He said he had been there before and thought it was a good choice.
Andy: Neither of us knows Charlottesville very well and I went to that restaurant when I came here for Days on the Lawn. So I knew it was a good restaurant that I could just bring someone to.
Anna: The conversation was easy going. It was very friendly. We talked about school, experiences and interests. There were only one or two instances when we didn't know what to say but we quickly followed it up with what we mentioned before or a new topic.
Andy: I guess it was a little awkward at first. But since you're new to college … there's so many things you could talk about like: Where are you from? Why did you come to U.Va.? What are you majoring in? It was easy to start with stuff like that and keep on going back and forth. [These questions] led to further conversation.
Anna: We both like “The Lion King.” We both like to watch hockey. But in other instances we were different, like I play a sport and he's into band. I'm extroverted and he's introverted.
Andy: We have in common our general interest in math. We also discovered that we were both near the top of our class. I graduated valedictorian in my class and she graduated salutatorian in her class. We both came to U.Va. new to the Charlottesville area.
Anna: Our waiter just kept on coming over and wouldn't understand what Andy was saying. He'd do the opposite of what we asked for so that was really funny. For example, the waiter asked if we were ready to order our food, Andy said yes, and the waiter just walked away.
Andy: We were talking about how she's in a statistics class and I'm a statistics major. She was talking about how the U.Va. Class of 2020 posts are all polls. We thought it was funny how there was a clear violation of response bias. I never really bonded with someone over statistics before because it's not something many people enjoy or like to talk about.
Anna: [I felt] more of a friend vibe. He paid for the date and we decided not to do anything else after dinner since I planned a movie night with my friends.
Andy: I couldn’t tell [if there was flirting]. If you ask me, I can never tell this kind of stuff but I would just assume it was just being generally friendly and talking to someone for three hours. It was a normal, friendly exchange. But I can't tell.
Anna: I'd [rate the date] 7 out of 10 because the conversation was easy-going, and he was super nice the entire night and I enjoyed talking to him.
Andy: I'll say a 7 or 8. I honestly had a good time and it exceeded my expectations of what a blind date would be. I was foreseeing a blind date as not having much to talk about and it'd just be us sitting there in awkward silence before we go our separate ways and never see each other again. After this date I could see myself seeing her again.
Anna: It was such an interesting experience and I'm glad I did it.
Andy: I'm actually making my roommate sign up. I'm going to make sure he follows through with it.