Before I came to Hopkins as a freshman, people filled me in on the key things that Baltimore is famous for: crabs, the Orioles, the Inner Harbor and Halloween at Fell's Point.
Fell's Point on Halloween is unlike anything you have experienced before. For one day a year, thousands of drunken costume-clad Baltimore college students gather in the bars and on the streets of Fell's to celebrate.
As a freshman, I had heard all about how wonderful Fell's was on Halloween night. However, I was unaware of the difficult time I would face getting there, and the even worse time trying to get home. I decided to follow the crowd and to check off one of the Things Every Hopkins Student Must do Before Graduation by heading down for a night of drunken debauchery.
Halloween night, my friends and I made our transformations complete as we became a rock star, a school girl, Princess Leia and a pumpkin. We were dressed the part, we just needed a way to get to Fell's.
As freshmen, we faced the unfortunate reality of not having cars; but luckily for us, StuCo had advertised a free shuttle service down to Fell's. And, of course, nothing beats a free ride.
As with all parties, you never want to be the first one to arrive, so there was no way my friends and I were going to be on the first bus to Fell's. After goofing off in the AMRs for a bit, we finally headed over to the bus where, to our surprise, there was an extremely large mob of costume-clad students waiting to get on the bus. It appeared that nobody wanted to go on the first bus, so everyone went on the later buses.
Boarding the bus was no easy task. It involved an elbow in the face, someone stepping on your foot, and inevitably being so close to the other people that you could smell their bodily odors. Forget lines, this was a free-for-all. I grabbed my friends by their arms and launched myself into the crowd and onto the bus. As we drove away I realized that the majority of students were left stranded on the Beach, facing the evil reality of finding a cab or going back to the dorms.
Once on the bus, our lives didn't get any easier. The girl in the row in front of us had a few too many drinks prior to boarding the bus, and the drinks didn't exactly stay down. Our trip down to Fell's was delayed as the bus driver pulled over for the girl to throw up along the side of the road, but the girl didn't make it all the way to the door before the drinks came up.
I don't want you to get the wrong idea though. We had a great time in Fell's Point -- that is, once we got there, at least.
I had never seen so many people in one area of Baltimore at any given time. There were a few thousand people, all dressed in costume, just hanging out on the streets of Fell's Point. Entering the bars would have required fighting another mob and possessing a credible fake ID, so we avoided them completely. Some of us decided not to drink while others decided to brown bag it with the drinks our of-age friends had given us.
Just as you never want to be the first one to arrive, you never want to be the first one to leave.
Trying to get back onto the bus to Hopkins was worse than trying to get to Fell's in the first place. It was one huge mob of people shoving, pushing and screaming as they tried to get onto the shuttles. The lucky few that were able to get on had the battle scars to prove it.
The mob had won and my friends and I had lost. After battling to get onto the StuCo bus, my friends and I were faced a bleak reality: it was 3 a.m. and we were stranded.
Cabs aren't the easiest things to come by on a Halloween night. We gave up on trying to hail a cab after trying for over an hour. Even calling a cab to come get us didn't work. At this point we were freezing and had no idea how we would ever get home.
We sought shelter from the cold wind in the alcove by the steps of an old church, right next to a sign that said "No Loitering."
While huddling together on the steps to keep warm, an SUV pulled up and we were offered a ride home. The thing is, the driver propositioned us: he would give us a ride and we would give him ... well you get the idea. Finally, after realizing we weren't going to get into the car with him, he sped off.
The now-empty streets reeked of urine and beer, a terrible combination. We couldn't stand the smell any longer, and the sketchy man in the SUV had freaked us out, so we resorted to doing the one thing we had been taught during Orientation by Hopkins Security: no matter where you are, if you feel you are in an unsafe situation, call Hopkins Security.
The Hop Cops arranged for a cab to come pick us up. It never showed, but a man who believed he was Michael Jackson did. White glove and all, this man truly believed himself to be the king of pop as he danced along the street and proceeded to hassle us.
By now, all that was left on the street were a bunch of empty bottles, some chunks of Halloween costumes that had fallen off, myself, my friends, the street cleaning crew and Michael Jackson. Suddenly out of nowhere came a bright light.
The Baltimore City Police were shining the lights from their car on us. They had just found us loitering under the "No Loitering" sign. I began to worry that the night would end with my being handcuffed and hauled off to jail while dressed as a pumpkin!
The police could tell we were in desperate need of help, so they asked Michael to moonwalk his way back to his house and kindly waited with us until the Hop Cops arrived to take us home.
I had spent more time trying to get a ride to and from Fell's than I had actually enjoying Fell's itself. Sophomore year, I decided to stay clear of Fell's and took part in local activities instead. My fear of being punched while trying to get on a bus or trapped down in Fell's again was too much. But I realized last year that I missed Fell's. In spite of the smell of urine, the hoards of drunken college students and the lack of transportation I actually missed it. So this year I'm thinking of being a football player -- I know I'll need the pads and helmet when I try to get onto the shuttle.
