Well, they let me in and out of Atlantic City.

Last night, Friday, Nov. 5, 2010, Lisa Ohkawa and I and two busloads of her “cohorts” traveled to Atlantic City for a night of carousing and mild debauchery.

The UPenn class of 2012 is divided into 12 groups of cohorts, consisting of about 70 students who went through pre-term orientation together, and in general, partied their asses off. So to celebrate the end of the first quarter, Lisa’s group of cohorts, along with another group, planned a trip to Atlantic City. Lisa paid my way as a late birthday present.

I won’t lie, I was a little nervous to meet Lisa’s cohorts. These folks mostly went to prep schools, spent their undergrad years at places like Yale, Princeton and Northwestern, and worked for a few years on Wall Street. They were not the type of crowd who regularly grab a Bud on Friday night and watch football.

In fact, I met the first member of Lisa’s cohort earlier in the day. Lisa drug me to a training seminar for her ice climbing expedition she is taking in February. Three times a week they do push-ups, sit-ups, run laps and run stairs. I need to get back into a different shape than round, so I went along. Long story short, I still ache as if I was beaten with a rolling pin. One of Lisa’s cohorts was part of the training, and afterwards, we asked her if she knew of a place we could grab lunch, where they didn’t care we were wearing sweats and our hair was disheveled.

Sure, this gal had a suggestion, a lunch eatery called Day By Day. As we neared the establishment, we could see the patrons through the window. Needless to say, nobody else was wearing sweats. Lisa had the chicken sandwich and I had the cous cous salad, and we didn’t get too many disapproving glares, so all was good. But my idea of casual is vastly different than the average Wharton student.

So when it came time to get ready to go to Atlantic City, I had a harder time choosing an outfit than if I was going to be in a Katy Perry video. Since I am still living out of my suitcase, my wardrobe was limited. I went with my nice khakis, a blue LL Bean button up shirt and a maroon fleece. As Lisa said, “you look like a journalist.” Lisa looked good in a one piece charcoal gray dress, tan leather jacket and tan thigh-high boots.

On our way to the bus stop, we ran into one of Lisa’s cohorts named Emily. She is a native of New Jersey and has been to the AC more than once. Emily was wearing a short black skirt with a pronounced zipper in the back that went up to her waist. She was also wearing thigh-high boots and was very attractive. If you were playing the Sesame Street game, one of these kids doesn’t belong, that would have been me. These two high class sexy girls on the town, strutting down Walnut Street with this pudgy old dude they picked up out of the line at the DMV. It felt good to be the envy of all men walking down Walnut Street that night.

We got to the bus stop and found our ride for the evening. The bus was already near full. The only open seats were at the front, as all of the cool kids had already filled up the back. The front of the bus would become known as the “couples section.” Across the aisle from Lisa and I were another couple, Eric and Danielle. They were extremely nice, and right away, Eric offered us a vodka and Coke, which we gladly accepted.

The journey to Atlantic City had begun.

To read part II of our trip to Atlantic City, click here.