Senior science majors Amanda “Abu” de la Paz and Tasha Clauson have risked their lives together, and lived to laugh about it. In our interview, they joked with me about their missing teeth, experiences as lab rats and Abu’s uncanny resemblance to a certain monkey.
JL: So, where did you get your nickname, Abu?
AP: Well, back in fourth or fifth grade the movie “Aladdin” came out, and everyone said I looked just like the monkey “Abu.” So they started calling me that. First it was just my friends, but then it went on and on and on and everyone was calling me that, and then even my teachers would call me that. So when I wrote my name on a test they would ask “who’s Amanda?” I’d say it was me and they’d be like “oh, you can just put ”Abu“ next time.”
JL: How did you guys meet?
AP: I signed up for horse-back riding lessons with the Wesleyan Equestrian Club, and they put you in groups. Tasha was in my group. I was just riding with my friend, but Tasha was like the designated driver.
JL: I heard that you have a lot in common, like that you split a sandwich every day.
TC: That’s more for financial reasons that anything else.
JL: So what’s the best sandwich on campus?
AP: I don’t know.
TC: Probably the tuna.
AP:Yeah, the tuna.
JL: Do you take a lot of the same classes?
TC: No. We both take all sciences.
AP: But not together.
JL: Are you both science majors?
[Both nod].
JL: Were you both into science before you came to Wesleyan?
AP: I was. I was leaning towards the sciences for medical school.
TC: I was going to be a history major when I first came here, but then Abu sort of forced me…
AP: I didn’t force you to do anything!
TC: She filled out all these forms for me.
AP: I didn’t do that! [Laughs]. Cause I told her about the med school thing, and the requirements, and then she was like, “Oh. Okay.”
JL: Can you tell me about skydiving?
TC: It was incredible.
AP: We thought we would both go up in a big plane together and there would be hangers and we would jump out together. But actually, it’s a tiny little plane and only one of us could go up at a time with the guy you’re with. And when we first got there, we thought it was going to be so nice and organized, but the place was a trailer! It was a little trailer with a sign that said ‘Skydiving.’ When we saw that we were like, “uhh… Maybe we should get out of here.” But we went in anyways.
JL: Will you ever do it again?
TC: Yeah. But what’s our next thing? Our next thing is…
AP: Our next thing is hang-gliding, or paragliding.
JL: So you both have broken your front teeth?
AP: Yeah, and the other day I was flossing my teeth and it got caught on the broken part and, like, part of it came out. [Laughs].
TC: Wait—the other day you pulled out your tooth?!
AP: I didn’t pull it out, I pulled out a part of it. You see here? [Tasha looks at Abu’s teeth.] It’s, like, the cement thing…
JL: So how did you break it the first time?
AP: Well, I was on the basketball team—actually I was the captain of the basketball team.
JL: Wait, how tall are you?
TC: [laughs] Five feet.
AP: Yeah, maybe even a little under. Before the basketball games we would all stand around and stretch, and I thought it was fun to invent a new stretch. So I leaned forwards and put my hands through my legs and my friend would pull them. And I thought that was, like, stretching. So I was just stretching, but she kept pulling, and I was like “Stop! Stop!” And I fell face down right on the gym floor. And I did not have my hands to support me or catch my fall or anything. At first I didn’t feel it and I was worried I broke my glasses. But then I looked at the floor and I was like “ooh, boy.” It was all covered in blood and little…tooth….pieces…It was really gross.
JL: You were both participants in a Wesleyan sleep study. What made you want to do that?
TC: They pay you sixty bucks.
AP: It was over the summer. You record your sleeping habits so they know you’re sleeping regularly, and then you go sleep in Judd Hall, and they have nice little rooms.
TC:They have air conditioning!
AP: Yeah, and they told us we had a TV, so we brought ‘I Love Lucy’ and a serial killer movie. They thought we were crazy. So what they do is attach electrodes to your head. But they also have this goo that they use. It’s like a conductor gel and they put it everywhere they have the electrodes.
TC:It’s all over your head.
AP: But then afterwards it hardens. So you have, like, circles of plaster on your head. And then you go home in your pajamas and people can see you in the street and your hair is just, like, crusty. And hey, you can see the scalp and there’s plaster, circles of plaster. It’s just gross.
TC:It’s so gross.
JL: Tasha, I know you play hockey. Abu, have you ever tried to learn?
[Both laugh]
TC:I’ve been teaching her to skate for, what, three years now? And she still can’t stop. But it’s not her fault.
AP: I don’t have enough weight to stop.
TC:She’s still a good skater though. And the walls are her friends.
AP: Once in the hockey locker room, Tasha was trying to tie my skates for me to tighten them because my ankles just don’t fill them out, and one of her teammates comes in and only sees me with my back turned to her, sitting on a bench with my leg in front of Tasha. She goes, “Oh, Tasha, I didn’t know you were in the Big Brother, Big Sister program.” We just burst out laughing. I turned around, she saw my face, recognized me I guess, and apologized profusely.
JL: Have you ever gotten sick of each other?
AP: Um…yesterday? No, not really.
TC: How could you get sick of Abu?
JL: Do you fight about anything?
AP: Sometimes I just don’t agree with some of her views. And then I get pissed about it, and she’s like “Why are you so pissed?”
JL: What are the meanest things you’ve ever done to each other?
[Both insist they don’t know of doing anything mean to each other.]
JL: So what’s the nicest thing you’ve ever done for each other?
AP: Yesterday! Oh, and it was the meanest thing you (Tasha) did, too. Yesterday was her senior hockey game, the last home hockey game. So I e-mailed a bunch of our friends and told them to come, and also one of her professors who she does work for. So we all went and cheered and had signs like “Go Tasha” and everything. And then afterwards she was like “Why did you invite my professor? That’s so weird.”
TC:I would never e-mail my professor!
AP: I just thought it would be nice.
TC: It was very nice. It was very nice.
AP: And he wanted to see it, cause he had never seen her play. I emailed him in the morning, so I didn’t think he’d actually come.
JL: How are you able to stay close friends?
AP: How could we not? I see her everywhere around here [referencing the Exley Science Center and Hall-Atwater]. I can’t get away from her.
TC:I need Abu. She takes care of me.
JL: What are your plans for after Wesleyan?
AP: We’ll both be here next year. We’re both doing the fifth-year master’s program where you stay for an extra year and work here and get your master’s from Wesleyan. But actually, I’ve been thinking about it and I don’t think it’s worth it.
TC:What? [She looks very alarmed]
AP: No, not that the program isn’t worth it. But I think Wesleyan actually makes more money from getting us to stay and work for them.
JL: So if you two starred in a movie, what would it be?
TC: I don’t know, “Dumb and Dumber?”
AP: Actually, this time we went to Destinta and saw “Dumb and Dumberer” and there was the big poster with the two guys and a bunch of apes. We were like “Holy crap! You look like the blonde one and I’m the brown-haired one.” And then we went and got in front of it and were like, “look. Look.” And everyone there was like, “Yeah! They look exactly like you.” It was fun.
TC: It was fun.
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