By Caitlin Opperman

The Mac Weekly interviewed housemates David Suchy ’12, Marshall Genn ’12 and Dhritiman ‘Ditty’ Murti ’12 about haircuts, languages, and the wisdom they have accumulated over their time at Macalester. TMW: How did you all meet? [laughs] Marshall: David and I had Discovering World History together freshman year. I met Ditty on Turck 3 on one of those weekend nights when you’re just roaming around the dorms. Ditty: I mean, we are seniors now, we’ve run into each other plenty of times. David: Turck 3 was that group of people that has hung together since freshman year, and Ditty was one of them, so Ditty’s just part of the crew. Marshall: Except I wasn’t part of that group. David: Marshall just kind of made his way in there. You didn’t live on Turck 3 either! David: Yeah, I know. [all laugh] Where are you all from originally? David: I’m from Eindhoven, The Netherlands. Marshall: Berkeley, California. Ditty: Bangalore, India. What’s the weirdest thing you’ve noticed about America? Ditty: Why do they always put ice in a water glass? When you ask for water, you never just get a glass of water, you always get ice in your water, and it always baffles me. David: They put peanut butter in everything. I mean, we like peanut butter in the Netherlands, but here they have peanut butter candy, peanut butter ice cream, peanut butter yogurt, there’s peanut butter everything. [to Marshall] What do you think is the weirdest thing about America? Marshall: [laughs] I don’t think I’m qualified to answer this question. Ditty: Go for it! David: A little self-reflection. Marshall: Um, we have a high consumption rate? I’m just thinking political terms now. I don’t have the gut reaction you guys have. Have you visited each other at home? Ditty: When I was flying into the States I visited him [David] once. It was a lot of fun… What was the most memorable part? David: That’s the tricky part, it was also the least memorable… do professors read this? Ditty: Due to David’s carelessness, I got into a slight accident and got a little hurt. Without embarrassing David anymore, I think we’ll leave it at that. David: It’s fine. Basically, I left Ditty on his own to discover the city of Eindhoven, and it was about 4 a.m. and we were pretty drunk and I was home and he didn’t know where he was. Ditty: I had two broken fingers, it was just a mess. Marshall: According to David, everyone thought he was a Moroccan immigrant and people were running away from him. Ditty: I would try and make someone stop and they thought that I was trying to mug them. David: How did you finally get home? Ditty: I chased one man down on a bike. David: Until he stopped and was like, “Yeah, respect, you just chased me down for like two minutes.” Ditty: Good times. How did you break the two fingers? Ditty: I crashed into his bike from behind and he went flying one direction landing safely in the grass and I landed on the pavement not so safe. Have you guys studied abroad at all? David: I had an internship in London this summer – investment banking at CitiGroup. Ditty: I studied abroad in Tokyo last semester. What’s your major? Ditty: Economics. We probably shouldn’t talk about how I got to study abroad, it was tricky. Marshall: I studied abroad in Costa Rica last semester. I was taking classes at Universidad Nacional. I was taking a geography class, Forest Ecology and Migrations in Costa Rica, and Spanish. What do you think about Marshall’s Spanish skills? David: I don’t speak Spanish but… Ditty: Sounds pretty top notch. David: Solid. He practices a lot. Marshall: We must have a lot of languages in this house. How many do you speak? Ditty: Three. Hindi, Japanese and English. Marshall: We all speak different languages. Do you speak any of the same languages? All: English [laugh] David: I don’t speak Hindi. What was your most memorable experience in Costa Rica? Marshall: I got to see the national soccer team play in their sparkling new stadium that the Chinese just built for them for free against Nigeria, which is pretty cool and random in some ways. I practiced with the soccer team at the university basically five days a week, which was pretty cool. Describe senior year so far. David: It’s going by fast, but it’s good. You get to senior year and you realize well, one year left, let’s try to do as little school and as much fun as possible. Marshall: That hasn’t really worked out. We’ve all been working kind of hard. Ditty: The end is close, I think that summarizes that best. Let’s talk about Marshall’s hair – his new locks. David: Ah, the long hair. I got used to it really, really quickly. He used to always have short hair, but I guess he pulls it off. I heard he had corn rows, but that was before I was here, so I can’t comment on that. Did you see it? Was it popular? Yeah, it was quite a sight. Marshall: It definitely had mixed reviews David: It evoked a lot of response. Marshall: I started growing it out in Costa Rica. I made a decision, I was going to grow my hair out. David: Do you think I should wear my hair like that? Absolutely. Any plans to cut it? Marshall: No, no time soon. What do you guys do together as a house? Marshall: We go grocery shopping together. David: We just do our thing. Ditty: Sometimes we talk about the universe and all the deep issues. Just to talk about the world and stuff. David: Ditty is wise. Marshall: Ditty is wise. He wears a robe. Ditty: A shawl. Marshall: A cape. He doesn’t believe in wearing pants in his own house. Ditty: I’m a firm believer in that. If it’s my house, I see no good reason why I should be wearing pants. David: And if it’s cold, you don’t put pants on. You take your cape off. How would you describe your roommates to other people at Mac? Marshall: Well first of all, they should already know who we are. David: But, in a hypothetical scenario… Ditty, everyone knows Ditty. There’s no one like him. Ditty’s Ditty. Marshall’s a lot like me, personality-wise, but in interests we deviate sometimes. Marshall: Really similar in a day to day basis personality thing, but really different in terms of ideology and plans. Ditty, I just don’t even know what goes on with Ditty, but he makes it work. He’s a minimalist, I’d say. Dity: That’s a good way to put it. How would I describe my roommates… David: I’ve heard that I’m kind and gentle. Marshall: Have you? David: You could say that, and people will be like, “That makes sense.” Marshall: When people complain about David to me, I’m like, “Yeah, yeah, I can see how you think he’s a douchebag.” But he’s my douchebag. Ditty: Marshall, that was so eloquent. I think these guys are kind of similar in their personalities, like they said. Quite different, but that’s why it works out. Do you have any nicknames for each other? David: I guess “Ditty” is a nickname. His real name is Dhritiman Murti. Ditty, he said he’s been called that before college, but I had my first year course with him and it started out as “P. Ditty.” And I remember our professor Tom Halverson saying, “That’s going to stick” and it’s definitely stuck. Marshall: Some people call me “Genn-master,” but that’s not a house nickname. Ditty: Well, our Internet network is called “Gennmaster 9000,” so our neighbors definitely know you for sure by now. Where can you usually be found on a Friday or Saturday night? Marshall: Sometimes on the bus to a very rural location to play soccer, coming back from that. Sometimes enjoying life. David: Ditty, what to say? Let’s not talk about that. Should I even ask about post-graduation? Do you have any plans yet? David: Probably finance. Maybe London or the United States, don’t know. Marshall: Possibly something in resource management in the western U.S., like the DNR. But not behind a desk. Ditty: Hopefully do some post-grad. Get a masters in Economics. What’s the best piece of advice anyone’s ever given you? Marshall: Don’t listen to other people. David: That’s a tough one. Ditty: I live by my gut. I don’t take other people’s advice too seriously. David: Relax.