What is that smell?!

I have absolutely loved my Democratization seminar this semester: the professor, the material, the other students in the class. So, the other day I decided to show my appreciation by bringing cookies and coke to class.

I walk into class and most people are already there. I reach past Eric to place the cookies on the table. As I am doing that, he sticks his nose under his armpit and says "Dude? What is this smell?! Is it me?!". My eyes get THIS big as I assume that it is actually ME who wreaks of sweat. I run out of the classroom and to my office, where I keep a secret stash of beauty products. I clean up.

I walk back in, mildly embarrassed, and the whole class is laughing their guts out. It turns out that Eric had gone out drinking the previous night and by the time we convened for class, was still drunk. So drunk, in fact, that he couldn't remember whether he'd changed his shirt from the previous night or not. When I walked in, it wasn't sweat that he smelled. It was cigarette smoke. For reasons unbeknownst even to himself, rather than smelling his shirt, he decided to smell his armpits.

Needless to say, this reminds me of that one time when Elena overheard a girl on her cellphone telling a friend "He is a Ph.D. student after all, I thought grad students were more like grown ups and stuff".

No, honey, we are really just pretending.