Flirting and confessions on the party bus: We spent a night riding the P2P

Any trip on the P2P Express, UNC’s notorious party bus, can be full of entertainment. But what would you see if you rode it all night long?

We decided to find out.

The bus route loops around campus, shuttling students from the South campus dorms to the nightlife of Franklin Street. It operates seven days a week, 7pm to 4am. The Tab got onboard as Saturday night was kicking off.

10pm

“Some of the best memories of freshman year is that crazy stuff on the P2P, especially seeing the drunk seniors and juniors,” said senior Marcus, 22.

“As a freshman in the first couple of weeks, it’s like, ‘Is this Carolina? Is this really Carolina?’”

Marcus has some stories from the P2P. “It ranges from anything like near-fights and arguments to puking on people, to like a girl – a drunk girl – laying her leg on me. Like, her full leg.”

We rode the P2P for four long hours on a Saturday night to capture the Carolina tradition. Armed with fully-charged cell phones and stocked up on soda and kettle corn, we sat in the back of the bus as the crowd piled in.

Two sophomores sat beside us, discussing their strategy getting a seat on the P2P. They waited two stops away from their dorm to avoid the crowd.

11pm

A dark-haired freshman named Nick was fan-girling over three football players. He plopped down next to one of them and put an arm around his shoulder.

The football player grimaced, so we pulled Nick away for an interview. He told us his hopes for the night: “Best case scenario, I hang out with my friends, meet a couple girls, get their numbers and call them tonight.”

Like most first-years, Nick has embraced the P2P as a part of the Carolina lifestyle. He said: “Anytime past 10pm you can catch me on one of these buses.”

As we interviewed Nick, his friends chimed in. “I’ll buy whatever you have if you put my boy in your newspaper,” one said even after we made it clear we weren’t selling anything.

Another friend, perhaps the voice of reason in the group, looked at a map on his phone and asked, “Where’s Franklin Street?”

The bus was on Franklin Street.

12am

We gave the title of “Most Favored Inebriate” to sophomore Christian, 19, who clambered onto the bus, grinning from ear to ear. He sat down in the seat next to me, taking up two seats and forcing one of his bros to stand.

When a girl in booty shorts and a crop-top wanted to sit, however, he eagerly made room. The interview began and Christian answered all of our questions with a bright smile and squinted eyes.

The Tab: What have you been doing tonight?

Christian: Ah, we’ve been doing a lot tonight.

Friends in the background yelled, “It’s a trap.”

Christian: I’ve been doing a LOT tonight. To be honest, I’m glad I’m on the P2P so I can go home. I don’t know how I’d get home without it.

The Tab: How often do you ride it?

Christian: Every single time.

The Tab: Every time what?

Christian: Every single time something happens that shouldn’t happen.

The Tab: What happens?

Christian: I know you’re asking this on purpose. Something happens that shouldn’t happen but it does happen and it’s not my fault because it happens.

An onlooker asks: “Is this part of a psychology experiment or something?”

Christian suddenly noticed his unbuttoned shirt. Despite the t-shirt underneath, Christian insisted he didn’t “want to be too revealing” during our interview. As he struggled to button the shirt, he laughed and said: “This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done.”

A lovable drunk, Christian then spoke of wanting to cuddle with everyone on the P2P. He told us his bed in the dorm room is the top bunk: “It’s so high, I just want to sleep on the floor.”

He bragged about his extensive blanket collection and invited fellow P2P riders to join him on his floor.

He said: “Blankets for everyone.”

1am

While Christian was our favorite interviewee of the night, we have to mention our runners-up.

Landon, a freshman majoring in Biostatistics, and his friend, a sophomore who excitedly gave the fake name Sasha, spent the evening drunk-painting on the Ehringhaus lawn.

Sasha said: “He was trying to do a naked woman swimming and it looked awful, so I said, ‘Turn it into a dick.’”

As they reminisced about their art, the bus driver yelled from the front, “Watch the language, please.”

Landon covered his mouth, giggling, and then shared his thoughts about the P2P: “Sometimes I’m worried. Like, I honestly have no idea where I am right now. I look out the window and I’m like, ‘It’s dark out.’”

We assured Landon this was a common occurrence for P2P riders. That night, we witnessed several people checking maps on their phones and heard someone mutter, “Where are we?” at nearly every stop.

Our next interviewee was Seddrick, an MBA exchange student from Switzerland, which he stressed is in Europe.

He said: “I have to tell people because they don’t know where it is. They always confuse it with Sweden. It’s actually not the same country.”

Seddrick has only been at UNC for three weeks and said he has already ridden the P2P too many times to count. He and his foreign-exchange friends go to bars on Franklin Street almost every night. He said: “We don’t have anything else to do. I mean, we have school but…”

2am

A group of sophomores piled onto the bus and told The Tab about their night at the Ellis Dyson & The Shambles album release party at Local 506. One described a memory of someone throwing up on the P2P.

She told us the bus driver passed down a bag of kitty litter and had the riders pour it on top of the puke. Apparently, experienced P2P drivers keep kitty litter at the front to soak up the smell of vomit.

Next, we interviewed a group of first year girls who were club-ready in their heels and tight dresses. They described a typical night for UNC freshmen: they got ready for a big night out on the town, rode the P2P to Franklin Street and found absolutely nothing to do. Disappointed, they grabbed some food and headed back to the dorms.

The P2P is a carriage to the social scene at UNC. Those without plans hop on and hope for the best.

First year Matt spoke of his vague plans to meet a group “somewhere by the Carolina Inn.”

He said: “We’re kind of wandering into a blind situation. We don’t know any of the people we’re about to encounter but I guess that’s what life is.”

A philosophical statement from a P2P veteran. Matt, who grew up in Chapel Hill, has been riding since his high school days and understands the P2P’s integral role in the UNC student culture.

3am

By now the bus had emptied and we sat with the few remaining stragglers on the way to Mid-campus.

The night was coming to a close, and before our adventure ended we took a moment to soak in the scene. The chatter of conversation filled the bus. Three students coming home from a 21st birthday party were dressed in homemade togas. Several guys sang along to the radio: “10 bands, 50 bands, 100 bands.”

There was a faint stench of body odor and alcohol in the air. A girl struggling to maintain consciousness leaned on her laughing friends. A lone and sober student put in earbuds, probably imagining she was somewhere, anywhere, else.

As the bus approached our stop, we reflected on the night and decided on our favorite quotes.

A guy said to his friend: “If she gone come to our room, there’s gone be a party. Shots!”

Another guy yelled to the whole bus: “Yo, Imma get drunk and get my ass kicked.”

A girl asked a guy nervously: “Am I going back to your room?”

We asked a junior the craziest thing he’s seen on the P2P and he said: “Someone threw up. That’s it.” We then asked if the offender was thrown off the bus. He said, “Well, yeah. It was me.”

A Carolina student’s best friend, the P2P sees you at your best (usually early on in the night) and your worst (yep, at the end of the night), and you can count on it to get you home even when your real friends bail.

As we climbed off the P2P for the final time that night, the bus driver called out: “Are y’all leaving me?”