By Isa Ghani
Daily Titan Multimedia Editor

“(310) [555-1456].”
“What? What is that?”
“It’s my number, take it down.”

That is what passes for a pick-up line in America. Great, isn’t it? A friend of mine was on the receiving end of that one. Sadly, it didn’t work, but the guy gets an ‘A’ for effort.

Here’s a good pick-up line/trick: Go up to a woman and say, “Excuse me, I lost my phone, could you help me call it?”
And of course, when she does, you’ll have a hot lady’s number.
It may not be classy, but hey, it worked for one of my friends.

Another hilarious one was a guy who went up to a woman in class and lent her a pen, and instead of taking it back afterward, offered to trade the pen for a date.
I actually tried one of these, but I won’t say which one.

These are pretty good examples of the type of pick-up lines I’ve heard since coming to America.
And it’s not just guys who have corny pick-up lines, I’ve heard some real zingers from women too.

Here’s an example, a woman walked up to a tall black guy at a party and asked: “Hey, you’re tall; do you play basketball?”
“Yeah, yeah I do.”
“Oh OK, is it true what they say about tall basketball players? That they have big dicks?”
His reply was, “Well, why don’t you come with me and find out?”
Then they walked off hand-in-hand. I was right there when this happened, and man, I wished I was 6 foot 5 inches too.

See, in America, everyone is a lot more casual and open about dating, relationships and sex, at least compared to where I’m from.

In bars here, you buy a woman a drink to say hi and start the conversation/flirting (the underlying message of this is that you want to get her drunk before you start any relationship with her, something no one seems to realize).
Back home, it would take you at least three dates to get to second base.

People only seem to go to clubs here to get laid – not to dance. On that note, Americans (Caucasians especially) only seem to know two dance moves: girls turn around and grind on guys, and the guys hump the woman in reciprocation.
It’s pretty funny to watch, at least from an outsider’s point of view.

I’ve also seen girls so drunk in clubs that they fall on the velvet rope, bringing down half the dance floor with them.

What I’m trying to say is it’s easy over here, almost too easy, to get laid; at least if you try hard enough. But then again, judging from the pick-up lines I’ve heard, sometimes you don’t even need to try that hard – just be decent-looking and 6 foot 5 inches.

But when 1-in-4 Americans have an STD of some sort, and 1-in-3 people with HIV don’t know they have it, perhaps easy isn’t such a good thing.

People are promiscuous here, and sex is openly talked about, which is a great thing.
I personally love the no-beating-around-the-bush and upfront-ness of American females.
Sex in America is served a la carte, and you can have as much as you like, at least until you “eat” yourself sick.

But on the flip side, I’ve met 21-year-old women who have had three abortions since the age of 18.
To me, that seems like a problem.

I’m all for having the right to choose, but when a woman treats abortions as a form of birth control, I think something is not quite right.

Where I’m from, this is the usual progression of a male – female relationship:
Step one: Meet woman and ask her out.
Step two: Go out on a date.
Step three: Decide if you like each other.
Step four: Have sex.

In America, it’s:
Step one: Meet up.
Step two: Have sex.
Step three: Decide if the sex was good enough to justify a second date.

So ask yourself, is it really better to have your sex a la carte with a side of herpes and gonorrhea, or take things slower and actually have relationships with people that don’t end when the sun comes up?

But keep in mind, this is college; so if we don’t fool around now, when will we?