Meet Me Monday: Danielle Banzon
"People are so much nicer here," she says. "People are so rude [there]. Like you could walk out in the street here and people will stop. There, forget it, you'd be dead. Step one foot off the curb."
Her family still lives in New Jersey, but she doesn't see herself making a return any time soon.
"My mom wants me to move back, but I don't think I could go back," she says. "It's so different from being here."
Name, age, status:
Danielle Banzon, 21, in a relationship
Where she calls home:
Bel Air.
I lived down 39th Street. I miss living in the city. It's so quiet. There's nothing to do in Harford County. It drives me nuts. I want be back here all the time.
Where she grew up:
She moved here from Monmouth County, N.J., when she was 18.
"I had met my boyfriend here, so I decided I wanted to stay here and not go back to New Jersey. That's how I wound up here."
How does she make a living?
She just started her first semester at the University of Baltimore, studying psychology.
"I already have an associate's degree in psychology. I wanted to go to nursing school, so I took all these science classes to go to nursing school, and I meet all the requirements and everything, but there's waiting lists everywhere. And I need to do something else with my life, so I thought, OK, I'll do the psychology thing for now."
On living together:
"I lived on campus at school my first semester, but I had real bad roommates, so I decided to move out in December. I had my own apartment, and he still was in the dorms. So, it took about three days before he decided I'm living with you. And he slowly brought his stuff over. So we've kinda been living together since the start. I don't know if that's necessarily a good thing or not.
"We're fine, we get along well, and we don't have any problems. First we were living in a studio, so we were on top of each other. Every time you turn around, he's right there. And like the bathroom is so tiny, you'd get claustrophobic when you shut the bathroom door. There was no privacy.
"Now we live in a two bedroom, which is nice. He can go in the other room and I can go in the other room."
Favorite neighborhood:
She says Fells Point is nice, though her favorite spot is the aquarium.
"We go there all the time. ... I'm kind of a little kid at heart."
Good place to take someone out:
We really like to go to Sabatino's a lot. And usually we like to go for walks in the Inner Harbor. Quiet places. You can go to the club with your friends or, but when you're alone, you want it to be quiet."
Worst date:
"We went out for Valentine's Day ... I guess it was our second Valentine's Day? We went to this restaurant in Little Italy and the food was horrible. It was cold and it didn't taste really great, and then we got into a fight on the way home."
Best date:
"Probably the first time we went to the aquarium together. I really really wanted a stuffed dolphin so bad and he didn't -- it was 20 bucks -- he didn't want to buy it, it's stupid, you don't really want it, and I sleep with it every night."
Her ideal mate:
"Smart. Funny. Always makes me laugh. Knows me better than anyone else. I guess that's it. I kinda describes [my boyfriend], I guess."
Deal-breakers:
"When they break promises. Lying. Not really meaning what they say."
What's the best thing about being in a relationship?
"Not really having any independence."
Worst thing?
"Always having someone there, never being alone."
If he could date anyone in history?
Shakespeare.
"I find his works to be interesting, but often I don't understand them. I think he'd probably be a romantic person and it'd be very cool to get to know him. I think he'd be an interesting person to meet. Minus the tights, maybe."

Comments
Hey, I live in Bel Air too with my boyfriend and I totally understand how she feels about Harford County.
Posted by: Melissa | January 28, 2008 4:28 PM
But the Fresh Prince told me Bel Air was cool!
Posted by: JTK | January 29, 2008 2:04 PM
haha. JTK, Bel Air has not been cool since the Fresh Prince moved out.
Posted by: Maryann | January 30, 2008 10:22 AM
Maryann -- nice feature, but I want to point out that the "best" and "worst" answers about being in a relationship are reversed. At least I hope they were!
Posted by: JustLooking | February 9, 2008 10:49 PM