AnaElda Ramos | Illustration Editor

I sat on a schoolbus with just a notebook, a pen, and $20 in my pocket for lunch, alongside roughly 25 other WashU students whom I had never met before. I had no idea where we were going, only that I was supposed to look “picture ready” (per the organizer’s instructions) and would be back on campus by 4 p.m. I was being (voluntarily) kidnapped for the day!

I got to the Alumni Parking Lot at 12:30 p.m., ready to embark on WashU’s first-ever Mystery Bus Tour, organized by the Social Programming Board (SPB). A group of students were already there; the front steps of the Alumni House were vibrating with anxious chatter and nervous excitement. After making a few new friends, we started speculating about where we would be spending the day.

The Arch? Can’t be! Our destination is supposedly indoors.

Laser tag? Probably not. We were told to be “picture ready.”

Maybe it’s The Selfie Room downtown? I would Uber back early!

We all get on the bus, still going over the various places we could be heading to. From the Alumni Lot, it takes 12 minutes to get there. We head down Forsyth, take a right on Skinker, and get on the highway. Any guesses yet?

We arrive at the Foundry. Getting off the bus, I receive a paper ticket. I scan it over quickly — too quickly — because I miss the dead giveaway on the top-right corner of where we are going. Once I see it, I know where we’re heading: the Museum of Illusions!

It’s exactly what you’d expect: forced-perspective photo ops, optical illusions in every corner, mirror tricks everywhere. 

I walked through it with the friends I had met just half an hour ago, having gone completely alone. The good thing is, these kinds of activities accelerate the bonding process, because who else would say “Yes” to a mystery bus tour?

With my new “yes” friends, we took pictures with nearly every illusion: We fell upwards in a barbeque restaurant, walked into a giant kaleidoscope, fell off a high balcony, played a game of cards with four other versions of myself, and entered an infinite room full of floating plants and disco balls. Some illusions definitely made me think twice and second-guess my steps.

It took us an hour to walk through the museum. After our mind-bending visit, we still had two hours before the bus left, so everyone split up into their own small groups to walk around the rest of the Foundry.

We entered various boutiques — one of my favorites being Golden Gems, a great store to find gifts for friends while walking around their completely pink interior — and eventually ventured to the expansive Food Hall. Made up of 17 restaurants, the main indoor area of the Foundry was bustling with people. I got one of the best sandwiches I’ve had in St. Louis, and two of my friends got tacos stacked high with fillings. We ended our lunch with pumpkin soft serve and Earl Grey popsicles that were so good, I’d go back to the Foundry just for them. The $20 in my pocket was definitely well-spent, and kidnapping didn’t seem like such a bad thing anymore.

What I learned from this daytime adventure was that if you’re doubting whether or not to do something — even if you’re on a solo adventure — do it anyway, knowing that others are in the same boat as you. Take every opportunity to try something new, something out of your comfort zone, especially when it takes you out of the campus bubble and into the city of St. Louis. You never know what you may find and who you might befriend along the way!