Campus Conversation

While Friday night’s best advertised and most talked about event was The Vagina Monologues, the arts and crafts night cosponsored by the Asian Culture House and the Asian Students Association drew a larger-than-expected crowd. The night featured activities ranging from origami and lantern-making to calligraphy and sushi-making.

“Our goal was to create a fun arts and crafts night, which involved a lot of hands-on activity,” said Eunice Koo ’04, who helped organize the event. “For example, instead of buying food for the masses and having people come, eat and leave in a space of 15 minutes, we had sushi-making.”

According to Koo, nearly 60 students attended the event. Yoo Jeung Nam ’04, another organizer, was impressed by the turnout. “Everyone worked really well together,” said Nam. “People actually not only came to eat the food, but actually made lanterns.”

Lantern-making was a popular draw of the night. “People made really impressive lanterns,” said Nam. “You can’t really go bad with the lanterns because there’s a set way to make it. Eugenia [Tsai ’05] and Yvonne [Chan’s ’04] were really good.”

Koo agreed. “Several people got really into the lantern-making and made some elaborate, multi-tiered ones,” she said.

“I was cooking like a madwoman, but I don’t even know how to make Jell-O,” said Yoo Na Chung ’05, who attended the crafts night. “The wontons were funky; they sort of melted. But people inhaled them.”

The event, held in Moore’s second floor lounge, was interrupted by a 20 minute field trip into the cold when the dorm’s fire alarms went off. “It took a long time for the fire department to show up,” said Koo of the fire drill. “But when we came back to clean up, people were still talking around the lantern and sushi table.”

Saturday night fever

“Stayin’ alive” definitely could have been the motto for this past weekend, as students were seen all over campus enjoying one of the best weekends of the semester thus far. Like the old saying goes, it’s quality and not quantity that matters, but this time we had both. “There were definitely more than a few things going on for once, which was refreshing, and my friends who came up from New York brought new energy to the Amherst social scene-for me, at least,” said Merril Shin ’04. “Sometimes you need more than the same old faces.”

Perhaps even more important than the number of parties on campus was that they were all different from one another. “People were excited about the choices because it was more like clubbing,” said Grace Kay ’04. “If you didn’t like one thing, you could go somewhere and it would be different; it wouldn’t just be another TAP.”

As alluring as TAP and its catchy themes are, the weekly party has become such a routine part of social life that students often dismiss it before you can even say “TA-.” “If TAP was like Mardi Gras, I would go every time,” said Kay. “The whole ambience was really nice. More people went out that night because it wasn’t just TAP and everyone expects TAP every weekend.”

Not everyone, though, was party-hopping. If one happened to fit your style, why move? “I went to Studio 54 and danced with my two favorite boys in this school,” said Fouzia Khan ’04. “B-dorm throws the best parties. Studio 54 met my fun and men requirements.”

There were, however, some sacrifices to be made for quantity. “I had fun partly because I was with friends from high school and partly because Marsh had such a sweet, unique event,” said Stacey Kepler ’04. “Having too many things is also an issue because only 30 to 40 people were at TAP, Mardi Gras, etc. But I’d still rather have more party options so I can’t really complain.”