Friday, September 29, 2006
Homecoming Fun - 10:32 PM
Couldn't sleep at all last night. Woke up early, decided to go borrow an iron to press the clothes that I would wear to the Homecoming meeting with the Alum. Oh, about Homecoming, what is Homecoming exactly... to tell the truth, I HAVE NO IDEA! But its an annual event, a specific weekend where alum visit the school, they do alum networking thingys, go for the Football game the next day. Students (the uni and the neighboring high schools) stage a parade to showcase the different student organizations on floats, and basically, just for the entire community to have fun together. We even spotted the governor in a car down the parade.. trying to get votes huh?The HB school uses this opportunity to get the board of alum together to have meetings, to update them about whats gonna happen in the school this year. So the entire Auction EBOARD met them today, and I have to say that we impressed them quite abit. They liked the trivia game we played with them, LURVED the cookies Melissa and I baked till 1130pm the previous night, thank god...And so when we asked 'will anyone donate an IPOD to us?', this alum was like 'I WILL!!!' like WHOA... xie xie ni huh....
Anyway, the parade was the highlight of my entire day. Its the first time I'm so into the school spirit thing. The HB School has won the SPARTAN SPIRIT award for 5 years in a row.. and we want it this year, too.. (since its really pretty impossible to win the BEST FLOAT award. whahaha). So there were like 20-30 of us representing the school.. Melissa likes to call us the Superstars of the HB School... I think its self proclaimed, but most of us are leaders in the school, thats true. Maybe thats why we are the only enthu ones to go. Anyway, IT IS BLOODY FUN!!! I wonder why I didn't do it last year... I dunno how to describe it, but can I just say it brought me back to the era of Cedar...
We had one of those vintage cars in front (courtesy of a lady working at the HB office) leading the contingent, followed by a truck that we borrowed from a nearby car dealer, and it pulled a trailer that had our float (a globe) on it... and then we had another vintage car following behind, but aiyah... no one bothered about that, cos no students were walking there... WAHAHAA. So we were either on the trailer, sitting behind the vintage car, or walking... I walked for a large part of it, cos we were handing out Auction fliers, candy, and HB frisbees out... but then sometimes we had to RUNNNN to catch up with the vintage car... and it was too tiring, so halfway, I jumped up onto the part where the truck connected with the trailer and just chopped that spot, and stood there for the rest of the journey.
OH yah, so when we were nearing the Judges podium, wah! HB jiu shi HB, they had a grill behind the truck, and they prepared BBQ CORN FOR THE JUDGES!! Complete with their 'complimentary giftbasket', was a Hospitality Business sweatshirt (!), a HB Frisbee, and nice utensils wrapped in pretty tissue!!!! So the MC was liek 'this is the HOSPITALITY SCHOOL... oh wait, are they trying to bribe the judges?!?!?!? This is certainly VERYYY hospitable of them!' AHAHAHA... SO FUN!!!
3 judges literally raised the 10 (full marks) for us.. its like going to some dog show u know... and we just keep cheering until they raise their 10s. Oh yah, and we staged it in that way that they could see that the entire school is participating in the event. Unlike other student organizations, u see... the Hospitality association is like the only main club of the Hospitality school... (but we have tons of clubs within the association).. and we made the alumni and the dean walk behind the vintage car, while students walked with the truck... everyone was involved man... the admin assistants sat in the car and waved to the crowds, Ms. Henry our academic advisor was chanting with us, while Dr. Elsworth drove the truck!
Throughout the whole time, we were chanting 'THE FIRST, THE ORIGINAL AND STILLLLL THE LEADER!!' or 'GO GREEN!' (MSU chant)...while the crowd replied 'GO WHITE'. and 'WHO ARE WE---HB!!', and even came up with a lil ghetto dance to go along with it. hahaha its damn fun... cos I think we were the only club who were cheering actually.. wahhahahaa... Oh yah, cos u see.. we were right behind the MSU Basketball Teams!!! They're like celebrities in the school, and of course, they had to act cool.. and If you would just look at the mode of transportation they chose... WAH IS REALLY ULTIMATE ACT COOL CANNNNN... But anyway, we will know wehther we won the Spartan Spirit award by nx week.. oh come on, they can't deny us! It also reminded me of Cedar Days when we did the 'Say get get get on now' cheer and nearly stomped the Kallang stadium to dust.Other than the spirit of the School, I think wad really stood out was the spirit of the community. East Lansing, or Lansing, in general, doesn't have much to cheer about lately, with the bad economy and all... so to see everyone in the community come out like that, have fun together, just makes me very happy...
So after the parade, we went back to the Business College Complex, where one damn sweet alum PREPARED DINNER FOR US!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Is really very nice la him.. plus another alum bought gifts for us to have LUCKY DRAW.. but as u know, with my kinda luck... the people woh had numbers in front, and behind me ALL GOT PRIZES LA.. dammit. hahahah... Anyway, the spirit between the Profs, Alum, and Students is AMAZING. So all in all, today was wonderful! I could go on and on, but I know you all want the pics.. so HERE YA GO!!!!!!!!
Our first lao pok car leading the way!!
Ladies in the car
Horses getting ready, before the parade
People throwing drinks to the crowd, from this gigantic truck before the parade.
the red and white box on top of the car has mini balloons coming out of it like POPCORN!
Scouts... girls and guys...
Some high school band.. there were like, 5 of them or something! And there were dance teams, cheerleading teams and alot of others!
We dunno who he is, but he kinda painted himself green (talk abt Hardcore) and was taking videos... he shouted to us 'HEY I WAS IN UR MAJOR!! BUT AT THAT TIME IT WASN'T CALLED HOSPITALITY BUSINESS at that time...' and one girl replied 'ARE U SURE??!' hahaha
from the spot where I stood, I took a picture from way up high...view in front of the truck.. see, its liek the entire community came out to look! Thank god the weather was awesome!!
Our alum... they are pretty steady leh. The truck sometimes had to rush abit to catch up with the car, and the ah peks RAN LOR, in order to be between the car and truck...wahahhahaa... thats when I gave up and chopped my seat. But they were like smoking cigars AND running at the same time!!! And it was so funny cos the smoke from the cigars were so much, that Melissa was like 'OH THOSE ARE EXHAUST FUMES FROM THE CAR'.. eh NO, missy... its from the cigars.. haha hilarious! (the uncle, background right, with the green headband, is Dr. Cichy, the dean of the school)
Dr. Elsworth driving the truck... he did it pretty well, except sometimes slow sometimes fast (but not his fault) until we had to run alongside it whahahaha...
the crowds that gathered along Grand River Avenue (the main street outside campus) to wait for the floats to go past... cheering us on as we passed, and doing the GO GREEN--- GO WHITE thing with us...
Mothers and fathers brought their tots with them.. so cute hor? Got alot of babies also... and some had face paint and pompoms with them. cute!
this is Melissa, CFO of Auction... before the Parade when we could actually take pics. Ahh yes, look at our globe.. WAHHAHAHAAHA. we were liek 'is that supposed to be AUSTRALIA??? or was it an accident?'
SEEeeeEEE!!!!!!! the MSU basketball teams... They certainly called in the big guns to help them out. Plus they are like SO SUPER TALL, and they are still standing ontop of the truck... looks like they're trying to touch the clouds can... Just hope that there were no major fires in the city when we were having the parade..
Our float! The First, The Original, and Still the Leader (according to ourselves. WHAHAHA)
James was crazy enough to get green spray for his hair, and goofy Chad wanted it too! Ahhh yes... the ang moh is Chad, the CEO of Auction, aka OUR DOWNFALL! He was wearing this really goofy looking jacket that he bought for some retro event that he went to.. with green trackpants... you win!
One for the photo album!!! Students with Sparty, our MSU official mascot. Sparty was riding past with his caretakers in their lil buggy when we were liek 'SPARTY SPARTY!!!!!!' and hogged his attention until his caretakers were like 'SORRY WE GOTTA GO THE PARADE IS STARTINGGGGG'... (note Dr. Cichy standing behind, looking like a gangster. He's always wearing a bowtie actually... so its weird seeing him without one)
I hope you enjoyed the pictures as much as I enjoyed the entire parade. IT SURE WAS FUN.. I'LL BE BACK NEXT YR!!!