I think overall the banquet was rather successful. Zach and co. did a spectacular (and dangerous) job in decorations (the lantern’s didn’t fall on people, yay!), and I’m going to treasure this set of puzzles forever – I really love the wordsearch one that is full of multi-layered goodness (you have to find the cities in the listed countries, then read the remaining letters, then construct the graphical shape it instructs in order to figure out where and how the answer is hidden~~).
I’m sure the food was pretty good, but only in freshman year did I really eat my fill. Banquet as an exec member is really about living vicariously through the happiness of others; I found this out last year when I was ostensibly still quite hungry afterwards. Serving ~150 people is a stressful task when you have to make sure the sternos don’t overcook/burn the food, and you have to deal with unexpected things happening to the food. While we technically got to eat food first, it wasn’t a feast, and people like Steven took it upon themselves to not eat for the sake of the guests, which is really admirable. I think I did roughly the same last year, but I was really hungry this year (from not eating lunch .. I think a lot of us cooking volunteers simply forsake eating in favor of cooking …).
Cleaning up is always a riot, with people pushing chairs at light-speed, sometimes with other people unexpectedly sitting down onto the chairs for a free ride. There was this competition last year to see how many dining chairs one person could balance at once (6 was the grand winner). This year, there were just two-person races for table transportation~. But I can’t forget the people standing on a chair on a table on a table (yes, three layers) to reach the ceiling, using chopsticks to get off tape with two spotters holding the chair. And there’s always the endless trash to deal with (I think we brought out our black bags at a good time this year; last year we let the trash cans pile up like crazy, and that was the terriblest thing to clean up after) – actually, this year, people for the most part just didn’t throw away their own trash -_-;;.
As always, the performances were splendid. I think for next year, we definitely should try to get someone new, though. Not that we need to replace anyone necessarily, but we at least need some new gigs even if the people are the same.
I got to see a lot of people I hadn’t seen for quite some time. It was fun but I mostly only got to see them for the five seconds they passed by my food. Given that we had 140 people last year, and more like 180 this year, we may have to start seriously considering our arrangements; this year, volunteers and exec basically were told, “Sorry, we don’t have any seats for you – please move your stuff into Dining.” I personally don’t care, but I know that some people would probably have been happier being able to participate more in the banquet atmosphere itself. I tried to make sure my girlfriend, who had cooked with me, could still enjoy some of it (in a seat), although it would’ve been nice to have someone to switch off with in serving the food. Well, at least I was able to join her (on the floor) before the performances started. She finally gave in and let Christine (not one of the two exec Christines ^^;;) take a picture of us, but I have yet to see it in its full glory … I’m really not photogenic at all, and I think the best pose for me is facing away from the camera and doing something else =P. Or hugging or something, ahaha. Still, I’m grateful that I can have a photo as a memory of the times.
Someone said something to me during the banquet that was really an unexpected response to what I had said as really an offhand, largely innocuous statement. And it’s really been pestering me ever since because it touched on something that seems to be deep in me. If I’m in a less-than-splendid mood, it’s because I can’t stop pondering what this person said. I might have to follow up on this to settle my worries.
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Cooking was a lot of fun, and it took a lot less time than I had originally projected. It was fun working in the kitchen with my girlfriend – that’s probably what saved so much time – and I think the result was pretty good. Still, I need to practice cooking a lot more to cut down on variability … . I really should cook more often, but that would require me to push dinner to a much later hour. Perhaps that’s okay, though – it’s a thought, in any case.
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I told my mom I don’t really need hong bao’s anymore .. I’m not really a kid who needs to be spoiled like that anymore =P. My mom said she liked doing it, though, so I suppose it wouldn’t her to let her give them. I still sleep with the envelopes under the pillow, only looking at the contents the next day. I think that little gesture, when taught to children (and enforced), is really a good lesson.