Winter Carnival is Here!

Hello Everyone!

Before I get into the Winter Carnival shenanigans, let's pick up where I left off...

Last Friday we had a Coffeehouse, hosted by WHSA, which I helped run. That was fun as always. It is always cool to see the talents people have.

On Saturday I had the interactive/group part of the interview process (called SLATE) for the PA/RA/OTL positions I am applying for. I think it went really well. That is the end of the process. I will be notified in late February about whether I am offered a job or not.

Also on Saturday I went to a study review session for my chemistry exam. I did well on the practice exam, so I felt good about it!

On Sunday I watched the Superbowl, not for the game, but for the commercials. We had a party in the kitchenette. Good times! None of the commercials were stellar, but my favorite would have to be the commercial for "The Voice" where Betty White was singing.

On Monday I had a chemistry exam and two broomball games, but I didn't play in the first game because of my exam. We lost unfortunately. Our team record is now 3-3.

Winter Carnival started yesterday evening, officially at 10pm. For those of you who don't know about Winter Carnival (WC) I will briefly explain. Basically it is a time for us (Michigan Tech, the community, etc.) to celebrate winter. As stated in the last post, there are many, many different components to WC. There are events to compete in (such as broomball, curling, ice bowling, etc.), there are fun things like talent competitions and a Carnival Queen, and there are the big things such as all-nighter and snow statues. Also, there is no class today or tomorrow.

So, in order to keep track of it all, I will attempt to go in order. So, starting last night, people began working on snow/ice statues. They have from 4pm to 8am to complete a statue. This is called all-nighter. Everyone stays up and helps make a statue. There is also "month-long" statue which started, obviously, a month ago. They also had to be completed by 8am this morning. There are over 60 snow statues across campus and the community. People come from all over to see the magnificent masterpieces. I helped out with Treehouse's statue, which is an ice-shanty on a pond/lake. See the pictures!

But, before I helped with statue building I had to help out in different capacities. I know I mentioned this before, but here goes again. So first, I was a crossguard from 8-9pm. I helped direct people and traffic. That was fun, but cold. I was facing into the wind the entire time (because you have to face the traffic) so my face froze. But it was fun because there were a ton of people out and about, including the president of the university, a vice president of the university, and Blizzard T. Husky, our mascot. I'm glad I could help them all safely cross the road :) There was also loud music playing on campus, so I stayed warm by dancing while crossguarding :)

At 9pm I went to help serve chili out of the "chili van." I got to drive the chili van through campus and the people in the back passed out chili. It was pretty fun! It was a bit scary though because I drove literally right through campus, through the crowd of people (and some of them were not fully with it, if you know what I mean). But it was really fun anyway.

I did that until 10:30pm. Then I went and took a short break and checked up on a few statues. At 11pm I went to help pass out different chili with a different group. I helped do that until midnight. Lots of standing around and eating chili :)

At midnight I helped work on the statue a little bit, though it was coming along quite nicely. At about 2am we all came in. We ordered pizza from Dominoes for an early morning snack! It was quite the night of working, loud music, lots of people, and fun! I enjoyed all-nighter and the fun, but I finally went to bed around 3am.

This morning I was up around 8am, bright and early. I played a WC broomball game at 10:30am. We lost, but it was a really fun game. We ate lunch around noon, and then we went to the Beard competition at 1pm. The people were in either the full beard, chops, or mustache categories. They all perform a short skit/song of sorts. It was fun to watch. After, we walked around and saw the majority of the on-campus statues. There are so many! My camera ran out of battery about 3/4 of the way through, but no worries, I will finish getting pictures of them all, including the off-campus ones between tomorrow and Saturday. They are all SO good! I will talk more about them when I post those pictures later.

Future activities include a game-night tonight, more statue-viewing tomorrow, and a hockey game tomorrow night. Then, on Saturday, my family is coming up to see the statues (and me!). Should be fun!

Look for another WC post Sunday night/Monday as well as pictures soon after that!!

I hope February is going well and that you are enjoying the journey you're on called life!