Saturday’s Winter Carnival at the Buchanan Kiewit Center was a success, especially if you brought a few good friends and no inhibitions.
Before the general public was allowed in to the ResLife-sponsored event, residence life advisors from Lawrence and several other schools got treated to three Lawrence bands to unwind to after a long day at the Beast Conference.
The bands were Vale Todo, Lawrence’s resident salsa band; Ka$hboxxx!!!, also known as The Dance-Punk Band, The Jack McCoys, and I Love! His Enormous Philosophy; and Bored to Tears, made up of Mark Johnson, Sarah Wexler, Asher Perlman and Gus Christensen.
While they played, the RLAs got “tired and sweaty,” said RHD Sz-Min Chen. “The music was cool; the musicians played good sets. There was a lot of ‘Lawrence dancing,'” she explained, “sort of a hop and shake.”
Senior RLA Kayla Johnson felt it was “great to relax and cut loose after the conference,” and junior RLA Kat Kaszpurenko said it was good to “mingle with RLAs from other schools in a more playful environment.” Along with the dancing there was miniature golf, an inflatable obstacle course, an inflatable jumping castle and sumo suits.
After the dancing the RLAs and the bands cleared out, and what was left was a lot of potential. Given the right friends, a lack of caring what others thought, and a large tuning in to one’s inner child, the different elements were a great hit. Sophmore RLA Gus Christensen noted that the obstacle course was “great, exciting, and more difficult backwards than forwards.”
The blue turreted inflatable castle evoked memories of birthday parties and big trampolines, and even inspired a few flips. Freshman Katie Loppnow said she liked the castle because she “could push people without them getting hurt.”
The only bad part of the carnival, Loppnow went on, was the sumo suit, because it was too large and she therefore had to “walk like a penguin.” The sumo suits were padded “sumo bodies,” complete with a hair helmet and mitten hands, where the goal was to get an opponent out of the ring by wrestling or leaning on them.
All in all, the carnival was sweaty and highly entertaining.
RLAs unwind after BEAST
