Reorientation: Ecstasy, Coat Check & a Paint Party

Last week was Reorientation, aka second semester's first week of classes.  This Reorientation featured Man Day (done by the Execs and mainly focused on the World Cup final), Nightcap (DJ tour), Carnival/Market Day/International Food Festival, and the Illuminate Paint Party.

I worked two late nights - both Nightcap and the Paint Party ended at 3am!  I am getting old, because about 10pm (when most students weren't even there yet), I was ready to go home.  A few hilarious details from these two gigs (what they call concerts/programs).

At Nightcap, a three level DJ gig, I learned that students on ecstasy are hilarious and actually a lot easier to deal with than drunk students.  There were A TON of students on E, and hence, there was a lot of hugging and serious, break-your-ribs, hugging.  Also lots of lollipops (the urge to chew and suck comes with E) and lots of rubbing your own head with excessive force.  Compared with drunks however, they are much more agreeable. If you say to a drunk, "hey can you not do that and move over here?," you'll get an obnoxious "no" and a lot of complaints.  A person on E says "no problem!" and will probably try to hug you.

At Carnival Day, I learned what a chair-o-plane is...it's that carnival ride with the swings.  Market Day featured vendors selling their wares, from jewelry to op shops (second hand stores) to knitted items galore to fudge. Photos courtesy of the OUSA photographer.

During the International Food Fest, I learned how valuable it is to have math-tastic volunteers on your token counting team!  And that there is some seriously delicious food for sale...

Paint Party was an experience.  First and foremost, it meant that OUSA staff and volunteers were in boiler suits to protect ourselves from the paint.  I also wore my gumboots for good measure.

 


At the Paint Party, alcohol was the drug of choice, and we had some seriously intoxicated students.  Red Cross was busy busy busy.  Outside of that, it was a crazy event and lots of fun for the students.  They all arrived in white and at 11:30pm, the paint dropped.  People shot it at them from the stage, they shot it at each other, and it was EVERYWHERE.  Check out my pictures and then the video that the Illuminate crew made (try to ignore all the close ups of ass and just focus on the crazy paint-ness).





And check out the floor post party...


The most frustrating (and yet hilarious in retrospect) was coat check.  We run a coat check at each gig.  For $1, you can hang 3 things on a hanger, and we'll watch over it for you during the show.  The genius part of this whole system is that we write the coat check number on the inside of their right arm with a permanent black marker, because there is a 99.9% probability they will lose the ticket.  Up until the Paint Party, this was a relatively flawless system.  However, we found the one thing that turned coat check into a veritable shit show - PAINT!  When the students come back to coat check, they literally just hold out their arm (it's the easiest thing to do when under the influence), and this time there was no number!  The paint had made the number rub off their arm.  When you asked for their ticket, they looked at you like you were crazy for expecting them to have it.  Guys checked their pockets and girls checked every place that they could have possibly stored a ticket - a lot of boobies almost came tumbling out as these lasses desperately searched their bras for tickets.  This one girl stood and cried for a half an hour while 5 of us searched for her bag - black with tassels!!! - only to disappear and come back a few minutes later WITH THE BAG SAYING "Oh, I guess I didn't check it in."  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!  Needles to say, we have already thought of 400 ways to improve this system..with #1 being to write the number on their forehead. ;)

For all the Carnival/Market Day/International Food Festival pictures (that I borrowed from the OUSA photographer), click here.

For all my Paint Party pictures, click here.