October Road

I apologize for the lack of posts in the past week but I was waiting for something of true value. I am sorry if this absence upset you - Kristine, please forgive me (She was quite upset and gave me a lashing over facebook). So, without further ado, here is what you have been waiting for.

Friday Night: The Scavenger Hunt of Your Life

To commemorate my dear friend Stephanie's last day as a twenty-one year old, we completed a series of tasks that we hoped would symbolize the crazy happenings of twenty-one. 

1) Give someone a piece of fruit. As we walked toward the city center of Belfast we passed an elderly gentleman who looked as though he was in deep need of some vitamin C. I was happy to oblige and gave him an orange. I can only assume from his happy acceptance that my assumption was correct and he did indeed need some vitamin C. 

2) Plant a seed in an interesting place. I am proud to say that somewhere on Queen's campus there is a peach seed waiting to sprout into a tree. I hope that in the years to come, a lovely peach tree will appear in on campus and thoroughly confuse the heck out of everyone as to how it got there.

3) Convince someone you don't know to share their food with you. This task looked very daunting but was actually one of the easiest to complete. Stephanie merely walked up to a guy eating outside of a pub and paused to say "Wow, that looks really good. Can I try some?" He was very happy to share with her, while looking suspiciously at the rest of us, as if to warn us that this sharing of food was a one time thing. I should also tell you that all of the tasks had to be completed with photographic evidence, so as Stephanie was trying his food cameras were flashing away to document the victory.

4) Sing a Disney song. Now, I had taken the time to prepare for this task and before we left the house we had determined what song we would sing. I think that every member of Washboard Band will be proud to hear that the washboard edition of the Lion King was sung loudly, and badly, outside the capital building in Belfast. I took control and divided the group into parts and then taught each part as the sections came in. It was truly glorious. I was so proud of their enthusiasm. I think the people waiting at the bus stop were, at the very least, thoroughly entertained by our efforts.

5) Wear you clothes inside out for at least a half an hour. Stephanie and I had gone to a thrift store previously in the week in search for an outfit that would make this occasion one to remember. We found a perfect dress - think early nineties prom dress attacked by a floral print - that she wore instead of wearing her clothes inside out. Now we were really confusing the citizens of Belfast. 

6) Plank. For those of you unfamiliar with planking, I will explain. Planking is when you lie on the ground and pretend to be a piece of wood, or a plank. By this point of the scavenger hunt we had made it to some sort of monument outside the Victoria Square Mall. Let me tell you, we planked all over that monument.

7) Build a castle. The idea was that you would build a castle out of random things at hand and, at the time, that consisted of a plastic bag, two coke bottles, and people. Hilarity unsued. People have begun to gather.

8) Stage a battle in the castle you have just built. Now there is a crowd. With Stephanie as the maiden of the castle, myself and my housemate Mohit as her gaurds, and Stephanie (Wesleyan Stephanie) as the enemy, we battled over the castle and the maiden. Mohit and I battled till our deaths and did our best to protect our lady, but alas Stephanie won and claimed ...Lady Stephanie. Ok, that statement is more complicated than it seems.

9) Pretend that Stephanie is famous and you are her biggest fans. We spread out and divided ourselves into smaller groups. I was to be the first fan, the one that discovered the famous Stephanie. I did my best to loudly proclaim my love of her work and smothered her with love while begging to get her autograph and a picture with her. I had several people convinced of her popularity and a few stopped to scrutinize her face, in hopes of placing this "famous" person.

10) Walk up the down escalator. Is was hard to find one that was empty, but we did succeed in running up the down escalator. 

11) Have an ugly face contest. We never fully completed this task. The pictures were taken, but no one ever judged the contest....I guess they were just too ugly to view. 

12) Talk very loudly to each other on the phone, while standing right next to each other. Stephanie and I took up this task and had an argument with each other over the phone, while standing back to back. We did this so well that not only did every person to pass us do a double take, but the mall police came up and asked us what we  were doing. We quickly left the mall, but not before we completed the next task....

13) Ask someone for directions in a foreign, made up, language. Nothing says crazy like a bunch of students speaking to each other in grunts and nondescript noises. We started in gibberish and then ended the question with "City Center". A woman was flustered, but happy to provide us with directions in slow, perfectly enunciated English.

14) Crawl on all fours and pretend to be a dog urinating on a pole. Not far from the mall Stephanie got on the ground and became my faithful pooch, "Fifi". She and I walked down the street a little ways before stopping as Stephanie "peed" on a pole and I reprimanded her for her bad behavior. There was an old man walking the opposite direction who clearly thought we were so crazy and dangerous that he needed to cross over to the other side of the street.

15) The final task. A no-hands ice cream eating contest. It came down to Stephanie and Alex. You would think that this sort of competition would be filled with good fun, but let me tell you - it was war. It was a close call, especially because it is very difficult to eat ice cream with no hands, but Stephanie won by devouring he vanilla ice cream with the fury of a lioness.

And that, my friends, was an epic Friday night.

Kelsey