An “A Fair” To Remember

So this entry is about the Duke Activities Fair—so, pretty clever title, right. You guys have heard of the movie “An Affair To Remember”? No? Never mind. Yesterday (Friday) was the anxiously anticipated, twice-postponed Activities Fair where all the different clubs and organizations at Duke set up stands and recruit students to join their “posse.”

The fair took place on the plaza, a big open patio, because apparently there is no closed space that can house the number and “diversity” of groups that Duke has to offer. The first few rows of stands were focused on club sports such as water polo, golf, Frisbee and soccer. I’d make a joke about lacrosse now but that would be in poor taste. I did, however, see the club lacrosse team try to recruit an athletic girl, but they couldn’t “hook her.” Get it? Say it fast. OK, (alleged) rape isn’t funny.

The next sets of groups were more up my alley. These organizations included a film production group and the group that runs the Duke TV station. As I looked across the plaza, I realized that I had only just skimmed the activity surface. It was overwhelming how many groups there were: Improv, Acapella (8 groups), Bridge Club (like the card game), Hindi Students Association, Duke University Marching Band (or DUMB), and, I swear, a Settlers of Cattan group. It was like if you gave each and every person of our high school class $10,000 to make a club of their choice (except for the Hindi group).

The groups had many interesting techniques for recruiting new members. Some used free T-shirts, some offered free candy and some offered free hookah (the Hindi club). No, “hookah” is not supposed to be another lacrosse joke. After about an hour I had maneuvered my way through all the groups. I’m not really sure what I ended up signing up for, but I’m sure I’ll get e-mails later.

In other news, Duke football faced a heartbreaking loss against Wake Forest today. There was a blocked “what would have been the winning” field goal on the 5-yard line with 6 seconds left. The final score was 13-14. Thankfully, UNC (“the suck-meister extraordinaires”) was crushed by V-Tech, so all is well!

P.S. Please come up with better blog post titles!