Events that are too cool for our school

Okay, let’s be honest – how many times have you scrolled through your Facebook timeline and seen pictures of your friends at awesome school events that you didn’t even know was a thing until then? One can never doubt the wonderful magical weekend that is Spring Fair, but unfortunately besides that we don’t really have other major school-wide events to look forward to during the year.

Hence, I’ve taken the liberty of compiling a list of a couple interesting events that some schools have annually, just so that we can live vicariously through them for now. Who knows – maybe with a little planning plus creativity (and lots of smooth talking with administration) – we could be on this list ourselves in the near future. I mean, it’s probably time to show others that we have a life outside of Brody right?

1. Dragon Day at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY

This event is actually as epic as it sounds. On the Friday right before their spring break, first-year students of the College of Art, Architecture and Planning at Cornell create a huge dragon, which they parade around campus. Their rivals in the College of Engineering usually heckle them as they’re on their way, but everyone finally ends up on the Arts Quad where the dragon is burned – proving that kids from the School of Engineering should never mess with those from the School of Arts and Crafts – er, Science.

2. Full Moon on the Quad at Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA

It’s hard to believe that this is actually an officially sanctioned by the school, but this event definitely ensures the freshmen get a memorable welcome into Stanford. During the first full moon of the first semester, all under and upperclassmen gather out on the Quad. After the Stanford Band has played and classic kissing scenes from movies have been shown, freshmen who are brave enough to step up to upperclassmen who will then show them their affection and welcome with a smack on the lips. Not sure if this event is more appealing or disgusting – I’ll leave that up to you.

3. Death by Chocolate in Pomona College, Claremont, CA

Chocolate is never something you can get enough of, and those over at Pomona College understand this very well. Death by Chocolate is an event held on last day of classes during fall semester, where all students and faculty are invited to the Edmunds Ballroom for an amazing chocolate buffet. There, they will find chocolate fountains, chocolate-covered apricots, chocolate cream puffs, chocolate mousse cups, and even specialty truffle chocolates are all there – you name it and they’ve got it. Having all that chocolate could actually make the thought of finals coming up more bearable, and that’s something all us Hopkins kids could use.