Asian Arts Weekend is a weekend that everyone looks forward to during the long haul between spring break and summer vacation. So, during this festival, I thought to myself, “Why can’t we have more weekends like this?” Then, it came to me: European Arts Weekend. Geographically it works out nicely. We start from the Far East on the last weekend of April with Asian Arts Weekend. The next weekend, in order to get ourselves back into the swing of regular North American Weekends, we find a medium. It’s not as drastically different as Asian culture, but not back to drab American Culture. European Arts Weekend would be a great segway between different and monotonous. On Friday night of Asian Arts weekend, there was an Asian Arts Movie, with Indian Refreshments served. European Arts weekend could follow suit, showing “Bend It Like Beckham” and serving British refreshments, including toffee, truffles, trifles and, of course, tea and crumpets. Saturday would be filled with all fun things European. Rugby, cricket, football (soccer) and the World’s Strongest Man Competitions will all be held on the Great Lawn during the day. In the early evening, an old-school Roman Gladiator battle will commence in the football stadium, with Gunga fighting Jon Adler in a duel to the death. (Editor’s Note: I wouldn’t want to make Gunga the second gorilla I’ve killed this term.) There will be no cool fireworks display like there was at the fall Pep Rally, but after the fight there will be a lottery to clean all of Adler’s blood off the field. All those who participate in the clean-up will receive a complementary “I Love EurApe” T-shirt. If anyone still has an appetite after the battle, a free buffet will be served. The menu includes: French toast, French fries, English muffins, Belgian waffles, Canadian bacon, Polish sausage, Italian Sausage, Swedish meatballs, Hollandaise sauce, Turkey, Syrian bread and, by popular demand, Mesano Meso, a mixed grill dish from Yugoslavia consisting of liver sausage, pork cutlets, and minced meat patties with onions. Just like at every specialty dining experience at Phillips Academy, mint chocolate-chip ice cream and some sort of punch will be served. Like any fun culturally related weekend, there will be dancing on Saturday night. Last year, we learned how to salsa dance during Latin Arts weekend. This year, Irish step dancing and polka dancing will be taught. Patricia O’Donahue and Seamus O’Rourke have taken time out of their busy schedules with Riverdance to come to Andover and teach us how to get “jiggy wit’ it.” Mike Schmidt (not the hall-of-famer third baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies) and his wife Helga will come from Polka EurEye Out and teach the Polka dancing portion of our program. After the lessons have finished, DJ ShamRock will mix in some of the aforementioned tunes into the European Invasion Mix, including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, U2, MIMS, The Who, James Blunt, The Animals, AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Ricky Martin and Aerosmith. When Monday rolls around, European Arts Weekend will just be a memory. A memory from the past. A memory that was. A memory that shall not soon be forgotten. A memory that will always be remembered while Eur-A-Peein.
