May Day!

Bryn Mawr has 4 major traditions. I've covered some of them on this blog and avoided others. I believe Parade Night occurred before this blog was formed. Nothing too big there, just some freshmen getting stuff thrown at them. I briefly mentioned Lantern Night as being creepy yet touching and then I think I mentioned Hell Week had happened but I was too exhausted from the events of the week that I never mentioned it further. 

The fourth major tradition is May Day. On May Day we all wear white and enjoy a lovely day filled with dancing and alcohol. It's always the most beautiful day of the year, with sun in the sky and flowers blooming all around. Rumor has it that past president and general crazy mothereffer M. Carey Thomas had a deal with the devil so that it never rained on May Day. She also apparently had a deal with the devil so that Mawrtyrs didn't die from the flu.

I could drag this out for paragraphs but I think we all know what happened, it rained. A lot. So not only was our senior May Day a wet one, but I'm also a bit creeped out that the supposed first rainy May Day ever comes during an outbreak of the flu. I had assumed I had immunity. Let's hope that deal with the devil was real.

We were all bummed that it was going to be a rainy May Day but we held out hope that the sun would break through. May Day festivities begin for the seniors the night before with the delivery of May Day gifts, tokens passed down to underclassmen. These gifts can also be classified as trash. Since these are technically supposed to be delivered while the underclassmen are sleeping so that they wake up to them, the delivery must be done in the middle of the night. We made it until 11 pm before we decided screw it, we want to go to bed. Once in the hallways we noticed that most people had given up long before we did. Oh well. 

Morning came quickly as the seniors are supposed to go wake the president up and then climb to the top of Rock in order to wake the sun. I spent the entire night coughing (oh crap....quickly check for fever and lack of appetite...negative, alright) and passed on this in order to get an extra hour of sleep. After getting a call from Paige I threw on my pretty white outfit....and Northface raincoat...and ran over to senior breakfast at the restaurant on campus. There we dined on strawberries and champagne, like classy Bryn Mawr women should. Paige asked me if this was how we ate breakfast every morning in Princeton. I replied yes, but it was finer champagne and the butler brought all of our food to the table rather than us having to get it from the buffet. 

After we had drunk our weight in school sponsored alcohol we got ready to go to the parade. I ran back to my room to grab my festive hat before securing a spot on the parade route. I make it sound like spots were in high demand....that's a lie. 

Check out my hat!

Before the parade began there were the traditional performances by the Morris Dancers and....other dancers. Drew, who was experiencing his first May Day, groaned and said "No one told me I was going to a renaissance faire". Quiet Drew, just wait until it's time to take down the patriarchy. You're lucky we let you in today. The Morris Dancers are always enjoyable. You want to laugh, but they are good at what they do. The fact that they wear funny costumes and bang sticks isn't their fault....is it?

The shows finished and it was time for the parade. This year's theme was circus so the parade consisted of a bunch of random circus performers. I always laugh when I think about our school contacting them "Alright, we're going to need you to perform in parade. The parade is going to to be about 100 yards long and will involve you walking through a group of women dressed in white. Some of them might be wearing capes, do not be afraid". Ari and Nicky, may pole dancers this year, came at the end of the parade. I asked Drew if he was proud that his girlfriend was in the parade. He just shook his head and said "No. No not really". 

After the parade passed us Paige and I decided to join in the parade. Really it seemed like the right thing to do. So while maybe we should have gone around the parade to the may poles we decided to walk through the parade and wave. A little bit of a farewell to Bryn Mawr if you will. Other people soon joined us and we had an honest to goodness parade going. I act like I started a revolution here but really it was the most direct route to the poles and most people got the idea pretty quickly. 

The may pole dancing is always fun to watch, but it was HILARIOUS this year that Nicky and Ari were "dancing". It's not dancing so much as running as you race the other classes. Once the president gave the word to start Paige, Megan and I started screaming at Nicky and Ari to run faster. FASTER! FASTER! Over in the corner the freshmen were making a remarkably perfect may pole. In the middle the juniors were royally screwing theirs up. Nicky and Ari, not our most coordinated friends at all, did their best to race around the pole and didn't fall once despite our bets. Eventually by some corrupt judging system it was determined that we had won. Our prize? Graduation. I assume at least. 

The may poles, so pretty!

Ari runs around the may pole

Nicky takes a shot at it

Hooray! We...win? Somehow?

After the may poles comes a humorous speech from our president. Our president this year is new and widely believed to be not funny. Her opening words? Bryn Mawr terrifies me. Hey-o! Truer words were never spoken. It terrifies me too, J-Mac. Her speech then turned to talk of mounting horses and we dissolved into giggles. Good try, J-Mac, start writing next years. A humorous rap by our class presidents followed, leading to the senior hoop race.

The hoop race down senior row is supposed to determine who is going to be the first to get their PhD. I'm 99% sure it used to determine who would get married first, but like everything else at Bryn Mawr, that has changed. By this point it had been steadily raining all morning. We were in a bit of a lull but the ground was still muddy and slippery. The first line of people were those who were actually going to be racing. We said screw that and stood behind them, in the group of people who were going to leisurely wander down the row while everyone cheers for them. It's sort of like the end of Titanic or GS graduation. It's great. I assume someone reached the end first and that nameless person will have much success in life. If I had to place a finishing order on us I'd say we probably finished around 30th. A respectable showing I would say. 

I should note that while most people are either gifted a May Day hoop or buy one for an obscene price, the Paiges and I got 2 dollar hula hoops in our class color. 

Usually at this point we would then rush to claim spots on the green where we would sit for the rest of the day drinking ourselves silly. Unfortunately the skies opened up and everyone scattered for cover. The May Hole (we'll get to that later) would be at 11 and it was only 10. We ran back to Rock and settled in our alcove for some celebratory cocktails.

A little before 11 we left Rock to go to the May Hole. The May Hole is the counter part to the patriarchal May Pole. Think about it. Think about it. Yes. This is Bryn Mawr. The May Hole consists of a parachute covered in rose petals then we all stand around it with linked arms and shout "Hey! Hey! Ho! Ho! The patriarchy has got to go!". Next year I will vehemently deny I was ever a part of such activities but come on, it's awesome. We got to the May Hole and no one was there. Within 3 minutes of our arrival people flooded out of buildings and raced over to be a part of it. This is something you're only going to see at Bryn Mawr people! By this point it was pouring. The ground was a mess. It was sloppy to the extreme. We got the chant going until eventually someone broke free and we all rushed towards the tarp. On one side of me I see Amanda hit the ground, victim of the mud. 2 seconds later Shannon goes down and slides about 3 feet ahead of me. I managed to stay on my feet and make it to the parachute where we lift it up and water and petals rain over us. Dar Williams starts playing and we dance in the mud and merriment until we can dance no more. By far the greatest May Hole of my four years here. 

Getting ready

Linked up and ready to go

Wooooo!

Best.May Hole.Ever

Paige is PUMPED

Dancing on the chute
Shannon and I go in
Andrea is overjoyed
Paige is WET

We're all soaked and loving it

As much as we'd love to May Hole forever, we were hungry. We trekked out soaking wet bodies down to Erdman to grab some May Day lunch. The best part about a woman's college? The fact that you're walking around in wet white clothes doesn't faze you. May Day lunch is typically great. This year however, like every other special meal this year, it was clear that Bryn Mawr was feeling the economic crunch. Hamburgers and hot dogs and for dessert something called a "lemon stick". I kid you not it was half of a lemon with a peppermint stick sticking out of it. Bizare. 

Someday Bryn Mawr will be rich again....right?

We love chewing on lemons just as much as the next person, but our buzzes had long warn off and it was time to get them going again. We retreated back to Rock to our little alcove that we had taken over and began an afternoon of leisure. We had started off in the Paiges room but realized that May Day was all about public drinking and we weren't going to let a little rain stop us. At this time I'd like to take a moment to thank Andrew who graciously provided the recepticle for our beverage. Thank you Andrew, I look forward to doing business with you in the future.

We brought out some speakers and cards, got some games going and spent the next two hours generally enjoying life. We built up quite the crowd, making me feel quite popular. The housekeeping staff came by and we were concerned that they were going to kick us out of the hallway but they just laughed and wished us a Happy May Day. Only at Bryn Mawr. 

After awhile (and 7+ text messages from a certain someone) we decided it was time to head to the gym to see the bands play. Usually Bryn Mawr hires a bunch of cover bands to play on the green while everyone lies around. Because of the rain they had to move it to the gym, on the opposite side of campus. When we got down there the first band was about to perform but there were only about 20 people there. It was the saddest thing I've ever seen. 

My school is so lame

We decided to dance extra hard so that the band didn't feel bad about no one showing up. It wasn't hard as the cover band was excellent. I love any and all cover bands. Ask anyone, my iPod has just as many covers on it as it does original songs. I. Love. Covers. This band played a lot my favorite type of music, late 70's/early 80's rock. It was awesome. I'd like to say that gradually more people joined us but that's just not the case. No one really showed up after us. But that didn't stop us from having a good time.

It was getting dangerously close to dinner time and we're never late for a meal. After dropping our stuff off at the dorm we trekked through the rain over to Erd for another meal of...food of some unmemorable kind. I think we actually got cake this time, rather than lemon halves. We sat ourselves down and the exhaustion hit me. I quickly ate my dinner before announcing that if I didn't get a nap I was going to fall over. I was excused from the table and made my way back to my room where I passed out in my bed for what felt like 5 seconds before Nicky woke me up by banging on my door. It hadn't been 5 seconds but rather 2 hours and it was time to go to Step sing.

Step sings are Bryn Mawr traditions where we get together and sing a series of songs. Some Bryn Mawr specific, some parodies and some just regular songs. The final step sing of the year is traditionally emotional where everyone cries. I had such a headache at this point that I just sat in my spot and tried to make as little movement as possible. Everyone seemed to have this idea. It was a surprisingly great turnout, despite the weather. At the end where we all line up to do our final song the line stretched around the path and down the road through campus. Longest line I've ever seen. 

The final song is the Goodnight song. Everyone lines the path while the seniors (on Parade Night the freshmen) walk through the line. All the while everyone sings "Goodnight, goodnight, time sends a warning call, sweet dreams descend on all, time, time sends a warning call". It can get emotional, especially during this final step sing. I was prepared to cry however when I saw the juniors crying I started to giggle a bit. After that all of the emotion was lost on me. It was nice, but it still didn't give me that sense of completion that I thought I would have after I walked through the line. 

The juniors are supposed to rush the steps after the seniors get through the line and let out their first Annass (Bryn Mawr cheer) to symbolize their rise as seniors. Out of courtesy they didn't rush the steps until all of the seniors had gone through the line. By this point I was back in my dorm and right as the door closed I heard a giant cheer and a loud Annass and I realized that they had finally made it to the steps. At that moment it hit me that I am done with Bryn Mawr. A sense of calm rushed over me. The cycle has been completed. The traditions of Bryn Mawr provide this sense of connection to every class that has passed. The fact that I have completed the traditions cycle was oddly more symbolic of my passage into being a Bryn Mawr alum than anything academic. 

Part of me never thought I'd make it to senior May Day. I was pretty convinced that somehow the world would end before I made it. I'm not particularly sad or happy to be graduating. I'm relieved. Bryn Mawr has been hard, there is no other way to describe it, this school is hard. I've pushed my way through and I'm graduating with my head held high. I thought that a rainy May Day would be the worst thing in the world. I had a great time through all of the mud and rain, just being with my friends without a care in the world. Bryn Mawr has been a wild ride and this was a fitting last thrill.