BY JOSEPH SEBASTIAN ANG
The Crespion Function Hall was still the function hall that I knew when I got there, but the decorations made it somewhat different. For that night only, the spirit of Halloween was in the air (although some might be amused that it was a regular Thursday night on the second of November). There were Halloween designs on stage, spooky masks all around the walls, and even a make-up booth. The most impressive piece was the photobooth backdrop, which featured a dark design with a sinister dog looming over anyone standing in front of it. No surprise, considering the event was named The PUrGe (get it? Pugs).
But then there was the buffet table. It seems to be a recurring theme in many events I attend nowadays. In any case, during the pre-event feast, I noticed the people. There were many interesting costumes – a zombie, some guy wearing a beach shirt and carrying a duffel bag, a well-built male wearing a dress, a flight attendant and even Slenderman. The Social and Welfare Portfolio committee members were even more into it. One made a striking replica of Harley Quinn, while the other looked like he was bathed in blood. It was a once-in-a-year opportunity, and it was interesting to see how people’s personalities shine through the costumes they chose.
After some contextualization (through amusing videos featuring the 10th EC members), we were divided in groups and a game session resembling those in Orientation camps began. The groups were then split up to play different kinds of games. And it was then that I entered the night’s Escape Room – a full-blown chamber of horrors from which players must escape in twenty minutes. It is of worth to note that I remember going in with at least ten people, and none of us knew what we were doing. We crashed around in the almost completely dark room, tried to read hundreds of words of clues on the walls and spun locks for twenty minutes. The hilarious thing was that we celebrated every small success like it was our greatest achievement, only to realize that we were still way too far from escaping. And so we failed. The organizer laughed and told us that we had only completed the first out of three stages required to get out. Oh well.
The rest of the games were various station games, where we were pitted against other groups to win points for the prizes. In the end, the winning group was rewarded with a large prize.
The S&W event was a time for fun, a night when we indulged in the creativity of the S&Wportfolio to de-stress ourselves from the strenuous daily absorbing of knowledge that is the common experience of all university students around the world. It was fair to say that I immensely enjoyed myself and being able to unwind with Halloween. Thank you, S&W!