Engi Nerd Fest

2007 Jun 2, 10h

The ASCE along with other engineering student organizations hosted the “Nerd Fest”, an end of quarter barbeque party with beer, food, and live music. I think this the first event of its kind ever organized in the College of Engineering but I have been here for only a year so don’t quote me on that.

Typically, the ASCE hosts these barbeques about once every month in front of More Hall. Admission is free to ASCE members or five dollars for non-members. It’s a better value to pay the ten dollar membership due if you plan to go to all of the ASCE events. That ten dollars gives me a lifetime membership, so says my friends at the welcome table. Someone even made an Microsoft Excel™ chart showing the breakeven point for members as an ad to get new members to sign up last Autumn quarter.

The expected attendance at Nerd Fest was much greater than the typical ASCE BBQ, about 240 people according to the liquor permit. As such, the event was held in the Sylvan Theatre and Columns across Stevens Way from More Hall. Three tents with chips, drinks, cookies, buns and condiments for hotdogs and burgers, along with five barbeque grills provided the partygoers with food. A whole area of the lawn was fenced off for the “beer garden”, an area restricted to those aged 21 and above for serving beer. I’m a year short of the requirement but I didn’t care much. Sergio said “you wouldn’t want to be in there, they don’t even serve the right kind of beer!” Most of my friends were sitting in a group outside too. And I found the walled garden a bit too crowded (and everybody was standing!). The live band performed its typical rock music on the stage (the part of the lawn that’s higher than the others) with the white columns behind them.

Alvin is going back to Singapore after spending two quarters at the UW in an exchange program. He’s been taking photos with everyone, myself included, oh the good memories. I think I was in three photos. Yeah!! I never had photos of myself cause I’m always the photographer, now I’m letting the lens point at me for a change! We talked about school in Singapore and I found out it wasn’t very different from what it is in Thailand. Big comprehensive and very critical final exams worth up to 70% of the final grade lasting two and a half hours! Eight subjects in a semester! Makes our CEE coursework look easy! He even joined the ASCE just for fun. Hey, the lifetime membership and benefits were too good to refuse…

The event was scheduled for 2:30 pm to 8:30 pm, however, by 6:30 the beer supply ran dry and the crowds thinned. Several people remained to chat and enjoy the live music. I left at 7:00 on my bike after some talk about summer jobs, autumn plans, and high school friends.

It was great way to take some stress off before the finals, which are happening next week. Good luck to everyone studying for the finals!

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