Fall Festivities 2006

We used to call it the Around the World Party. On a Thursday in mid-October, seminarians—most especially the foreign-born seminarians—would host together a room that showcased the culture and food (not to mention, the drinks) of their homeland or their home state. The international flair and flavor (hence, the name Around the World Party) was already there when I entered Saint Meinrad in 2002. Thus far, we’ve had everything from the Polish Room to the African Room, from the Latin American Room to the Korean Room, as well as the state-side rooms: Kansas City KS, Toledo OH, Tulsa OK, Louisiana, Iowa,—you get the picture.

If truth be told, I never did host a Filipino Room in my five years here at Saint Meinrad. The prospect of cooking that much Filipino food on my own was too scary, I suppose. Yet, I did host the Kentucky room with Deacon Chris Clay for a couple of years. The first time was during our Pre-Theology days; we had mint juleps flowing from our makeshift bar, horse races blaring on the small TV, Derby pies, country ham—you name it. We were quite successful in presenting this whole ambience of Kentuckiana that we received the award for the Best Room that year. (The secret to our success, as the joke goes, was serving the bourbon.) The second time we hosted the Kentucky room we teamed up with the seminarians from the Diocese of Owensboro. That was last year. Chris and I again provided the libations and the races, while the Owensboro guys brought burgoo, Owensboro barbeque, and venison. By that time, awards and prizes were no longer given away and the name Around the World Party had been changed to the more benign Fall Festivities.

But even with the name change, everyone still receives a “passport” of trivia questions on each of the Rooms featured in the Festivities. People would bring their passport along and ask their host/s for the answers to the trivia questions about their home. This has always been a fun and informative icebreaker especially for those of us who are introverts.

This year there were twelve rooms in all: Togo, Kenya, Fall Foods, New York City, India, the Southern States, Zambia, Nigeria, South Korea, Latin America, Vietnam, and Toledo OH. Third floor Sherwood hasn’t had this much activity since they moved out all the seminarians there for the renovation. (Sherwood is scheduled to be gutted out in November and then renovated within the year or so.) There was plenty of food and drinks: cheesecake in New York, kimchi in Korea, chili dogs in Toledo, salsa and tortillas in Latin America, just to name a few. Needless to say, most everyone ate a light dinner (several opted for a salad) in anticipation of tonight's Festivities.

I especially had fun visiting our seminarian-brothers studying here at Saint Meinrad for the Diocese of Busan in South Korea: John Kang, Pan Lim, Timothy Lee, and TA Hong. Above is my picture with them in front of the Korean Room.