Festival of Colors

HARE KRISHNA!!! What does Hare Krishna mean you ask? I have no idea. But for those of you who went to the Festival of Colors yesterday you most likely went crazy dancing to a monk singing it for three hours.

The Festival of Colors happens once a year and is some kind of Hindu spring celebration. But if you ask any of the 10,000 college students who attended why they were there, they will not mention anything about Hindu, spring, or religion. There is only one reason why the Festival of Colors is so popular and that is chalk. Yes chalk, but not just any chalk, I’m talking about colorful, throw in your face get everywhere chalk, and lots of it.

Basically the entire purpose of the festival is to buy this colorful chalk and throw it at people while you dance and go crazy to repetitively awesome Hindu music. This continues for quite a while and just when you begin to think that there is no way for you to get any dirtier, it happens, the cloud. The cloud is the pinnacle of the festival. The head monk leads all 10,000 people in a countdown from 20 and when he reaches 0 everyone throws their chalk in the air at the same time. Think that sounds like a dirty idea? You have no idea. Last year the cloud was seen 10 miles away. For those lucky enough to be in the cloud the exact opposite happens, visibility shrinks to about 10 inches as you are choked and colorfied in the crazy color cloud. It is awesome.

You leave the festival energized, full of hare krishna spirit, sneezing purple, and with colorful chalk all over. Do I recommend the Festival of Colors? Yes. I promise that you will never have so much fun while getting so dirty.

The True Meaning of March Madness

Well March Madness is now in full swing and what a madness it has been. I said last week that filling out a bracket is like trying to “predict the unpredictable”; these last few days have proven that true. Who would have guessed that Kansas would lose to Northern Iowa? Or that Villanova would get beat by St. Mary’s? Upsets like these can destroy even the most carefully picked brackets and cause an aspiring bracketologist to weep like a schoolchild.

But amidst the tears and angry screams at the television, one can see the true beauty of March Madness. The true beauty of March Madness does not lie in picking the perfect bracket or winning the office tournament, it lies in the experience.
There are few things in this world that are more exciting to a sports fan than being able to cheer on their favorite team. March Madness is the only time of the year when every game has “your favorite team” playing. Every game matters, every win makes you cheer, and every loss hurts you. This week my roommate and I were watching three games at the same time and we cared about every single one, because all of them were important for our brackets. That is a sports fans dream, to be able to go crazy and be passionate no matter who is playing.

So if your bracket is destroyed and you have no more chance to claim the coveted title of champion, do not be depressed. There are still two more weeks of March Madness. That is two more weeks of buzzer beaters, two weeks of amazing upsets, and two weeks of cheering for your picks to go all the way. So to all the sports fans out there, keep watching, this holiday only comes once a year so don’t waste it pouting over your busted bracket.

March Madness

People say that the best time of the year is Christmas time. As far as sports fans are concerned that is a lie. This week marks the beginning of one of sports most sacred holidays, March Madness. This is the only time of the year when family and friends band together in the spirit of friendly competition to see who can predict the totally unpredictable.

Every year my family has the “Theurer Family March Madness Competition” and everyone participates. Even my niece and nephew join in. When my nephew was one and a half years old his dad held up cards with the team names and let him pick his brackets that way. Needless to say, it gets pretty intense.

I however have yet to claim the chalice of glory that is first place. I have been in the top three and I think one year I came in second but never first, until this year. This will be the year that I take the Theurer family bracket glory and earn the ever so coveted bragging rights.

Wish me luck!

Hunger Banquet

Yesterday I had a really great experience attending the 20th Hunger Banquet. Now, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the Hunger Banquet, it might sound like an oxymoron. But the Hunger Banquet is not your average feast; in fact it is the only dinner I know of where people will pay eight dollars to attend a dinner they will likely leave hungry from.

The hunger banquet is divided up into three groups, high-class, middle-class, and the poor. The size of each of these groups is proportional to the world’s actual economic ratios. Ten percent of the people who go are randomly chosen to sit at super nice tables with all the trimmings and eat delicious food catered by Tucanos. Twenty percent sit in chairs and eat hotdogs with chips and a can of soda. The remaining 70 percent sit on the floor and have beans, rice, and tortillas. It’s an eye-opening experience to see such a visual representation of the amount of people in the world who leave hungry from every meal.

Besides the meal (I was middle-class so I got a hot dog) they had performances and a interesting key-note speaker. The speaker spoke on the theme of the night, “Celebrating Human Dignity.” He said that all people have the same value even though their economic circumstances might be different. He called us to action and said that we can make a difference in the world by supporting organizations that teach people how to help themselves leave poverty. The speech was short, direct, and memorable.

The best meal I ever had that I left hungry from.