Traditionally, BCA has a festival day at the end of each semester to celebrate the end of finals, the end of school, and the end of Ben Hopkins being able to ramble on about sandwiches. While there is always a brunch and awards, this year’s festival day stood out as one of the best.
First thing was the Christmas Carol play, a cinematic masterpiece. It may not have been a movie, but it was so insanely fabulous that it deserves the title of “cinematic masterpiece” anyway. While the jaw-dropping choreography and wit was worthy of praise in itself, the true fabulousness lies in the fact that the drama students only went through the play five times from when they first got the script. This means that a significant portion of the humor, actions, and even dialogue was improvised, bringing the snazziness to a whole new level. With any luck, Drama will be performing again in the spring, most likely with Alice In Wonderland.
After the thespian majesty that was the Christmas Carol, was the brunch. Food is good. This food was no exception thanks to the amazing parents who provided it and helped set everything up. There was sausage, fruit, cookies, brownies, casseroles, and so much more. During the consumption of the aforementioned food, many people gave out their Secret Santa gifts, (special thanks to Avery and Hayden for putting that together), but most were patient enough to give the gifts when they were supposed to; immediately after the brunch.
Getting free stuff from people is always good, but many of the gifts stood out as particularly fun, including giant inflatable crab claws, a cowboy rubber duck, and an entire pizza. (photo right). About an hour later, the gingerbread decorating competition began.
Each house was beautiful, or at least creative. In first place was Germany, who (as usual) made a picture perfect little gingerbread cottage.
Also in first was America, with a beautifully frosted house and Russia, which though not as pristine as the other two, made up for it in detail. The other three guild houses were more creative, if less neat. England somehow fashioned the premade house into a hobbit hole, specifically based on Bag End. India replicated the Taj Mahal, and it was majestic for the short time that it lasted. (photo below left).
Last but not least, Japan made two houses; one a standard gingerbread house and the other broken, mangled, and smoking (yes, smoking) to show a before and after of Hiroshima.
After all the cleaning- and boy, was there a lot of it- we all sat in the assembly hall. The traditional award ceremony occurs with so much applause that makes even the strongest of hands bloody, but is fun anyway. While normally, teachers give awards to students, the student council decided to do the same for teachers this year, giving awards that ranged from the sincere True Leadership Award to the absurd By Far The Tightest Award. Then, the students received various awards, while the audience begged them to give a speech. Unfortunately, very few actually ended up giving speeches.
Once everything was given out and our hands and lungs were worn down to mangled lumps from cheering, we all gathered into a huddle,(an upside of tiny schools), and said a group prayer, asking for protection, happiness, and general blessings. Believe it or not, Jordi’s hand was not mentioned once in the prayer, probably the first time this has occurred this semester. It was a great semester with a great finish, and we look forward to the coming semester. May your theses go well.