The "development" of Aloha the show

That's a huge pity that i couldn't make it to neither the textile factory nor the Yamaha factory, at that time i was attending the grand meeting of the Hanu Youth Union. So i guess all I can do is to share some thoughts about "development" in any aspect I found relevant.
So this is about Aloha, the freshmen welcoming party that a typical FMT, FIS, or FIT student at Hanu goes to at least once in his or her student life. I went to 3 Alohas, and will go to as many Alohas as I can. The record is 6 (i suppose). I'm gonna beat that.
So, the thing about Aloha is that it's the foremost activity that FMT people do in a typical academic year (often in October), it's the FMT guys saying 'what's up?' to the FSD or FMT newcomers and the FSD or FMT newcomers saying 'so this is where I spend my time in the next years'. Unlike many other activities from other departments, FMT is not really a party as I put it, it's a show of music, dance, and funny clips, and it's free for all, except for the drink that you buy at the main hall door.
From my experience at 3 recent Alohas, it's safe to say that something didn't change at all. The flyers of Aloha would be handed out the day before it takes place, to many people's surprise. In the show, some hiphop crew (the same crew for every years) would show up and do what they'd been practicing for years in front of S-home. Some slideshow would be presenting the FMT to the new students, who they are, what they do, how the FMT students enjoy their life here. The price of the drink would be elevating by minutes. At the end the organizing team would go crazy and take their own time taking photos and hugging kissing each other, and spending a night out. After that would be days of fatigue and reflecting on the show.
And the 'development' part would be the way we do Aloha has changed alot from year to year. From the very first Alohas, It was really hard to find a camera and make some videos about Hanu and FMT, only until the 2 latest Alohas could we find some cameras to make some high quality funny clips (i mean the resolution). And the audience's reaction was quite encouraging. This year i even use green screen to make some special visual effects, and i'm pretty sure not many people can do that as non-professional students. And the thanks to the high quality camera we had the chance to record the whole show so that we can upload them clips to Youtube and get comments, as well as show those who couldn't come or didn't get the good view. The lighting and sound system get better every year, and we even have a very talented mixer to take advantage of as long as he's not graduated.
How bout the audience? They come more and more, which means their expectations have grown a lot. The sad thing is, this year the main hall seems extremely overload because of the increasing audience. Many newcomers just did many things that the old FMT guys never did. They ran just through the stage stomping their feet on the wooden steps, which annoyed many other people, and didn't react to the slightest appeal of the show. Many tables and chairs in the mainhall have been broken, which has never happened before, and freaked out the mainhall lady, because they just stood on those tables and chairs. When the show's about to end, many just rushed away through the door, ignoring the notice of collecting things that they have trashed. I know i can blame it on them but, first we should consider it an issue of changing audience.
Have we come up with any changes to react to the changes from the audience? Not really. And are we gonna keep up this way of show organizing? probably, cuz it's still a way to make it happen and many think we've organized the best shows in Hanu. But still there lies a problem.

Rice harvesting

Last Sunday (3/10/2010) we went to harvest rice in Dong Anh, Hanoi. It was the first time in my life that I cut rice plants. And I'm pretty sure it was the firsthand experience for the UC students too. We set out at 6:30, carrying some water and some hats, and some nem, which Nancy Mary John Sharon Jesse chị Mốc and mẹ chị Mốc had made the day before. The place looked like my hometown, and pretty much like near where i live. We came to chú Khôi's house, who is a farmer and was more than hospitable to have lent us the sickles (or knives, or scythes, or whatyoumaycallthem).
We then headed to the fields. It was quite windy and sunny when we spent the time there. The fields were like what i've seen in my hometown or near where i live, but to the UC kids it may have been a different impression. I was quite slow to get the sickles so when everybody were stepping into the mud there were only some đòn gánh for me to carry the rice to where they put the machine, the job of carrying was quite hard that I staggered a lot, sometimes i dropped some rice (so sorry). You never know what chú Khôi can carry, compared to how much i can, it's like 3 times as much (very heavy), and he didn't stagger at all.
After like 7 or 8 times (maybe more) of rice carry, i chose to grab a sickle and try cutting some rice. Man it's like nothing you've ever done, and my first time was quite bad. i stepped back and forth in the mud, trying to cut the plants in a way that is neat but ended up cutting them either to long or too short or let the rice fall on the mud. Such a shame. But when i started cutting, it's almost done so i didn't have much chance to mess up, after that we hold what we had cut in bushels and brought them back to the field's rim where they were carried to the machine. There's another part called "đi mót lúa" started by Gerard, in which we stayed in the field, searching thoroughly for rice that is left behind. "If the rice is not too muddy or not too wet, we can keep it" said Gerard. The lesson learned here is you can't afford to waste rice, and by collecting as much rice as we could  we show that we appreciated the labor of those who'd been working on the rice.
We went back to chú Khôi's house and had lunch there and some rượu that chú Khôi was so proud of. The field trip ended at 3 when we got back to Hanu and had some bia hoi afterwards. The feeling that still lingers is itch on my legs, aw it's itchy like crazy.