LIZZY WARNER
Gargoyle senior editor
Posted Friday, Oct. 3, 2008

SO I'M GOING to be honest: I wasn't too excited about the Cultural Fair.

My entire lunch period would be taken away from me for long lectures and food that I may or may not like. I even decided that I would bring some leftovers from home in case I was starving.

But then as the date approached it became more and more appealing.

As I was writing up a list of the booths that would be at the fair I realized not all the culture booths were representations of countries but included other groups of people such as those who were setting up an American Sign Language booth.

So, of course, I decided I wanted to be part of a culture.

Being a white female who has lived in Champaign-Urbana my entire life I've never thought of myself as being a part of a particular culture, but I was determined to find some group that I fit into.

So fellow Gargoyle members Lauren Piester and Lor Sligar joined with me and we decided to create a "Girly Culture" booth, and it was by far the most entertaining thing I've done for school so far this year.

Lauren made her famous cookie dough, and Lor and I made chocolate cookies. While we sat watching the VP debates last night we cut out pictures of girls in magazines and made polls.

We brought plates full of M&Ms and Dove chocolate and made four beautiful posters. Lor brought in some of our favorite movies and a laptop to play them on.

Lizzy Warner at today's Cultural Fair. Gargoyle photo by Katy Metcalf (click to enlarge)

By the time the Cultural Fair had started our booth was a sleepover packed into a booth.

We thought we might get criticized for not being a true "culture," but instead we had multiple people come up and tell us what a great idea the booth was.

And it was interesting to see how the girls approached the free cookie dough samples with, "AH! Cookie dough! Yum," whereas more boys were inclined to ask, "Does this have any eggs in it?" How can you think of such a matter when delicious unbaked food is sitting right in front of you!?

It wasn't just our booth that was attracting people; there were so many fascinating booths. When I had time to explore I ended up with a plate piled high of traditional cuisine from multiple cultures, and I learned some things as I went, too.

For example, who knew that one of the most popular sports in Vietnam is baseball? I had guessed soccer. And I learned how to ask for candy in sign language. Did you know that you don't have to include every single word in a sentence in sign language? For example, when I asked for candy I was just saying "Candy please" instead of "May I have a piece of candy?"

Then, when I returned to the girly booth, Lor and Lauren were there watching a performance that had just started. I sat down and engaged in conversation as I watched students, parents, and teachers join in singing and dancing. (Oh, and I can't leave out the fact that I got a gorgeous henna tattoo while I was watching the dancing as well.)

So, all in all, I guess it would be safe to say that I definitely didn't end up eating those leftovers. It was a great way to spend the day, and I was not disappointed. There were many improvements made from last year (and I'm not just saying that because we got out of class early!), and I hope Uni High keeps this tradition alive.

An earlier version of this column was published as an entry in the OG Staff Blog.