This gave rise this year to Babylon's surprisingly successful "Taalwerking", steered in the right direction under the loving care of Gijs Van den Broeck, and assisted by some voluntary enthusiasts. In the case of "Engelse Taalwerking" – known on Facebook as the group "All the world's a Facebook page" (join if you haven't yet!) – it has led to a native speaker evening in Pangaea and a hilarious Monty Python-marathon, both of which were as instructive as they were incredible fun.

Being the culturally interested students that we are (and not to mention, the slightly understated alcoholics), we decided we could not miss out on the national holiday of Ireland, North-Ireland, Montserrat and the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador (bless Wikipedia): Saint Patrick's Day! And what better way to bring the Irish festivity to Leuven than to turn the holiday into a traditional Irish/Leuven cantus? After inviting all the English T&L-students as well as the international students, our eagerness turned out to be valid; all the tickets had been snatched out of our hands after only two hours, thereby causing many latecomers a heartbreaking disappointment (for those who didn't get in, I would comfort you by saying it wasn't worth it, but that would just be lying...).

On the 16th of March (Saint-Patrick's eve) at 8.30 pm, we welcomed the seasoned cantus-goers as well as the freshies in the Pavlov, all exemplarily dressed in something green (some even with a red hair cut for the occasion) and started off with laying down the rules and explaining the customs of a cantus. To give the event an Irish touch, the usual "pissing rhyme" was changed into a limerick and instead of "cheers", we went with the Gaelic "slainte". The songs then started off with the traditional "Io vivat" and "Gaudeamus igitur" (which were printed in a little booklet to let the foreigners without codices sing along), together with a few songs that were in some way connected to Ireland (such as "Sunday bloody Sunday", "C'est la vie", "Zombie" and a few Irish folk songs).

Although most students more or less stuck by the rules stated in the beginning, some people who apparently had trouble remembering them were caught, for instance by going to the toilet without permission. Thankfully, our well-equipped organizers had foreseen this and had prepared some Irish-related punishments: one girl had to swallow a raw pickled potato (we were generous enough to also let her drink the sweet-and-sour juice), someone got "the Irish flag" (i.e. green beer, milk and orange juice) and of course we had to include a Guinness ad fundum to warm the cockles and mussles.

As the cantus slowly came to its end and our ears were tingling with declarations of love and high-minded philosophies, some drunken sailors considered it time to roll home into their beds – in expectance of what was sure to be a rather unpleasant sensation in the head –, while others were up for round two and continued the party in the fakbar of Letteren.

It is hardly possible that the evening didn't equate to (or even excel) the Irish gaiety on Saint-Patrick's eve, we've definitely shown that not only the Irish have the stomach for some healthy binge drinking.

Thanks again to all those who were present, and see you next year! |