Around this time each year, everyone starts holding their end-of-the-semester-awesomeness events and I always find myself at Game Night in Computer Science Land. In the past I've poked fun at the 'English Student Union' (in quotes because at the time of fun-poking, they were a faceless entity to me) because I could never find their events and was partially convinced they only partially existed. Not so. This year at the Clubs Fair during Frosh Week I spoke to some ESU people who informed me of the crazy, literary themed parties they often hold. By literary themed I don't mean this every time.  Apparently, the ESU will take a book, mine its aesthetic and make something awesome. They held one last year based on The Great Gatsby and everything was decorated à la the Roaring Twenties.

T_T

I don't want to know what opportunities to dress up I've missed thus far. It doesn't matter because I didn't missed their Alice in Wonderland Fundraiser and Cocktail Affair! Ho Mah Gawd. Oh yes, my children, there were costumes. There was dessert. So much dessert. There were an awful lot of prizes (gift certificates, books, graphic novels, movie tickets, tea sets... I did not win a tea set. T_T). There were a couple of babies running around.* Okay, from the top. As you can see in the title, the event was also a fundraiser, with the proceeds from ticket sales and the artwork and t-shirts sold going to Children's Literacy Canada. Book donations were also accepted (those went to the Children's Book Bank). The event started at 8; we arrived around 9, and thus the academic talk given by Prof. Jeremy Lopez titled "Before Alice in Wonderland" was already underway. What we did hear reminded me of what we learned about the author, Lewis Carroll, in Children's Literature last semester, that he shares similarities with Michael Jackson. I say this not as an accusation, but as a suggestion that the controversy surrounding both figures is similar. Anyway.

There was a ton of artwork on sale by Kurt Lehner and Shane Kirshenblatt. Lehner is an animation artist who has worked for such biggies as Disney** and Marvel (now owned by Disney) and has designed the animated version of Franklin the Turtle. Kirshenblatt is a comic book writer, freelance illustrator and painter and he created beautiful, exclusive AIW prints for the event, which could be bought in print OR t-shirt format. 

The costumes. Clearly, there were many other students sewing instead of studying aside from me. Costumes ranged from Classic Alice to Alice's Jungian Shadow to Flowers, Half-A-Tea-Cups, Rabbits, Tim Burton-esque Mad Hatters, Non-Tim Burton-esque Mad Hatters... I went as the Dormouse, whose sleepiness inspired me to give it a pajama-ish twist (and I made a bag that looks like a tea pot/elephant).

I'm rambling a bit, so... on to the pictures. I forgot to bring the official Upbeat-Photo-Waiver-Permission-To-Post-You forms, so every person has their handsomeness covered with a playing card symbol.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

-In short, U of T is not that bad. - Liesl - * remember Gargoyles?! ** By 'babies' I mean humans under the age of seven. The presence of such people is enough to completely eradicate my bitter college student grumpiness.