Easton

The Easton site is part of the CAA program, like Bristol.

History

The first people came to the Easton site at Lafayette College in 2003, after the Frederick, Maryland site said JHU could not come back, as they were renovating all the dorms to accommodate male students. Many students and faculty came to this site from Frederick, and were termed "Hood rats", a reference to the Frederick site being housed at Hood College. Since then, the Easton site has become one of the most tradition-heavy of the CAA sites.

Places

Buildings

• Dorms:
  • Easton Hall: Older, crummier, buggier, and hotter girls' dorm. The layout of each floor is pretty basic. Formatted in a long rectangular hallway, there are rooms lining both sides of the walls. Apparently, the rooms at the end of the halls are bigger than the rest. Bathrooms are positioned in the middle of the hall, on the same wall as the entrance and pretty much across the hall from the lounge. Hall meetings are held in the lounge where there is usually a small TV, three to four single person couches, and a small coffee table. Floors are not carpeted both in the rooms and outside. Bulletins were at both ends of the hallway. Easton consists of three floors, the layout are the same on all three. There were air conditioners in each room, but the hallways are still hot most of the time and if left on for a long time, the rooms can get really cold. Laundry machines are located in the basement, as well as a larger lounge that students aren't allowed to be in. Laundry is free :).
  • Keefe Hall - Newer and nicer of the two girls' dorms. The layout of each floor is set in two rectangle, with a bridge like hallway to separate each hall in between. The elevator is on the right, but students are not permitted to use it without special permission (ex: injuries). Each hall has a large lounge, where hall meetings were held, four bathrooms, and one RA room (for obvious reasons). In the lounge, a TV, a mini-kitchen, a few tables, and multiple couches are arranged, facing the bridge. Students are not permitted to use the kitchen besides the sink and microwaves are sometimes disabled. Rooms and hallways are spacious and carpeted and the entire building has central air conditioning. An emergency stairwell ias located in the center of a square layout of the rooms. Two bathrooms can be found on opposite sides of the stairwell, facing rooms, making a short trip to the bathroom without waking anyone up a bit difficult. Two of the bathrooms have two sinks, a stall, and a shower in it. The other two are handicapped bathrooms, and as such have only one sink and no stall (there was still a toilet). Laundry machines are located in the basement, where nobody lives, so students are not allowed to hang out down there. Vending machines can also be found on that floor. Laundry is free :)
  • South College - Boys' dorm, site office, and health office.
• Buildings where various classes are held:
  • Acopian Engineering Center - Usually Engineering courses, as well as math courses
  • Hugel Science Center - Usually Science Courses, as well as engineering courses
  • Kirby Hall of Civil Rights - Usually Humanities courses
  • Pardee Hall - Computer Labs, as well as other random classes, like English
• Buildings where various activities are held:
  • Farinon College Center - Contains the cafeteria, dance/activities room, book store, and movie theater. This building has three floors and the top contains the dining hall and the room in which dances are held. The middle floor (ground floor) is where students are allowed to stay after meals if it happens to be raining. ONLY if it's raining, otherwise students are to stay on the Farinon Quad. In the basement is the book store and where movies are shown during dances.
  • Marquis Hall - Temporary Dining hall in 08.1 and 2, as the Farinon dining hall was being renovated
  • Colton Chapel - Location of All-site meetings, Swashbuckler, and Talent Show.
  • Williams Center For The Arts - Location of Swashbuckler in 08.1.
  • Kirby Sports Center- Contains the pool and gyms.

Quads

• Main Quad (usually known as Farinon Quad): The largest quad on the Campus. It is located between the Farinon College Center and the Library. Many outdoor sports activities, such as soccer, wiffle ball, and Ultimate Frisbee are played on the quad. The Quad and the steps in front of Farinon are also the main hang out place after meals are finished. In 08.1 and 2, the main quad was not used as much as it had been in the past as the Dining Hall in Farinon was being renovated.
• Easton Quad: The smaller quad located outside of Easton Hall. Quad time takes place here every night. Easton Quad was the hang out place after meals in O8.1 and 2 as Marquis Hall, the dining hall for these sessions, was nearby. The tree at the center of Easton Quad was and continues to be a popular makeout spot.

Traditions

• Dress Up days:
  • Goth Monday
  • Prep Tuesday
  • Cross-dress Wednesday
  • There was also a Twin Thursday, which was less common. Many people during 07.2 and 08.2 tried to create a Pajama Day Thursday, which was also less common. The traditions began in 05.2 by students in the Psychology A course, most notably Priya Mehta, JT Shepard-Blankenheim, and Megan Dent. However, in 09.2, the Administration replaced the days with Backwards Monday, Twin Tuesday, and T-Shirt signing Wednesday, in attempt to start new traditions.

The ban on the original dress-up days was also enforced in 10.2, but not as strictly (excepting cross-dress day).

NOTE: dress up days are held on the last week with the exception of Wacky-Dress Friday which is help on the second Friday.

• Passionfruit, which has now become an established tradition. This was started in '06. Before this there had been a nevermore party after the last dance, but was determined to "exclude" other CAAmpers. Passionfruit starts early in the morning of the last day and allows all CAAmpers. During the Passionfruit, CAAmpers sit in a large circle on the quad and drink juice. Some make speeches, some make toasts. This was typically held at 5am (sunrise), however in 10.1 it was changed to 6am.
• American Pie, with chanting, circles with kicking of feet at the beginning and end. [beware; injuries have occurred during this song.]
• Weekend trips:
  • WaWa (convenience store)
  • The Purple Cow (awesome ice cream parlor)
  • The Cosmic Cup, (the best coffee and bagel shop in the world)
    • Trips to the Cosmic Cup were started by Psych A kids during 06.2 after the suggestion by their TA and Instructor. During 09.2 trips to downtown Easton were discouraged by the Administration because of the time spent off campus. Trips to the Purple Cow were not made, Engineering however did make it to the Crayola Factory.
  • The Crayola factory
• CAAsino Night (first Saturday)
• Swashbuckler (Color Wars)(first Sunday)
• Olympics (known as "teambuilding" in 09.2) (second Saturday)
• Flag Football Tournament- Followed the Olympics on the Second Saturday. Was Run by RA and SRA LJ and RA Keith Bloom, both of whom played on the Lafayette College football team. If it was available, the event would be held on the Lafayette College's Artificial Turf Football Stadium. After LJ left after 07.2, the event was changed to an Ultimate Frisbee Tournament. By 08 this tradition ceased to exist for whatever reason.
• Talent Show (second Saturday)
  • The Nevermore Song, which is sung every year since '06 to end the Talent Show.
• Water Carnival (which was changed to Medieval Carnival in 09.2)(second Sunday)
• Blackouts
  • The electrical system at Lafayette College/ Easton goes out very easily, usually by the first lightning strike of a storm. The most famous blackout in CAA Easton history was in 2006, in which storms produced life-threatening hail, a three-day black out, and brown outs at Lafayette, in addition to major flooding in lower Easton.
  • There was a blackout Prior to the the Last Dance 08.1. Thanks to the positive song and the CTY Gods, the afternoon class session that was supposed to take place before the dance was canceled, but the power came on just in time for the dance.

Activities

There are various activities offered throughout the session.

• Single period activities:
  • Braveheart - Offered about twice during the first session of 2008, what is done in the activity is secret.
  • Cloud Watching - Offered a good deal of time. Students sit on Farinon quad and oftentimes just play cards…no real "cloud watching" occurs. Activities like "Chillaxing," and "The Art of Chilling" are the same as Cloud watching.
  • Mystery Activity - Offered once, was canceled due to lack of interest.
  • Balloon Stomping - Offered around two times. Participants tie balloons to each of their feet and must pop the balloons of others while keeping their own alive. It was canceled the first time due to bad weather.
  • Water Balloon Filling - This was offered the week before Water Day. This is often the day they have poor selections for one period activities.
  • Love (Note) Making - Offered by RA's Juliette and Tatianna 04.2-05.2. The period was called Love Note Making, but became known as Love Making. Unfortunatly, this activity died after Juliette left.
  • Love Letters - Offered around half way through the session after people make a lot of friends. You can write letters to your friends and have them delivered to their RA's. During 09.2 the activity was changed to be called "CTY-Grams".
  • Salsa Dancing - Offered twice during 08.1. During 1 period there were 12 girls and 1 guy.
  • Paranoia Squad- Run on the first Friday of 10.2 by Brandon, Owen, and Spencer. It involved covering Brandon with shaving cream(at which point he accidentally dropped the F-bomb) and screaming "EVERYTHING IS OUT TO GET YOU ALL THE TIME!!!!!". Other things were also coated in shaving cream and beaten with sticks.

• Double period activities:
  • Basketball - Offered everyday
  • Dodgeball - Offered throughout most of the session, but was sometimes replaced by volleyball.
  • Swimming - Offered everyday. It is done in the indoor pool in the Sports Center.
  • Volleyball - Occasionally replaced dodgeball, but was less common than dodgeball.
  • Tennis - Offered Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of the second week of session one 2008. Courts are outdoors. Good idea to bring your own tennis balls.
  • Wiffle Ball/Kickball - Occasionally offered. Was played on the main quad. (Single Activity Period and Both Activity Periods)
  • Ultimate Frisbee - Offered twice during 08.1.
  • Disney Channel Appreciation - Offered once. No, it is not merely watching movies. They ask questions and do games.
  • Ballroom Dancing - This was a fun activity offered twice.
  • Swing dancing-offered twice, but only actually run once. Amazingly fun, and there was swing music played at the dance following the activity(semi-formal, next day). Run by Raughley and Jen, 09.2. Revived by Raughley in10.2 and was run twice.
  • Squirrel Naming - Offered near the end of 08.1 by Owen and Eric. In the beginning it was a chilaxing activity since none of the usual squirrels could be found. However after finding chasing one outside O'Keefe, half the group became inspired. 7 squirrels were named.
  • Awkward Invasion - Using your skills learned from "How To Be Awkward", you would go to other activities and make people feel awkward.

• Unknown/Other:
  • Morning 'Fun' Run - Offered most mornings. Students would be picked up around 6 a.m. and would be taken to the track. Occasionally a roundabout way of getting to the track would be taken. 08.1 - mostly girls would go. Ceased to exist during 09 due to lazy RAs, but instead had "running" as an activity during the activity periods.
  • Releasing Your Inner Beast - Offered by Owen and Eric at the end of 08.1, also run by Owen and Millie 10.2. The activity evolved acting like a beast
  • Don't Sign Up for This Activity - Run by Steve in 07.2, The activity was horrible, but those who had signed up had been warned...
  • Stepping; Sorority Style - Run by Health Assistant Ify in 07.2, was a stepping activity which was a practice session for a performance in the talent show.
  • Squirrel Stalking/Safari- Possibly the best activity ever. Run by Alex and Stuart in 09.2. CAAmpers and the RAs ran after squirrels to see how close they could get and screamed "Meh" at them to make them come closer. Also run by Brandon 10.2.
  • Boon or Bane- You! Space Whales, Boon or Bane?
  • PandaFest - one hall. one cereal box. one mission.
  • How To Be Awkward - Self explanitory. Just keep everything CTYA.

Noteable Occurances

• 06.2:
  • During the Olympics, nevermores Kaitlyn Taylor and JT Shepard-Blankenheim went to the health office for pie-throwing related injuries. Health staff drove the two back to the Farinon Quad, inadvertently creating a campus scandal. When the two left the college van near the quad, rumors spread that Kaitlyn and JT left campus to go to Wawa and were caught. Administration overreacted and threatened to revoke certificates of participation before they 'officially' knew what had happened. After a personal meeting with administration two days later, and phone calls home, JT was let back on campus. No disciplinary action was brought against Kaitlyn or JT.
• 08.1:
  • After Swashbuckler, you would still find random groups of people yelling (insert color name here) Squad, this was first started by Valerie's (Val's) hall, who were on the Black team.
  • Valerie's (Val's) and several male halls had their own unofficial cross dressing day on the second Wednesday of the first session.
• 08.2:
  • Excessive planning by Tom's hall to earn the most money during CAAsino Night. They did not succeed, but did succeed in roping a lot of the girls hall's into helping them. The total was quite a lot.
  • During dances groups of people (mainly guys) would encircle a dancing couple for a few minutes and then move onto another couple. This was amusing to some, and annoying to others.
  • The fire alarms had false alarms several times in Keefe Hall, including once in the middle of the night. Each time a fire truck had to come. The issue was blamed on humidity. The same occurrence happened in 06.2 with the fire truck as well, but the girls blamed it on the excessive amount of perfume used by some girls on the Fourth Floor.
  • During the second dance, two very notable CAAmpers, Haydn Dufrene and Brian Herrera were dancing to Numa Numa and were pulled out for "dancing inappropriatly." They were taken out of the dance room and made to sit for the rest of the night. CAAmpers including, Nadya Spice, Lara Hakki, Andrea Fields, Giulia Picascia, Danielle Canady, Ash Leigh, Liz Bisaha, Keith Lemaster, Steph Dunn, Keithlyn Parkman, Gloria DiMino, Andrew Hartford, and Octavio Dmitri Roscioli, when Swing, Swing started to play, began singing, and essentially brought the dance to where Haydn and Brian were sitting in isolation. The Administration was so outraged that the group was told that if the students did not return to the Dance room, the music would be turned off and everyone would return to the dorms and there would be no sleepovers. The students did return to the dance room, only to continue the protest when American Pie came on. The students sat in the center of the circle in the beginning and the end of the song. The students created such a disturbance that they were told that there would be no protests during the next dance.
• 09.2:
  • The traditional dress-up days (Goth Monday, Prep Tuesday, and Cross-Dress Wednesday) were replaced because they were apparently "offensive". They were replaced by a Backwards Monday, in which students wear their close inside-out and backwards, a Twin Tuesday, and a CTY shirt-signing Wednesday, where they hand out the CTY shirts and people got to sign each other's shirts. However, many of the returning students still dressed up for these days, mostly Goth Monday though. As the days went on, less students dressed up for the original traditional days.
  • The canon was messed up during the first dance, in which "Swing, Swing" was forgotten. The issue was fixed for the later dances but the immediate effect was crippling.
  • John Lerman had an epic rap song for 10 minutes called THE BEST. He is the reason there is a 5 minute limit at the talent show.
• 10.1:
  • At the talent show Philip and his Homies sang possibly the best ever rendition of Rihanna's "Umbrella". Shout out to Philip Chin, Joo Kim, Francisco Bresciani, Aamir Rahim, Bryshaun Gocoul, and Julio Figueroa.
  • Members of the class Principles of Engineering Design A created a successful Rube Goldberg Device with about 40 different steps (the goal was to pour mulitple cups of water). [[1]]
  • During the 2nd and 3rd dances a group of CAAmpers created an awkward circle and fondly captured couples during slow dances, trapping them inside until the CAAmpers saw fit to let them out and move on to another couple.
  • Sleepovers were banned and then reinstated on the night of the last dance thanks to many protests from CAAmpers and RAs alike.
  • The passionfruit ritual was destroyed by the mistaken RAs buying berry punch instead of passionfruit juice as expected by all nevermores present.
• 10.2:
  • The order of the canon was changed. "Swing Swing" is now played before "All My Life."
  • In the upstairs Farinon Bathroom, "CTY N'Mores '10" was written in lipstick on the mirrors.
  • Medieval Carnival was held indoors instead of outdoors, which meant there were no water events. It was held inside Farinon.
• 11.2:
  • There was an activity titled Curb Mop RA Pie Toss, but was actually a "suprise" bootcamp. But soon after starting students were dared to rebel and DID! The bootcamp rebellion.
  • The order of the canon was changed. Now "All My Life" is played before "Swing Swing" again.
  • This session, Swashbuckler was cancelled after many people (over 70) had fallen asleep during swashbucker. Because of this, many students signed a petition to bring back swashbucker during the Second Saturday. Because this is when the Carnival usually is, the two activities were combined to become "Quadbuckler". This event was seen as a success by the admin and will probably happen again next year, but cAAmpers saw this as a boring activity, mostly spent waiting in lines.
  • During the talent show there were three epic rap performances, Brandon a.k.a. Infintee with the song "Cover Girl", Bobby Woody and Joey Penn a.k.a. Unique B. and Chatta with the song "Close Your Eyes", and James Willey a.k.a. The Phantom Prophet with his freestyle to Nas' Nasty.

Advice to People looking at the Easton campus

• Be sure to clean up the campus
  • They have been known to take away quad time for leaving messes.
• Thank the cafeteria staff
  • And save us all from hearing "Please thank the cafeteria staff" over and over again at hall meetings.
• DON'T SHIT ON THE WALLS!
  • 08.2- there was shit left all over the walls of the boy's bathroom and garbage all over the girl's bathroom, so when they found out, they took away Quad Time until the 'culprits' were found. For one Quad Time, the boys and girls each had 15 in the quad, separately, while the other gender (boys first, then girls) were taken to the Kirby Hall of Civil Rights and sat through about 10 minutes of a lecture given by the SRAs and some RAs. The last 5 minutes were used for 'confessions'. Each person was given a sheet of paper and a pencil and was asked to write down anything they knew about the 'incident' (that's what everyone called it). Even if the person in question didn't know anything about it, they were forced to write 'i do not know anything about this incident' over and over again for 5 minutes. Quad Time was given back shortly after that, though they might not have found the actual 'culprit'. However, as quad time came back, two students, a boy and a girl, got suspended for the rest of the camp. Rumor has it that they were the ones responsible for these incidents, though both students had already been on unrelated probations.
• Don't play with the salt in the dining hall
  • In 08.1, The salt and pepper shakers were taken away and not put in the middle of the tables as usual. This was because students, mostly in Eric's hall, intentionally gave themselves salt burns. Students were told not to do this as it could by the administration as it could apparently cause frostbite. The ban on salt continued into 08.2.
  • After the salt was returned in the middle of 08.2, it was again taken away after several students pretended that the salt was drugs, which included a few people actually snorting it.
  • In 09.2 the salt was taken away mid-session due to a certain CAAmper pouring the salt in the napkin holders so whenever someone pulled a napkin out of the holder, their food and the person became covered in salt. Everyone knew who did it, but no one spilled.
  • The salt was taken away at the beginning of 10.2 as well, also due to CAAmpers putting salt in the napkin holders. KEEP THE TRADITION GOING!
  • During 11.1, salt was taken away. This ban continued into 11.2 and was not put back onto tables at all. Except one day at a table when the salt was there.

Notable RAs

• Matt Weber: One of the 3 creators of FLAAR and would run Star Wars Galactic Senate at least once person session (2003-2005).
• Jeff Murphy: Another creator of FLAAR; always run odd activities (2003-2005, 2007, 2009).
• Juliet Mohnkern: another RA who ran great activities; in 2005 she would sing the phrase "DON'T SWING YOUR LANYARD" (2004-2005).
• Gabe Ulman: For Robot Sock-Wars Tournaments (2006) and being the RA to organize Passionfruit 06.2.
• James: For having purple hair…and redying it (GREEN) partway through the session
• Dustin: For being loved so intensely by the guys AND girls. And also for being such an appealing piece of eye candy.
• Owen A. Reynolds: For singing The Longest Time by Billy Joel in an amazing duet with Dustin for the 08 talent shows, as well a showing of his musical skills with voice and guitar in a variety if other ways. And also for the AMAZING "GaGa Unplugged" medley with Raughley in 10.2.
• Dan "Danjo" W.: For playing the banjo.
• Jenna McNally: For PandaFest, and being the most understanding RA to ever work at CTY Easton.
• Alex Shephard: Same as Dustin. And also for running awesome activities with Jeff Murphy and Stuart during 09.2. Known for wearing white V-neck shirts and his lanyard backwards. Enjoyed squirrel-watching.
• Raughley Nuzzi For general awesomeness. It would take too long to expalin everything, that's how awesome he is.