Tasha, Colleen, Madison, Nathalie, and Ben prepare to clean the Dean Dome.

Franklin sweeping a desolate section of Dean Dome.

The Thailand team spent 4 hours yesterday afternoon cleaning the Dean Dome arena after the basketball game vs. Georgia Tech. We made a little over $400 for the labor and never want to visit the Dean Dome again. As you can gather from the first picture, Colleen was the only member entirely thrilled with this job. I may or may not have heard her even whisper to herself after we were done that, “…This was the most fun she has had cleaning up other people’s trash in years…”

We arrived at approximately 3:30 pm and happily watched the remainder of the basketball clinic Georgia Tech was sponsoring. Once the game had ended and the pain was starting to subside, an overly animated man approached our group and immediately starting speaking on the “joyous wonders of clean-up time.” I’m pretty sure I heard Nathalie let out an audible groan. The Bubbly Man vivaciously explained that we should each carry two bags, one for trash and one for bottles. “You pick up trash like this,” he pantomimed. Also, a few people needed to grab large buckets for disgusting liquid disposal.

We formed a chain gang, starting at the bottom section of the Dean Dome– one person per row– circumventing the entire arena in this manner picking up pop corn bags, spilling nacho cheese on our shirts and stepping in to slippery patches of “God knows what.” This lasted about an hour. Our spirits we’re just starting to pick up at the prospect of finishing, but then Bubbly Man happily pointed out that there was much more fun to be had upstairs. So we all trudged to the upper section. I almost vividly recall at some point during this mass movement I saw the figure of Mohammad secretly sitting in a dark corner entirely neglecting his work and eating a Mediterranean Deli sandwich.

After we picked up all the trash in the stadium and played many games of “How much money to eat baked beans off this floor?” we took off our gloves and headed for the exit. I kid you not, Bubbly Man once again materialized out of thin air with a rack of brooms and a beaming expression. “Broom broom time,” he cheered.

We formed another chain gang. Same drill, just different weapons. We swept every row of the arena. At the 4th hour, people were starting to get a little delirious. We really hadn’t worked that long, but it helped the drudgery by pitying ourselves every now and then. After we finished sweeping, Bubbly Man rappelled from the ceiling rafters and startled us once again. This time, though, he was not carrying more cleaning implements, but rather a plate of brownies and cookies.  Naturally, we all voraciously grabbed the sweets with our grungy fingers and shoved them into our eager mouths. This solely alone made the work worth it. And Bubbly Man of course…