By Ava Dunwoody | Arts & Life Editor
What do you get when you mix laser tag, s’mores, a scavenger hunt and mini golf? The perfect summer birthday party for a 10 year old? Maybe so. But you also get the perfect late-night adventure for a college kid experiencing her first Diadeloso.
On Saturday, I attended the last day of Diadeloso Week and had an absolute blast going around to all of the activities amid a buzzing crowd of students enjoying the weekend festivities.
Earlier that day, I joined a team of four to participate in a campus-wide scavenger hunt hosted by Waco Escape Room. We solved puzzles on our phones that led us to an on-campus location where we took selfies as proof of our participation in the race. We ran into other groups and traded hints, helping each other along the way and laughing hysterically after we realized how off track our guesses were. We didn’t even place, but it didn’t matter because we had fun doing it.
Later that night, I went with a friend to check out Noche, a special edition Sundown Session to commemorate the end of Diadeloso. We walked around Rosenbalm Fountain and settled down near a cozy firepit where we roasted marshmallows and tried not to burn our fingertips. We stopped to watch a group of line dancers showing off their best moves, then moved on to mini golf, where we tied in a head-to-head match of two mediocre putters.
The competitiveness didn’t stop there, as we made our way to the laser tag field on Fountain Mall and geared up for a free-for-all match where I ran around helplessly trying my best to aim at complete strangers. I guess it worked out, I earned the second place title. Truly an honor, I know.
We ended the night with bags of fresh popcorn and memories of Diadeloso that will stick with me as a reminder of my first experience with a tradition so beloved by the Baylor family. With the spring semester cut short my freshman year, I had only heard of the wonders of Diadeloso until this weekend. And even though we didn’t get a day off from school, I think a whole week filled with fun activities like these was a pretty good compromise.
