It's a warm spring evening, and someone hands you a free cup of iced tea. You take a sip and enjoy the refreshing flavor of the cool liquid-when all of a sudden, a gelatinous glob zooms up the straw and into your mouth. Sound tasty? It did to the 200 people who showed up for the Asian Culture House's Pearl Tea Cafe on Friday night.

As a house project, ACH members dished up the beverage, which originated in Taiwan and has gained popularity across Asia and in some parts of the U.S., particularly California. "It's a good representation of popular culture in Taiwan," explained Sam Jeng '03, one of the event's organizers.

But what exactly is pearl tea? ACH served green tea, red tea, passionfruit and coffee flavors, but as Jeng pointed out, "The most important ingredient is the tapioca balls. They're chewy and a little bit sweet."

Some attendees offered more colorful descriptions; "They're kind of like jelly beans but round and more squishy," said Carlyn Lamia '03. Jon Brooks '03 reported that "the balls themselves had the consistency of snot, but they were good."

Brooks was "surprised by the tea in itself, just in its oddness," but one of the most unanticipated parts of the evening was the large turnout. "We were expecting people to trickle in now and then, but everyone came at the beginning, and the line wrapped around the Moore TV pit," said ACH member Shawn Choi '03. "A couple of times we actually had to stop the line to make more pearls because we ran out."

The event also included a new Asian game called Dance Dance Revolution, which involves a series of dance steps flashing across a TV screen. Players competed to see who could follow the steps best, shaking their groove thangs on special floorpads.

The game boosted the event's energy level but maybe not people's egos; "I used to think I was a good dancer," said Brooks, "but no such luck."

Dance flava'

The Frontroom was full of fronts and backs, backs and forths, and all other kinds of cool moves on Saturday and Sunday, as DASAC's first annual spring hip-hop dance show hit the stage. Directed by Jocelyn Goode '03, the show featured dancers from Smith and UMass, as well as Amherst's own dance and step club. "Thought the performances went really well," said Goode.

But she found one of the best moments with the performers to offstage. "The biggest highlight was when we were backstage and were chanting and singing a song when all the cast was there. It was UMass and Smith, all the men and women-everybody got so excited, and we all cheered and it felt so good!"

Among audience members, everybody had different favorites."My favorite piece was the New York City piece because it was so precise," said audience member Nicole Sandoz '03.

"I think the audience was all surprised at the variety of dancers ... at the talent at our own college." said Goode. Sandoz agreed that the show was a stunning success. "The thing I found most interesting was that beginning DASAC brought such a range of people from different races and different classes," she said. "Jocelyn was able to bring such a diverse group of dancers into a wonderful show."

Bao Ho '02 also had rave reviews for DASAC's performance: "I was really impressed, and I really liked the fact that they tried to make it a Five-College project," said Ho. "It showed a lot of organization ... a lot of effort and work."

Goode hopes that the hard work will pay off and explained her plans for potential events, "I hope that this will give us a chance to show the theater and dance department how hard we worked and to use Kirby in the future."