Arda

People often wonder “what is Arda?” The best way to answer that is to first tell of where the name originates. Many have thought that ‘Arda’ is some sort of acronym; this is in fact not so. ‘Arda’ is the name of the world in which J.R.R. Tolkien’s tales are based.

Now, to describe Arda in the capacity of what it is – a themed housing organization that is based in Warren hall:

First, Arda is a community of students and former students who share in their common interests; notably anime and science fiction.  In these common interest, specified here or not, there are weekly events, historically held on Fridays.

Some examples of events that Arda has had are as follows (in no particular order):

(a)    Mahjong learning and tournament(s) – in the past couple of years many members of Arda have come to enjoy the game of mahjong and can often be found in the Warren lounge playing with Arda’s set.  Every so often there will be a Mahjong themed event, either to teach or to compete.

(b)   Showings – there are as many kinds of showings that Arda has as there are people in it, surely. Some popular showings from the past year include two Big Bang marathons (one for each season), as well as a 20^th Century Boys Movie Night, a Back to the Future night and the exciting Nostalgia Night.  Members were asked to name some of their favorite cartoons from childhood and as many episodes as could fit in a night were watched.  It was so loved that it carried on to Saturday night.

(c)    Games – In addition to showings occasionally there will be small games or activities to accompany them.  One recent fun event as such was the Digivolution night where members drew pieces of digimon names and then drew with crayon, marker, and pencils their composite digimon.  This was followed by watching of the Digimon Movie.

(d)   Finale event – Probably the freshest in current member’s minds would be the final finale event that was like a Japanese-Holiday Mashup where many of the popular summer holidays were incorporated into one night along with sushi eating and a mahjong tournament.

Members of Arda consist of the official members who live in the designated rooms in Warren Hall.  Because designated housing is limited and interest is great, there are also honorary members who do not live in the specific housing, but have paid membership dues and attend events as frequently as official members.

The Current Arda officers are:
Chair: Peter Flade
Social Chair Greg O’Connor

If you have any questions, or would like to know more please contact an officer at:

arda-officers@union.rpi.edu

Past Events:

Nostalgia Night 4/30/2010,5/1/2010
Bowling Night! and Karaoke Night 5/7/2010
Arda Elections 5/11/2010
Arda Grande Finale 5/14/2010
Meow Meow Night 9/3/2010
Icebreaker Night 9/10/2010
Mahjong Night! 9/17/2010
Pokemania! 9/24/2010
Labyrinth! 10/1/2010
The Corpse Bride 10/8/2010
Grindhouse Double Feature! 10/15/2010
Halloween Bash! 10/29/2010
Scott Pilgrim and V for Vendetta 11/5/2010
Big Bang Marathon 11/12/2010
Memento 11/19/2010
And so much more!