The Palo Alto High School junior class council will host a ramen social with arts and crafts today after school in the student center, aiming to help students de-stress during a stressful time with finals coming up.
Junior class president Kai Bunger-Tang said the council wanted to plan a social that would be popular in the cold winter weather and decided on ramen after a poll was sent out on Instagram.
“The goals of the ramen social in general are to encourage juniors to hang out during our toughest year of high school and to build class community,” Bunger-Tang said. “We’re planning a snowflake arts and crafts activity to have alongside the ramen social to encourage juniors to stick around and participate in a fun activity with friends.”
Junior Kira Tzeng said she is excited to spend time with friends at the ramen social.
“I heard that they were doing winter snowflakes, so just doing that activity with friends is going to be fun,” Tzeng said.
According to Bunger-Tang, the logistics of the social were hard to figure out at first, but ASB found ways to keep the ramen warm.
“The first main concern was getting enough hot, boiling water to serve all of the ramen,” Bunger-Tang said. “We figured out that we could boil hot water from the student center with our ASB water heaters and get boiling water from the concession stand by the track. … This Monday, I went to H Mart and bought around 225 cups of Jin ramen — flavors consisting of mild, spicy and vegetarian.”
Junior Mehr Thawani said she is planning on going to the ramen social to meet new people.
“It’ll be a good chance to get to know more people in my grade and socialize,” Thawani said.
Bunger-Tang said the ramen social may help to combat anxiety about finals.
“Hanging out with friends, enjoying good food and getting creative with arts and crafts are always great ways to combat stress before finals,” Bunger-Tang said.
According to Thawani, the social will help her relax during a busy month.
“It’ll be a place to destress, and also it’ll help with the cold weather,” Thawani said. “The ramen will definitely make everyone feel warm inside.”
