10 minute read
INTERVIEW WITH THE SA BOARD OF 2020
by Kristers Šavalgins
Elections have come and gone, and by the time you are reading this we should have a new SA board. But in trying to continue the tradition, here is an interview with the board of 2020!
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Last year’s interview was made during the Boat trip; this year’s, was made on Zoom. It might have involved some drinks, but we can neither confirm, nor deny that fact. The interview was quite messy, so I tried replicating the same energy here. Just know, that there were way too many questions and way too little time. (Also, shoutout to the 3 people who responded to my form asking for questions, and a special shoutout to the Y3 who told me not to spam e-mails. <3) (Note: Ed. are my thoughts at the time of writing)
01Were there any strong impressions when you first met each other? Kasparas: I was scared of Kaspars. He was like this big, menacing guy; and I have to be a leader to him. Laura: I remember the first board meeting which we had with the previous board. It was so official, and we were all so serious. I feel awkward now thinking about it. Sāra: I was scared of Ksenija, because she radiates strong businesswoman vibes. I was a bit intimidated, but in the best possible way. I thought maybe sometimes it could be hard, because she is so honest and strong, but in the end, it was a good thing, because she gives honest opinions. Veronika: I remember having an impression of Kasparas. First time we talked was on the Boat trip and I was like, whoah, that guy is super nice. Super smart, easy to have a conversation with. Kasparas: To be honest, I do not remember the conversation. (everyone laughs) Ēriks: When I first talked to Kasparas, it was very different from what I expected. Kasparas: What do you mean by different? Ēriks: He looked like this swagger, romantic, fuckboy from Lithuania. Nothing mean, but I just did not think he was very sweet and normal. Kasparas: Do I give off fuck-boy vibes? Ēriks: No, no, no, no. Ksenija: Yes, yes, yes, yes. Ēriks: Sample size was too small. Madara: I did not know Betija very well, but then we started to share an SSE locker and the contents of it taught me a lot about what kind of person Betija is. Me: Wait, SSE has lockers? (everyone laughs) (I am still surprised by this, no one offered me one. :( Ed.)
02 What was written on the whiteboard in the SA room? Laura: We had an argument, whether we are pineapples on pizza board or no pineapples on pizza board. Sāra: But the pineapples on pizza board stayed. The fun part was that we started to write things that we did not know would turn out to be true. It started when we were studying for exams. We wrote that we are gap-year board, online board… Ksenija: I have a picture from the very beginning. It was disco board, hot board, cute board, skip board, gap-year board, long-distance, video, longboard. Then comedy board, in fact, we are funny (This claim is disputed by official sources Ed.). And then pineapples on pizza board. Ēriks: Where is the ironing board? Ksenija: It was added later. Sāra: Nobody expected video board to come true, but it gives Bitva Extrasensov (Russian TV show, where psychics compete Ed.) vibes.
03 How did the first couple weeks go in your new positions? Veronika: At our first board meeting, Sāra started the meeting by saying the new rules of board meetings and the first thing was to always be present. Kasparas was not there. Kasparas: I remember we had this initiation of everything. We had bracelets made and Ēriks was too drunk and he made a choker out of it. Veronika: And then the light turned off. Aelita: I remember Ēriks finding a used condom while we were cleaning. Ēriks: No, no, no you do not know if it was used. Aelita: It looked used. Ēriks: We are so far from the question right now. Laura: I can answer the question. The first thing was CofFE related things and we got super close. Veronika: I will never forget the muffin brunch moment, when Toms sent a picture of his muffins. Laura: Can we add a picture to the article? Toms: Nope. Ksenija: We had to bake muffins for FE and Toms in the middle of the night sent a picture of muffins that did not look like muffins. Aelita: I remember not sleeping that night, because in the morning I went to boil water at Kasparas’. Kasparas: Yeah, you brought your kettle, which did not work. (laughing).
04 How much stress is the SA? Aelita: I do not think it is a lot, it is more fun than stressful. Sāra: Sometimes it gets stressful, but sometimes I just ask Kasparas to deal with stuff. Kasparas: The more you are in these positions, the more time goes on, you get accustomed to it, and at the end of the year it is more fun than stressful. (At this point everyone was talking about how helpful everyone at SSER and on the board is, but, like, miss me with that nice stuff Ed.) Madara: I do not know how Kasparas does it, but I wrote one thing in the chat and he messaged me “I feel that you are not OK”. Sāra: Bitva ekstrasensov. Veronika: I love what I do and for everyone in this board it is the same. There is stress, but it is positive stress. (4 questions took 40 minutes by this point Ed.)
05 What were your biggest fuckups? Laura: I sent out a form that was not accessible to students. It took me the whole Micro lecture to fix it. Ēriks: I sent out a form and forgot to include a name, surname box. When there was one applicant, I realised that. I looked for that person on Instagram and Facebook for a long time. Toms: For me it is the Christmas ball. (everyone laughing) Madara: But it is not even a fuckup, because Toms got drunk, went away in the middle of the night, but then he came back at 7am. Toms: Do not put this in, but I never went home. (everyone laughs as they discover the truth) (I put it in for the greater good. Do not under any circumstances take this out of context. Ed.)
13 / THE INSIDER
06 What was the one thing you really wanted to do, but could not? Laura, Ksenija, Veronika: Takeover! Veronika: When we were preparing for the takeover, I found out how sexy Kaspars is. (everyone laughs) I mean he was the star; I was nervous he would steal the show. Sāra: I just feel like I did not do enough. I am really sad that we waited for the restrictions to end and I feel like we should have just acted. Laura: Do not feel bad, everyone thought the restrictions would go away. (everyone agrees)
07 What are you the proudest of? Sāra: For me, it is the close partnership we formed with the administration. Ēriks: I can be only proud of gym as the weekly practice. Aelita: I am proud that I organized the scholarship ceremony on site. I had never organized an event before; it turned out good. Laura: I think we all should be proud of CofFE, I bring it up a lot, but it is the only big thing I did. Kaspars: I am very proud of CS:GO tournaments. (everyone agrees) Veronika: I do not really know what I am the proudest of. Ēriks: I think you were just consistently good throughout the year. Veronika: Thanks, but I changed the FB cover that was there for 5 years and I did it in one day. Madara: I am proud about Pub Tour because it was so spontaneous. Me and Sāra begged the administration to let us do something and it worked. Kasparas: My answer will be very short and very cheesy, but I am proud of having you as my board. (collective aww)
08 What was the best roast aimed at you? Sāra: Whenever I see the jacket from elections, I remember that people said that child labour was involved in making it. Kasparas: I remember a roast about me vomiting during my first exam. Stings a bit to this day. (More like stinks. Credit to Veronika for the joke. Truly, a comedy board. Ed.) Kaspars: I remember during elections last year, someone said that I left my wife and 3 children at home to study at SSE.
09Do you have any wild party memories? (Redacted most of it to be advertiser friendly. This includes, but is not limited to: the Kink dungeon, NCC, and way too many pictures Ed.) Toms: Not that wild, but it was weird. I was going home after Valentine’s day party. I go out of the SA room and there is Ēriks, Valters and Kasparas just doing push-ups. Kasparas: I specifically remember this; it was in the corridor on the fifth floor. Sāra and someone else were sitting on the bench and filming us. Ēriks: And saying: “Oh, testosterone, testosterone!” Ksenija: Valentine’s was a mess; I do not remember almost anything. Madara: I think Aelita deserves a mention here. When she is drunk, she multiplies the sunshine energy. Laura: I just remember after the boat trip, we took Aelita home and she tried to take her bags out of the car and just fell. (everyone laughing) Sāra: I asked Aelita, how drunk she is. She was like: “So, I am very drunk, but I learned to open the window, in case I go wheaaagh” Madara: My favourite is still the Christmas ball, when the cleaning ladies came up to me and said there was a girl who is locked in the toilets, you have to come and get her. I came to the door and was like: “Aelita are you ok?” She was like: “I am all good, stop bothering me!” I remember getting something to screw the door open. Madara: That and Kaspars. One of the best things we did as a board was when Kaspars got drunk and fell asleep on the couch. We tried to put as much stuff as we could on him.
10 Who is the MVP of this board? Sāra: Corona, she really did turn everything around when nobody expected. Kasparas: It depends, there were different MVPs at different points of this year.
Laura was MVP in January, February. Aelita too. Maybe not Toms, because he is just doing accounting.
Toms: Thanks!
Kaspars: There are literally programs that do what he does.
Sāra: All of us have been MVPs and it is hard to choose only one. …(Sāra goes on a rant why everyone is amazing for like 5 minutes Ed.)… …(I also skipped like 10 questions at this point Ed.)…
Madara: You skipped that question, but I just wanted to say that me and Ksenija were proud representatives of Dumb Bitch committee and it is something that could be added in the future as an official thing. I feel like we made the committee proud as the table-persons.
Ksenija: One of my proudest moments is becoming a co-table-person of the Dumb Bitch committee. 11 (There was a complaint that we do not ask the ladies, how to please a man, so here it is. Ed.) How do you please a guy? Ksenija: Is the answer not obvious? By licking. (everyone laughs, Kasparas loses it) Laura: It is the other way around; men are pleasing women. (people nodding in agreement) Aelita: Just look pretty and do not talk too much and they will be very pleased. Kasparas: I am just looking at Toms and Kaspars and they do not look too pleased. Sāra: Women should never reveal their secrets.
