Maureen E. Johannessen doesn't get to bring a pool to work every day.

But it also isn't every day that she and her staff at the Leverett House Dining Hall scrap the steel trays of oatmeal to bring out brightly patterned fabrics, flowers, fountains, and, yes - a blue plastic pool.

Down the street in Dunster and Mather Houses, Dining Hall General Manager Richard M. Spingel and his crew had been moving tables since late Saturday night to make room for the two large wind-surfing sails they hauled in early yesterday morning. Eliot House boasted a frozen drink bar in a makeshift thatched hut and swaying schools of helium-balloon fish weighted down by pineapples. Signs instructed diners to "eat your fruit or wear it on your head."

The efforts of Harvard Dining Services (HDS) in yesterday's Caribbean "Festive Meal" did not go unnoticed.

Mather House's Theresa Crockett '00 said she has never traveled from her native Canada to the West Indies--and excitedly donned a straw hat and sunglasses while running around with her disposable camera and a new-found ukulele.

But for those who hail from the Caribbean, who know what a home-cooked meal from "the Islands" really looks like, the HDS celebratory brunch is not exactly "authentic."

HDS officials don't deny the problems of putting on an "exotic" meal, but argue that it's better they try than have nothing at all.

An Authentic Experience?

While Joelle N. Simpson '99, former co-chair of the Harvard-Radcliffe Caribbean Club says she enjoyed aspects of the meal, she did find the fantasy world HDS evoked--complete with beach balls and surf boards--"obviously touristic."