Well classes have started, which means that Orientation Week (“O Week” as it is called here) is officially over. Insane can’t really describe the week before classes. Nothing really good can happen when 20,000+ students are together, in summer, with no classes, and a plethora of bars. The university sponsors a lot of events, and most of it is madness. Things you couldn’t even get away with in Mardi Gras don’t even cause people to bat an eye here. The University schedules a number of bands to play at night, and there are number of other activities during the day, some hosted by the school, others by bars.
The Bowler, a local bar, had Tanker Day. They pulled a Tanker full of beer up outside the bar at 9AM and challenged the students to finish the Tanker by 5PM.
Then Captain Cook has “The Cookathon”. Although the event was cancelled this year, meaning The Cook couldn’t advertise it, it happened anyways. What is The Cookathon? The students start to gather outside the bar at 8AM, usually grouped as a flat. You and your flatmates will pick a theme to go dressed up as. The costumes are mostly obscene, skimpy, hilarious or a combination of the three. The doors open at 10AM, and the participants drink for the whole day.
All the bars and clubs have specials and are generally packed and going nuts. The students are out til 4AM, generally raising hell, and for the most part the city doesn’t care.
The craziest activity I participated in was the Freshman Toga Parade. 2000 Freshman donned togas and as a group, paraded down the main road of the city, on the way to the center of town. This parade paralyzes the city. Now, unlike most parades, you don’t just watch the parade, you take part in it. The tens of thousands of people lining the streets throw thousands of eggs, water balloons, and flour at the freshman. This year it got out of control, with some people throwing far grosser things. In our attempt to find the parade, we ended up driving right through middle of it. Five of us were stuffed into my friends Corolla, throwing water balloons and eggs out the window. The freshman surrounded the car, beating it, jumping on it, throwing stuff at it, and tried to tear the doors off. They managed to get a water balloon to explode inside the car. It was NUTS.
While my parents are obviously reading this, slowly shaking their heads, and wondering what the heck I am doing here, O Week was great for more that drinking and partying. I met some great people during it, ones that I will hang out with for the rest of the semester.
