Alright! Finally, rotation is over!
What is rotation you ask?
Rotation is essentially a week where incoming prefrosh (not deemed frosh until the end of Rotation) are placed in temporary housing (assigned a random room in one of the houses). For the week, the prefrosh rotation through the houses for lunch and dinner meeting and interacting with the upperclasspeople to get a better feel of what the house is like. At the end of Rotation, the prefrosh rank 5 of the 8 houses on a scale from 1 to 10 and then pray that they get their first choice.
So I went through all of the houses. Talked to a lot of upperclasspeople. Answered the same questions over and over again. Formulated my biases of the houses. Then picked the ones I liked.
I was worried that I wouldn’t get my first choice since I ranked my second and third choice pretty high. But I also talked to my top choice’s house “president” and felt good about it.
The Fleming cannon finally fired at 5PM which meant that Rotation was over and we were finally frosh! Next, we all rushed to our top choice to participate in initiation which was a process where a frosh went through a series of tests, challenges, or games to find out whether or not he or she got into that house.
My first choice was Avery House mainly because I liked the atmosphere and people there. Avery House was the most “normal” house to me, and by normal, I mean people who are the most free thinking and do not get caught up into group frenzies and isolated ideas. Avery House was also a very awesome place to live with excellent rooms and food. A few of the people I know already are picking that house, and I get along with them very well. Also, since it just became a House this year, I have a bigger role in defining how the House will be.
There are some negatives to Avery House: mainly being on the other side of campus, but I suppose that’s alright. I can deal with that. More walking means more exercise anyway.
So I went through the Avery initiation. It involved waiting in line at a table where two upperclasspeople were dressed in Red Cross blood donation suits. They had us sign a form which said that we assented to be “sanitized” (shocked, probed, etc.). Then after waiting a long time, we were led one by one into a dimly lit hallway where two people dressed in white lab coats were using black lights to scan your body. They kept asking me my name so I repeated it a few times and tried some variations of saying my name since I thought there might have been a trick going on. I kept looking around for people sneaking behind me or using slight of hand to hide things or something, but I didn’t notice anything. The lab people asked me to take off my watch and untie my shoelace. They then said it was the other shoelace, and I asked him to clarify the instructions so I wouldn’t be caught in some kind of scheme where I would keep tying my shoelaces, etc.
Satisfied, the two lab people directed me down the hall where a single student was sitting at a brightly lit normal table. On it was a chocolate cupcake. After asking for my name again, he directed me to eat it. I scanned his face for any signs of a trap. Perhaps the cupcake had strange substances in it. Maybe, I thought, someone crapped in it and then after I ate the cupcake they would break out laughing as I went to hurl. I took a bite from it, but everything was normal still. The student said that I can now read the paper at the top that was stuck in the cupcake. Unfolding it, the slip said: “Welcome! Now proceed to UVM” (or something that began with U).
Some student then led me down the hall to a room where the people who got into Avery were hanging out and playing games. Then I played Super Smash Brothers Melee for a while.
Hours later (after the house dinner at Avery)…
“The Flemings are coming! The Flemings are coming!” shouted someone.
Earlier, I was busily making water balloons for the upcoming Fleming “caroling.” That was a tradition for the Flems to go to each of the houses and sing degrading songs at the house. For us Averites, we planned to lure them in with cheese and crackers and then when they exited through the back gates, we would soak them with water balloons that were sprayed with really bad smelling cologne.
The plan worked really well. Except that we were all trying to throw water balloons out the same small window space so our power and aim weren’t that good and many of the balloons did not break. So the Flems (known for their good athletics) retaliated and threw them back. But some of them didn’t break either, so we returned fire. In the end, we drenched the Flems definitely, but some of us (like me) got a little wet. I was being stupid standing around the window trying to catch incoming water balloons when one just burst nearby and got me. So now as I’m writing this, I’m smelling of really bad cologne.
Therefore, I must go take a shower. See ya!
