PDM

Monday mornings are a college students' most hated enemy.  Not the last-minute email assignments, not the paper or project that you've been putting off for a month and now have less than 24 hours to complete, not the miserable Saturday morning headaches.  It is Monday mornings that are most dreaded, most despised. 


But this Monday was different.  Even though this Monday marked the beginning of the first full week of classes, campus seemed abuzz with excitement and anticipation.  No, this joy did not stem from the anticipation of acquiring new knowledge, nor from getting a great night's sleep, or even the "easy days" on which professors only review the syllabus.  No, the thing that brightened the faces of most UT students on this particular Monday morning was the anticipation of PDM: Panty Drop Monday.


Now, in order to fully understand what PDM is, you have to understand the process of Sorority and Fraternity Rush.  The sororities rush during Welcome Week, the first week that freshmen are moved in.  During the entire week of rush, the girls who are rushing have a nine o'clock curfue every evening.  They are not allowed to attend any parties, drink, or socialize with guys.  Sunday is the final day of sorority rush, and the grueling process ends for the ladies upon receiving their bid.


The very next day, Monday, is when Fraternity Rush begins.  So Monday night is the night that all of the campus fraternities throw huge parties in order to attract pledges.  This Monday night is also the first night that the newly inducted sorority girls are allowed "out."  They attend these fraternity parties, and having not been able to socialize with the opposite sex for over a week, well... I'm sure you can figure out why it is referred to as "Panty Drop Monday."


As my good guy friend put it:
"Monday is the worst day to get lucky.  Because only the girls who are complete sluts will put out on Monday.  I mean, it's the first day!  What does that say about someone who puts out on the first day?
Tuesday nobody will be out, because everyone is still exhausted from Monday.  Wednesday and Thursday there will be a few people out, but not too many and the parties won't be too crazy, because everyone has classes the next day. But Friday, Friday is the best day to get lucky.  Everyone's out and ready to have fun because there are no classes to worry about.  That's when the girls who think they aren't sluts, but really are, put out."


Anyhow, things can get pretty crazy.  PDM is common knowledge to the public now, so there were a lot of police patrolling the area.  Some frats booked entire bars for their party, while others hosted at their frat house.  A couple of my friends went to one of the frat houses.  Because of the large number of cops, the fraternity was taking every measure possible to ensure that no one would get "caught."  They had designated drivers to take people home (people who even lived within walking distance!)  They also had all of their guests upstairs to minimize the risk of getting into trouble.  Apparently, it was very crowded.  One of my friends even came back early saying, "It was too crowded; you couldn't even move in there.  And it was just a bunch of drunk sorority girls in dresses."


Sounds like a good time to me.


I went to the library with my friend (the one that came back early from the frat house) around 1 to get help finding an article for class.  On our way to and from Hodges we saw many interesting sights, most of which consisted of a completely wasted person being escorted/supported/steered down the sidewalk towards their home as they shouted loudly.


Apparently, now it is not supposed to be reffered to as PDM.  Instead, the sorority girls have insisted that it be called FNO (First Night Out). Something about the name sounding too... unclassy.


But I doubt that the student body will ever even consider referring to this epic holiday as anything other than Panty Drop Monday.

First Friday in Knox

I was much overdue for lunch by the time 2:15 rolled around and my last class of the day finally ended.  I stopped by IHOP and got a stuffed french toast platter (I highly recommend this.  Not only was the french toast delicious, but the eggs and bacon were just right as well.  They were fresh; made-to-order.  Not like the eggs and bacon that have been sitting under a heat lamp for hours in the dining hall.)

After scarfing down my food, I went to my uncle's.  He lives about ten minutes off campus.  I visited a little bit and checked out the bike that I wanted to borrow.  Then I ran to Turkey Creek to pick up some posterboard and orange computer paper for my campaign for MHRA. 

My Nana called me as I was leaving the Walmart parking lot.  She had seen on the news that there have been two reported cases of West Nile in Knoxville and that they're cautioning everyone to wear bugspray.  So I spent the next fifteen minutes assuring her that I would wear insect repellent if I so much as stepped outside for any amount of time, day or night.

When I got back to the dorm, I crashed.  I don't even know how long I was out.  I got back around seven, and I woke up to my ringtone *They climbin' in yo windows, they snatchin' yo people up...* when my roommate called me at nine.

My roommate and her best friend returned to our dorm room so we could have a "Girls' Night" watching Mulan.  Our Girls' Night ended up consisting of five girls and seven boys watching Mulan in a 14x12 ft dorm room.  After the movie, I suggested that we paint The Rock in honor of our friends' birthdays.  My best friend's had been Thursday and my roommate's best friend's was on Saturday.  So we all threw in a few bucks and sent a few of the guys to the store to get spray paint.  Even though they were back by 12am with the paint, we had to wait until 3am to actually leave to paint.  See, if you paint The Rock too early, someone else will come and paint over it.

So we split into three groups for the next two and a half hours.  A few went to grab some food from one of their dorm rooms, a couple others went to play COD (Call of Duty for those of you who aren't gamers), and some of us stayed in my dorm.  By three o'clock, we were all on the elevator, each of us holding our own can of spray paint.

It didn't take us long to get to The Rock and we soon began our masterpiece.  Someone had painted actual graffiti on The Rock earlier though, so we almost felt bad that we were going to cover it up with our scribbles.  We painted a giant cupcake with "Happy Birthday Cole & Steph."  It was a great night.

Day 1 continued..

After waiting for several minutes, the elevator finally arrived at my floor.  As soon as I was on the very crowded elevator, I leaned against the wall to rest.  No sooner had I leaned against the wall than I was alarmed by a loudly ringing phone.  Oh, no.  I accidentally pushed the "CALL" button when I was trying to rest!  The speaker rang *ring* Oh, shit. *ring* What do I do?! *ring* I didn't mean to! And then a lovely female voice replaced the intimidating rings.  Sexy Mystery Lady Voice: "UT Police, are you stuck in the elevator?"  Me: "No, I accidentally leaned on the button, sorry!" Sexy Mystery Lady Voice: "Okay." *click* I was relieved.  And embarrassed.  There were at least five other people on the elevator at the time...

Lessons learned on Day 1 of college

1. Do not walk to a class on The Hill.  You will die.  Or at least feel like you are going to.  And when you finally get to class, even though you left with PLENTY of time to spare, you are almost late and extremely sweaty and smelly.
2. Do not wear grey or jeans before December.  It is too hot.  I started the day in jeans and a tank.  I was hot and sweaty.  I changed into shorts and a grey T. Then, not only was I hot and sweaty, but my shirt was a much darker shade of grey on my entire back than everywhere else.  Grey is the devil.  You cannot hide your sweat AT ALL! Avoid it at all costs.
3. If you find yourself on a street named after a flower or fruit, such as Magnolia, etc, TURN AROUND.  This is the.. how do I go about saying this in a politically correct manner? The.. area typically associated with.. drug dealers and shady back alleys and.... well, it's the ghetto.  So it is best to avoid the fruit&flower roads.

Ten things to do on the first two days at UT:

1. Catch the T-link at 10pm just because.  I did this with my best friend and his two suitemates.  We made the loop around campus as the driver explained to us that this was not his usual route. Driver: "I don't know why they put me on this route. I usually drive the Tango." Us: "What's the Tango?" Driver: "You know, the bus that takes you to all the parties!  We're the party bus. Most kids'll call the number and say 'Hey! Send Johnny Rocket over here to pick us up!' And I'll go an' pick 'em up." A bus driver who goes by "Johnny Rocket": can you get much cooler? I don't think so.
2. Have your picture taken with Bruce Pearl.  Bruce Pearl came to the "Parents' Farewell" in Presidential courtyard to give a nice pep talk about how we're going to "kick Martin's ass!" this year and told us to "raise the bar for ourselves."  As his closing statement, Bruce said, "Parents, you don't have to leave. But you do have to get the hell outta' here! Let 'em go!" He signed autographs for a bit and then left for church :) http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/profile.php?id=642228861
3. Purchase a step-ladder to get in and out of your lofted bed.  Went to Super Target with mom to pick up drinks (of the non-alcoholic variety-- those are free at the frat parties) and a step-ladder to get into my five and a half foot bed (I know it's pathetic, but I'm really short).  Mom went to grab a "step-ladder" for me and returned with a small two foot folding stool/step-ladder.  Me: "Ummm... I don't think that's going to cut it..." Mom: "Are you sure? I think this will be good." Me: "No, can I get the three footer??" And we did.  I highly recommend it.
4. Listen to Pat Summit sing Rocky Top and Bruce Pearl rap.  At the Night in Neyland, our freshman class participated in cheers with the cheerleaders, both traditional and new, listened to the Pride of the Southland band, listened to UT Volunteer football players encourage us to come out and support them, and listened to Pat Summit sing Rocky Top (quite well, I might add).  Pat invited Bruce to follow her, knowing that he wasn't a good singer.  Bruce: "I can't sing worth a damn!" laughter "But I'll tell you what I can do; I can rap a little bit."  And so he did.  Not bad, Bruce, not bad. Here is the link to the same rap he did for us: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx3cmeLhEcg
5. Get to the Video Dance Party on time for glow sticks.  We were hot and tired from the Light the Torch ceremony, Freshmen Picnic, and Night in Neyland, so we decided to cool off and chill in the room before going to the dance.  We thought we would be "fashionably late."  However, when we arrived around 10:30 they were already out of glow sticks!!! Definitely put a damper on the evening.  But still had fun dancing.  Moral of the story: get places on time to get free cool stuff.
6. Finish summer reading.  Yes, I admit that I was a slacker and did not read any of my book until a few days before the response project was due.  Now, not only must I finish reading the book before our small group discussions on Tuesday, but unfortunately we will be discussing the book in my first english class.  And the creative response will be our first grade.  Yes, the creative response that I wrote in one hour will be my first grade in my first college class.  Good job, Amelia.
7. Cram eight people into your dorm room to eat popcorn and cold pizza. So my roommate, her two best friends, our suite mates, my best friend, and his two suite mates all chilled in my dorm room and ate popcorn and cold pizza while "The Prince and Me" was playing in the background. Not one of us was watching the movie; we were too busy reading "failbooks" and "yahoo answer fails." (My personal favorite is "Wendy." Look it up!) http://www.yahooanswerfail.com/
8. Ride a bike. My best friend brought his orange mountain bike with him to campus. We brought it down from his dorm room on the eleventh floor the first night. Actually, I rode the bike down the hall, onto the elevator, and out of the building, while he held my purse. I'm going to get a bike.
9. Take the elevator. I know taking the stairs is healthier and even faster depending on which floor you live. However, taking the elevator is a great way to meet people . A natural, easy conversation usually stems from asking to go to a specific floor; it's a nice way to talk to people without having those awkwardly forced conversations that you have to have at all the freshmen events
10. Talk to drunk people. My roommate's best friend texted us at midnight and told us that we should come up to her room. "We have very interesting company," she said. So my roommate, best friend, and I went up to visit. There were two drunk guys that my roommate and her friend went to highschool with. They had gone to the ATO party. Guy #1 was on the unlofted bed and Guy #2 was in the lounge chair. #1 was slurring and #2 was very hyper. #1: "I have to pee." Points to the bathroom door. "Is this the bathroom?" Me: "No, that's the door to Narnia." #1, looking confused: "Don't mess with me right now..." He enters and then pokes his head back out and loudly says "Your suitemates are not very attractive, by the way." Yeah, he's a winner.

My Dorm Room