Yesterday was the big event. All of BU's incoming freshman wouldn't fit in any one of the universities gymnasiums or auditoriums, and just barely fit into the Tammasart gym (very big). We met at the Kluay Nam Tai campus at 8.00 and took tour busses to Rungsit. Once we got there, it was a full sprint to get everybody inside in time for the start. We packed into the 3rd level of bleachers in the back left corner, with other facualties on both sides and below us. We sat there for several hours watching various ceremonial dances, blessings, and speeches. Around one o'clock we had food and tied strings on freshman for good luck. This was a great way to get to know faces and names. The whole gym lit candles together, listened to another speech, and finally it was cheer time. This is the competitive part of the day. As staff, we've been preparing for this 15 minute period for several weeks. Daily drills with first year students practicing our major's cheers and the BU cheers. These cheers include a song and a dance which has to be done in sync by our 150 freshman. BUIC only has 150 freshman compared to the BU Communication Arts, with over 2000. Both majors spent the same amount of time preparing their cheers. Our goal: to show that we had the most cunningly worded cheers, best prepration, and be the loudest, yet smallest, department in BU. It worked. Most kids couldn't speak loudly for an hour afterwards. Our cheers were by far the funniest and most clever of all. We were proud.
Then came the fun part. Music. At this point we could all move around in our section of the stadium talking and tying more bracelets. The school rock band was fun, covering popular songs, and everybody was dancing together and having a good time. By this time we actually knew most of the kids, and they felt much much more relaxed. Potato finished off the day with an incredible 1hr show. Every single person in our section was standing locking arms with eachother, singing as loud as they could to songs everybody loved. It was a really great day. I'm now pretty pshyced about seeing my kids around school and at future events.

We took the tour buses back to Kluay Nam Tai. It was late, freshman went home, staff went to We-Za to celebrate. More dancing together, screaming our favorite songs, playing pool, and drinking.

I did get invited to go to the South tonight, with Potato. I've never been to the South before, so I might go. We would take a plane down and back.

Yesterday I registered for summer classes. I have Methods of Communication on Mondays and Wednesdays. Firday I need to go back to add Critical Analysis of Messages, which was full yesterday.

This is the beginning of the year for BU, so it's freshman hazing time as well. Saturday is the official day, at the Rungsit campus. The university booked Potato to come and play as well.