I've been Baker 13'd. #IGTR

Rice has this lovely little tradition called Baker 13.  It's likely you heard about it before you even arrived for O-Week: it's extensively chronicled by college guides and Wikipedia as an example of Rice's unique culture and crazy traditions.   Yet nothing can prepare you for what it's like to be Baker 13'd.

The first time that I ever witnessed the event was as a freshman during our college's first council meeting of the year (also called "cabinet" by lesser colleges).  Since our council convenes at 10pm, everyone, including the upperclassmen had forgotten about Baker 13.

But Baker 13 had not forgotten about us.

The run only had about six people on it, all dudes, and they ran straight into the middle of our council meeting.  As they yelled, "Join us!,"  we all just stared and/or averted our eyes.  Realizing that no one was about to get up, strip down, and leave council, they moved on to the next college.  But not without leaving us some lovely Baker 13 prints to remember them by.

This is how it usually goes, or at least in my experience.  Rice students will be burrowed somewhere: in their rooms, Fondren, practicing on an IM field, and be completely oblivious to the nude crazies rampaging around campus (it's easy enough to forget about, especially on the 26th).  When they emerge later that night, or even the next morning, they find that everything has been Baker 13'd.

 

Bizarre things happen, I barely notice. #IGTR

Today, I was walking through the quad after my 9am class.

 

Then this happened.

Now, perhaps if you went to a different university, you might be a little surprised by your mascot chasing a gorilla through your academic quad for no apparent reason.  But the thing is, crazy things like this happen all the time.  In fact, this crazy thing has happened before.  When Sammy and the gorilla began wrestling, my linguistics professor from last semester, who happened to be walking through the quad, commented:  "I feel like I've seen this gorilla before.  I feel like I've seen him at Sid."

Allow me to take you back to second semester last year:

Here you can observe Sammy taking down the gorilla in the grove on the South side of campus.

I wouldn't say things like this are an everyday occurrence, but I don't think it's a stretch to say strange things happen on campus on a fairly consistent basis.  Daniel from McMurtry has a blog devoted to doing awesome, bizarre things on campus. And I mean, if you look at the video, practically no one even flinches.  One girl says "oh my god" and there's only one dude who does a double-take, but everyone else hardly skips a beat.

I guess we're just used to it.

I know the importance of a good weather app. #IGTR

If you go to Rice, you have probably discovered the importance of having a good weather app on your phone.  And I don't mean the questionably-accurate, Houston-wide average that is displayed on your home screen right beneath the time (who knows how many times that will lead you to disaster before you graduate).  No, what a Rice student requires is a zip-code specific application with an hourly breakdown of temperature and chance of precipitation.

Now, perhaps this year's freshmen have not had a chance to fully appreciate the necessity for such an app during the drought, and it's possible that returning students have allowed themselves to temporarily forget its utility.  I myself uninstalled my weather app over the summer and have since been too lazy to download it again.  This would have been fine, had I remembered Rice Rule #12: Always keep an umbrella in your backpack.

I had perhaps seen the temperature on my phone when I woke up in the morning, but it had been nothing out of the ordinary, likely somewhere in the high 90s.  No reason for me to investigate further.  The walk to my morning class was disgustingly hot and humid, as per usual.  The classroom, which I've been cursed to have a morning class in every single semester of my college career thus far, has an almost immediate soporific effect on me.  (Can you blame me?: the seats are relatively soft, the windows are way at the top near the ceiling, and the lights are almost always off as to accommodate a PowerPoint presentation.)  I fell into that terrible, desperately-trying-to-stay-awake-but-your-head-keeps-lolling-and-you-are-for-all-intents-and-purposes-unconscious waking sleep state, as per usual.

When the class was finally over (no, but really, who ever decided 75 minute morning classes were a good idea...), I emerged from the cavern only to find that not only had it started raining, but the sky was actually falling down.  As all the smart, prepared Rice kids fished inside their backpacks and came back up with a umbrellas and headed off into the downpour, I lingered underneath the overhang, cursing under my breath, realizing that my umbrella was still on the top shelf in my closet.

Now, you may think that should this ever happen to you, you will be fine.  You are wrong.  Because this only seems to occur when you are woefully inappropriately dressed.

Also, you will be at the farthest possible point on campus from your residential college.  You will realize you literally could not be any more physically removed from warm things (like dry clothes and lunch).

As I finally braced myself against the rain and stepped out into the elements, I realized... well, it wasn't so bad.  There's nothing quite like that intoxicating scent of petrichor during the first rain of the year.  Besides, Rice has a small campus anyway. 

I Go To Rice. #IGTR

Hello.  I go to Rice.  I consider Beer Bike to be the biggest holiday of the year, even better than Christmas.  It's possible that I go to more Powderpuff games than I do Rice football games (although I will paint myself blue with zero hesitation to support my Owls).  I refer to the library as Club Fondy, and may even consider myself a member of Fondren College during finals period.  I am shamelessly enthusiastic about my academic interests.  Adults live in the same building I do, and I actually feel like it has enhanced my college experience.  I like to visit this magical place called the leisure pool.  I feel sorry for other universities with lesser "welcome weeks."  When asked where I am from, I respond with the name of my college.  A cheer is hardly complete without at least a little profanity.  My college is the best college.  I call cafeterias, serveries, and the university actually has to force me to leave campus once a week by shutting them down (otherwise I might never leave the hedges).  I am hardly phased anymore when naked people run around campus twice a month.  West Lot is an ungodly long distance from wherever I live, and I'd rather wait the seven minutes for the shuttle.  Heat and humidity is a given, but I still like to complain about it.  When it drops below freezing for more than a few nights in a row, I get a snow day.  My university's marching band defies all descriptions.  My goal in life during Owl Days is to make prospies love Rice as much as I do.  I am an Owl. #IGTR