I'm in beast mode. #IGTR

Quite a few Rice students participate in the hallowed tradition that is college powderpuff.  When you show up to Rice as freshmen girl, by the end of O-Week you probably hear your fair share of: "YOU SHOULD PLAY POWDERPUFF" and "OMG POWDERPUFF IS THE BEST THING EVER."  And after hours of convincing you that "it doesn't matter if you're athletic or not" and "you don't even need to know how football works" and "we'll teach you everything you need to know,"  you'll follow a group of rabidly excited upperclassmen out to the IM fields for your first practice.

Every position takes its own  kind of skill and training to be sure, but there is something uniquely terrifying about being thrust into O-line as a freshman.  While the defense and receivers are cautioned against painful finger jams, someone will undoubtedly bring up that one time your team's o-lineman broke her nose or received a concussion.  Everyone quickly hushes that person.  You're not sure what you've gotten yourself into.

Of course the coaches and captains will spend a long time explaining technique and how to properly block so that you minimize the potential for injury, but all you'll really hear is:

But you soon get it down, and learn that blocking is not actually that terrifying.  Plus, you like that you don't have to catch passes.  You're really bad at that.  You're even feeling pretty good about yourself until your first game comes along. Then you get to the field and your first match-up looks like this:

It also doesn't help that the opposing team is holding up signs that say "CONCUSS HER" on their sideline.

Eventually though, you begin to feel satisfied when you hit a good block.  You learn to embrace the bruises.  Instead of freaking out about them, you comment on them when they turn a particularly cool color.  You don't get worried about those sideline signs anymore: no one's gonna concuss you, not even close.  You got 'dis.  You're in beast mode.

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.