My break was amazing. It was great, not because I took an exciting vacation, but because I did nothing: absolutely nothing. It’s physics; for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. My intensely stressful studying and work had led to the equally opposite reaction of me going into what could be misconstrued as a coma for a month… it was heavenly. Well, it’s over now and I am very well refreshed. This next semester should prove interesting.

            Halloween started like any other day… I actually forgot that it was Halloween because I hadn’t participated in the festivities for so long. However, in class all the students were very excited about Halloween. Were they excited about the trick-or-treating? No. They were excited about the costume party at one of the fraternities. They had all gone out and bought these amazing costumes to portray how creative they were. And me? I hadn’t even considered getting a costume yet. After the school day was done, my roommate convinced me to go to the costume party. Sadly, my wardrobe did not consist of Halloween costumes, and I had no time to go out and buy one. So, what did I do? I just started throwing on random articles of clothing. I started out with jeans and a black undershirt. Then, I looked to my right and saw a tie hanging in my closet. I put it on over the T-shirt… it looked ridiculous. Then I put on a Hollister button-down shirt and tied a knot on the back. Did I have any idea what I was aiming for? Absolutely not. I was literally just throwing on random articles of clothing. My roommate gave me a blank stare as he pondered what I could possibly be.  Taking the hint, I made my way down to my sister all to get the final piece of apparel: a pair of white girly sunglasses with music notes on the sides.  A look at myself in the mirror for second and said, “ I look like Elton John”. Several girls confirmed my statement… and my Halloween costume was complete. As I reentered my room, my roommate stared at me in amazement.  The glasses made all the difference.

            Surprisingly, I had a great time with all the Halloween festivities. The party was fun. Food was available in abundance.  Most of all, it was an excellent break in the routine.

            It was Saturday and I had to get up terrifyingly early…I believe 10:00 was when my alarm sounded. What could possibly give me the motivation to wake up at 10:00? Apple picking. Yes, I’m in college and I was going apple picking on a Saturday. Actually, I was going because some girls asked me to and whined until I said yes. Does that redeem me?

            I make my way outside to meet up with the group. To my astonishment, the group is an estrogen fest. I was the sole contributor of testosterone. However, I was not afraid…a lesser man might have run to protect his sanity, but I was determined to succeed. No one brought an iPod, and thankfully South Carolina morning radio consists of bad country and worse country. We didn’t listen to music…silence. Success! I avoided the usually inevitable assault on my ears from a loud sing along.

            We got to the orchard and bought some warm apple cider doughnuts, easily the best doughnuts I have ever had in my entire life. After we finished our doughnuts, and in all I think each of us had around six...delicious, we made our way down to the trees. All the families and other visitors would not venture far… so we had to go far away to find any apples. There were many different varieties, but we each pulled a particular one off a tree and immediately fell in love with it. They were Fuji apples. We climbed up trees, shook branches, and eventually filled up our basket…that I ended up carrying around.

            I actually had a good time picking apples with the girls, but I can promise you I didn’t eat anything with an apple in it for a week. The day was gorgeous and it was a relaxing day to spend a Saturday… second only to sleeping 

My Date Megan

The signature event of homecoming was the dance… and I needed to get a suit. Not only did I need a suit, I needed a suit in two hours. After the football game, I went to a nearby Men’s Warehouse to resolve this dilemma. While quietly browsing, I was assaulted with sales pitches…“For $200 more, you could have two rear vents!” said the annoying salesman. It took some time, but, after listening to the sale’s pitches and countless buy one get one half off deals, I bought a suit. The tailor complained that he had to fit the suit so soon, but it took him five minutes. I rushed back to the dorm to get ready for my dance

The dance was exactly like you’d expect…there was no actual dancing. As with all dances these days, shaking one’s hips close to someone else’s is the preferred style. I’d dare say that a lot of people couldn’t even do that with any sense of rhythm. However, I am in no place to judge… someone tried to teach me to dance once, but never again. So, like all the rest, I flailed my hips around like I was having a seizure.

Our Hall Macot To conclude the evening, I had my date pose with a fellow dorm mate… as you can see from the picture, he took the dance seriously: he wore a kilt and had a cigar in his mouth the entire time. I’m sure there were alumni roaming around on campus, but, to the students, homecoming provided some welcomed relaxation.

  I awoke to the piercing screams of my alarm… and smacked it off the nightstand almost as fast. The clock read 7:30 before I abruptly ended its loyal service. It was much too early for a Saturday; my clock should’ve known better. After more much needed sleep, I awoke the way any college freshman should: naturally. The “natural” time, in my case, was 2:00 PM.

Well anyways, it was two and I needed to get ready for the one thing I had to do: a football game. After a considerable five minutes, I began my trek to the stadium. The mall was lined with “tailgate” tents from different sororities and fraternities… all with delicious food to satisfy my need for breakfast. The idea  behind the tailgates, in my opinion, is to meet the Greek culture. Usually I would be in a button down shirt,  but since I woke up naturally…I was a bit underdressed. Not to worry; I woke up so late the tailgating was almost finished. I found some friends in the Pi Kappa Phi tent and waited for the game to start. I believe some guys were playing a game of croquet. No, I did not think about playing. I have many abilities; croquet is not one of them.

             “Chase!” – Belligerent dorm resident

            “What?”

            “We’re going on a brodeo!”

            “………………………”

            For those of you who don’t know, a brodeo is a collection of guys doing an activity together. Yes, I thought the same thing. However, lets not judge so quickly. It was relatively early on in my college career, and I still didn’t know all the guys on my hall. After a short pause, I decided to join the brodeo.

Our RA came up with the brilliant idea to go bowling, an activity that seems to surpass the limits of my hand eye coordination. In a rush of excitement, the Bros raced to their cars leaving the RA in the dust; the RA was the only one that had been to the bowling alley before. Not to worry, we all had a “general” sense of where it was, and guys have an innate sense of direction. Right, I can honestly say that our hall was a testament to how false a claim it truly was. We couldn’t have gotten lost any faster; the way to back to campus was completely forgotten. However, by some miracle, we finally got to the bowling alley an hour later… and we were the first ones there.

We played three games; I think I bowled a 70 on all three games. Yes, I should go pro; however, my talents are being called for elsewhere. Eventually, we started playing synchronous bowling… or more commonly known as throwing balls down the lane faster than humanly possible. It was a lot of fun… and completely against the rules.

A lot of dorm activities like this go on throughout the year. Despite what you may think, these activities build incredible amounts of dorm culture. My hall is extremely unique, and I couldn’t be with a better group of guys. At Furman, your dorm community really allows you to feel at home.

•        Students must sign out before leaving campus
  
•       Curfew is at 10:25
  
•       Students may not miss nightly prayer meetings on weekdays.
  
•        DVD/VCR players are not allowed in the residence halls
  
•        Students may not listen to country, jazz, New Age, rock, or contemporary      Christian music.
  
•        You may not possess or play computer and video games rated T, M, A, or E10
  
•        Films with a rating higher than “G” are forbidden
  

My camera lost the rest of the photos I had for you.Don’t worry… I’m kidding. The rules I just gave you belong to the one and only Bob Jones University. Warning: if you agree with any of the rules listed above or think the First Amendment is a waste of paper, please stop reading this article now. If you attend Bob Jones University, don’t worry because my article has probably already been blocked.

Today I’m going to tell you the truth about the “conservative” Furman. To be honest, I was worried Furman would be one of those “bubble” schools that thinks withholding “true society” is a good way educate someone…they can also be called religious schools. Furman used to be one of them. Now, let me clear something up, It is a common misconception that Furman is still a religious school. Furman is a non-religiously affiliated university. There are still remnants from its Baptist roots, but the school encourages religious freedom and personal choice.

Guys, despite what you may think, Furman does not have any “conservative” rules regulating interaction with the opposite sex. You will not be stoned for holding hands. The dorms are co-ed. There are tons of dances. For example, I recently attended a foam party. Basically, it’s a large inflatable pool filled with foam and you dance to crazy music. Now I don’t want to be lewd, but, because there were so many people, “leaving space for Jesus” would’ve been impossible. Of course, if wet foamy dancing doesn’t appeal to you, there are many formal events as well.

Me Before "My Tie" Dance You have freedom of choice at Furman. If you need people to plan and censor your life, Furman is not the place for you. So, all my fears about the “super conservative” Furman are gone, and I’ll let you all know if that ever changes. Have a good week everyone.

Song of the Week: Violet Hill – Coldplay.

(This song is not allowed at Bob Jones University)

Dancing, singing, playing, chanting, cheering, and all the other ‘ings: you name it; O-Week (Orientation Week) had it.

            After what felt like fifty trips to unload my car, my room was finally  complete. Albeit, complete is a very relative term, but it satisfied my male aesthetics. To be honest, I didn’t expect very much from O-Week. I thought it would be an immature and half thought through attempt to get the dorm to “bond” with one another. I suppose the poster of Heath Ledger in A Knight’s Tale greeting me at the top of the dorm steps  was the start of my low expectations. Our hall was, and still is, lined with an “attempted” plastering of drawn bricks to get us in the medieval mood (our RA was obviously misinformed on how a castle looked). As I would soon find out, the medieval times was going to be our hall theme. I was handed our dorm T-shirt with a picture of a shield on the back and was told to return at 8:30 for the festivities.

            The first event on the jam-packed O-Week schedule was to meet our sister halls. Looking back, the dorm now refers to it as our speed dating session. We were in groups and moved from room to room meeting the ladies. Of course, as one might expect, most rooms were pink and matched perfectly.... my room wasn’t quite so pretty. The point was to make friends, and we did, but, to my great pleasure, it turned into a “wooing” competition among the groups. Some groups faired better than others, and some groups, sadly, failed miserably. My group of three dominated the battleground. However, I will  admit that we were behind a group that asked questions like “cake or pie?”. Needless to say, we probably seemed like a godsend following them. All I can say to sum up speed dating is veni vidi vici (we came, we saw, we conquered).

            Now, I don’t want to spoil all the fun you might potentially have at O-Week, but this one tradition is common knowledge: the midnight serenade. Imagine this with me for a moment… all the freshmen men grouped in front of a dorm balcony covered with all the freshmen women. Got the picture? Ok, now imagine they all start “serenading” the women in song, My Girl, for instance. The clouds part, a beam of light envelopes the men as they sing in perfect harmony, animals come forth to listen to the sweet perfection, women sprinkle candy down in utter amazement: yes, I’m lying. Our combined singing voices could probably kill small children. Each time we sang, as if Mother Nature was trying to put an end to the assault, it rained more and more. From our point of view, the women seemed offended. Candy was in no way sprinkled down. The scene, in a comedic sense, reminded me of a stoning…with candy.   However, we were told later that our singing was adorable and we were all incredibly hot…. Success!

            These two examples demonstrate what O-Week was to me. Now, keep in mind this is just two in a multitude of events. The other events were massive, but I believe you deserve to be surprised like I was. A lot of people worked incredibly hard to make orientation enjoyable and effective for the freshmen. It was definitely a proper end to my summer vacation and a perfect start to a new chapter in my life.