There's a traditional party thrown by the second year vets for the new first years every winter. At this point the first years only just escaped their Veterinary Leadership Experience, made it to the Mentor Mentee party the same night, and are very soon to be facing Initiation, but I guess that's just not enough. (As a side note several of us second years went to the Mentor Mentee party and thoroughly confused the first years, since it's supposed to be first and third).
The first year-second year party is fun when you're a second year. I'm uh... glad I didn't go to it when I was first year. It started off as a Rubik's Cube party, where everyone wore bright colors and traded with people to end up all with one color by the end of the night. The truth is, if you're a first year, things aren't really going to go in your favour at this party. Apparently for the one last year, the night got off to a great start when the entrance requirement was chugging an entire beer. Then, through the rest of the night, there were drench guns and syringes full of vodka and god knows what else, and at some point mud entered into the picture. I'm pretty sure every first year that went got tackled or hurled into the mud, chucked mud, and generally splattered with mud. Mind that it's winter. I'm not sure what else happened really, but I'm just glad I wasn't there.
We were a lot nicer to the incoming class than that. It didn't help that no one had drench guns (the things you use to give oral medication to farm animals), but there were still syringes, and the first years weren't getting in without a mouthful. There was only a very teeny tiny bit of mud, and the muddy parts of the lawn had been fenced off for the night.
I also learned of a curious tradition. Since this party takes place the day before halfway day (when the third years are halfway through their degree), the fourth years search around town for any third years they can find, then kidnap them. They bring them to our party to get smashed, presumably so they'll be hungover on their halfway day.
The theme for our party was that we dressed up as something starting with P and the first years dressed up as something starting with B. I went as a picketer, my sign said "End Cruelty to Vet Students" on one side and "Say No to Exams" on the other. Three of my friends went as planes, and they had epic cardboard and string costumes that took them four hours to make. Other Ps included: pregnant people and a pregnant nun, several pandas, a pea, a peacock, pajamas, Poliwhirl the Pokemon, a number of prisoners, a few pirates, a penis, a pyromaniac, Phantom of the Opera, Padman (who was wearing a superhero costume and had stuck pads all over it), a prostitute, a paw, a proctologist, and a pine tree. Some of the Bs were: broccoli, Batman, birthday partiers, a barefooted bathtowel, black swans, a badger, and a box. And many more!
I met a lot of the first years, but mostly they just wanted to talk to each other rather than the second years. They're kind of adorable.
