From football games to frat parties and hypnotism to hangovers, first years across the University have already experienced many things for the first time in their newly-minted college careers.
First classes on that Wednesday morning brought bleary-eyed first years in pursuit of higher education out of their dorms at ungodly hours.
Cavernous lecture halls filled to capacity with a crowd the size of an entire high school graduating class greeted new students as they entered their first introductory lecture.
"I was intimidated by my classes at first," first-year College student Whitney Hewlett said. "Like everyone was bigger than me."
With first classes also came first bus rides for many students, including Hereford resident Matthew Lindsey, a first-year Engineering student.
The bus was "very crowded," Lindsey said. "I was confused."
Seasoned veterans of the bus system are fed up with lengthy waits for jam-packed transit, so imagine the additional frustration when a rookie rider unwittingly breaks one of the unwritten rules.
Bus drivers grow hoarse repeating themselves at the O-Hill bus stop, shouting, "Don't. Get on. In the back!" Lindsey experienced a common first year difficulty in attempting his first bus ride. "I didn't know where to get off, and I didn't know there were all these loops."
If first years thought the buses were crowded, they were astounded by the attendance at the Tom Deluca show Friday night, a symbolic start to the academic year.
Magic marker-scrawled neon poster-boards were thrust high against the dusk as rabid fans screamed at the man with the microphone, clamoring for a shot at that elusive spot on-stage.
First years looked on in half-amusement, half horror, transfixed by the display of humiliating supplication.
"I thought it was a low-key event for first years," Engineering first year Adam Koussari-Amin said. "I didn't know it was a big event like football games."
But if the Deluca show was big, then the football game was giant. Saturday evening brought the first college football game for many first years. Paint-smeared die-hard fans packed the front rows of the student section and instigated sundry cheers of debatable decency while newbie first-time first year fans struggled to get into the flow of the show.
Most first years displayed their aptitude for quick learning, however; by the third quarter, "The Good Old Song" was rolling across the rows of students young and old.
"I liked all the songs," first-year College student Kayla Gibson said. Lindsey also enjoyed the spirited unity of the student body. "It felt like we were all together and cheering," he said. Another common sentiment among first years was voiced by Lindsey when he said, "I was surprised we stood up the whole time."
Sore feet or not, most first years agreed their first ball game was a great experience. In fact, the dedication of students to their new favorite team was evident on the many whiteboards adorning first-year doors following the game.
Some scribes chronicled the great victory, "27-0, UVA 1-0," gleefully printed in erasable marker.
"Get well soon #7," read Koussari-Amin's whiteboard for days after the game.
Most first years watched the game with their newest friends: Their hallmates. Many fast friendships formed during the first week of cohabitation, which marked the first time many first years have ever lived with a roommate or shared living quarters with strangers.
"It was weird having people shower next to me," first-year College student Emilia Pisani said.
Despite a lack of social time due to mandatory orientation seminars, some students began to get to know their neighbors over the first weekend and weekdays. The first realization of what he left at home sent Lindsey knocking on hallmates' doors asking to borrow a measuring cup from well-stocked friends.
"How much is two-thirds of a cup?" he asked aloud with a two-pouched packet in hand while roaming the halls for his fix of midnight Easy Mac.
That microwaveable treat is a predictable snack, but not as predictable as the components of most first year first-time experiences.
It seems that successful social functions contain at least three of the following ingredients: Beer, loud noise or music, beer, dancing, partial nudity, general rowdiness or beer. But no matter what the alcohol content, parties are a powerful magnet for first years, drawing vast hordes to Rugby Road.
Beer, the liquid common denominator and backbone to many a party, brings fourth and first years together in that generous stupor of alternating goodwill and malice. Hallmates bond as they trek through torrential downpours to make it to that happening party at that one fraternity house that the dude down the hall heard about.
First-year guys struggled to catch a break and grab a cup at a hip frat but were most often stuck at a mobbed sausage fest after waiting in line for what seemed like hours.
"It's easier [for] girls to get in," Pisani said with a smile.
Pisani said she and her hallmates hit their first frat party on Rugby Saturday night, as did a good number of first years.
Several of them got their first taste of college beer (read: "cheap beer") during their first night on Rugby Road. Liquor, whose first magical sips tapped the keg of inebriated extroversion, impelled some students to get a head-start on their fellow '07 graduates by heading out on the first Monday or Tuesday evening.
Those students who abstained from weeknight fraternization were rewarded the first full weekend, when they worked off all the stress generated from three whole days of strenuous introductory lectures.
Aside from coursework, alcohol seemed to be the largest topic of discourse among first years by Sunday morning. Many conversations started off "Hey, did you hear about that ice luge?" or "Dude, we got so drunk last night. Or was that Friday?"
By the time late Sunday afternoon rolled around, home and high school were a million miles away. The familiar panic of unfinished work was rekindled, and the grim reality of assignments due and papers to-be-written set in as Sunday progressed. Between reading for that 8 a.m. Spanish 101 and writing for that 9 a.m. ENWR 110, nearly every dorm was mute, save for the throbbing bass of some students' motivational music.
While the rest of America slept peacefully, fully appreciative of Labor Day's federal holiday status, University first years slaved away on those first-impression homework assignments. Away Messages on, the first years set to work, diligently catching up on that paper they should have started Thursday night. Flustered first years engaged in panicked inquiries that echoed from IRC to Hereford:
First year no. 1: "This two-pager won't be graded, will it?"
First year no. 2: "No, the teacher'll just collect it to see that everyone did it."
No. 1: "Oh, that's good."
Despite their overabundance, first years across Grounds seem to be fitting in already. First-time experiences have planted seeds of inspiration that will grow over the next four years. First club and organizational meetings. First lectures and first course advising sessions. First days with roommates, classmates and future friends.
Lindsey eventually figured out how to measure around two-thirds of a cup of water. Late at night, no longer hungry, he summed up many first years' feelings about U.Va., their new home: "I love it, everything about it. It's more than I expected."
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