Above: Various sisters out in force to deliver bidsRUSH!!! And no I don't mean bombsite B in de_dust2. I'm referring to what all non-US universities miss out on - the weird and wonderful world of frats and sorrorities. Put simply, rushing is the process where new members try out for a Greek society. At the end of rush, the brothers or sisters will 'bid' for you if you're successful. Some people get multiple bids and can choose which frat/sorrority to join.
This is not the same as what we think is 'hazing'. In fact hazing is technically prohibited, though that's probably a bit of a lie. Once you've accepted a bid, you're basically their bitch for however long 'pledging' takes. Once you go through pledging, you finally become a fully fledged bro or sis. Apparently the worst pledging on campus is at a particular frat and involves having to drink in an ice-tub till you yack on each other.
Girls and guys have it way different. Guys just rock up at a frat, say they are rushing, get into the party and if you hit it off with the bro's then you probably have a good chance of getting in. Girls however, have a huge complex employment type process. There's registration, interviews, house openings etc , you can't go to frat parties or go on facebook and its all very formal. A few of the girls I know at I-house are rushing.
I myself tried to convince a few of the other internationals to rush with me, but to no avail. So I went with one of the girls (this is necessary to get into parties) and rushed a couple of frats. Just went to their mixers, bbq's and parties during rush week. And YES, true to form, the first frat I went to was Delta Upsilon aka DU (yeah I'm nostalgic about my CS days). Then there was Theta Chi and Lamdas, but really I don't think the whole Greek thing is for me, but it was fun, and its good to get to know people for later on when you want to get into parties.
Anyway, the significance of today is that it is officially the end of rush for the Sorrorities. The sisters have put out their bids, and the lucky girls are all now going off on a one night retreat with their new sisters. Yes, they are very big on this (the pics don't do it justice, you should've seen their houses). Each Sorrority rented out a huge bus to take them all to wherever they were going, so they can bond and give presents to each other and whatever else your imagination wants them to do...
On a completely separate note, tonight was also phase 2 of Cal Soccer tryouts for the top club team (not the college team) and I was cut tonight. Damn I played shit, and getting through first round is no consolation, and the fact that only a handful of guys got through to final phase doesn't mean shit either. Oh well I think I need to lift my game before I get back home.
Having said that the quality of football (soccer) here is actually slightly better than back home, though I'd say our Canning Social Prems would still be a good match.
Stay tuned for the first Cal Football (American) game day this Sat :)
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