<p>My freshman started today. I couldn’t go. Stories from the front for the curious please.</p>
<p>There’s some video on this link:</p>
<p>[Wildcat</a> Welcome 2010 : Northwestern University Newscenter](<a href=“http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/archives/special/moveinday10.html?utm_campaign=sept10&utm_medium=email&utm_source=enews]Wildcat”>http://www.northwestern.edu/newscenter/archives/special/moveinday10.html?utm_campaign=sept10&utm_medium=email&utm_source=enews)</p>
<p>we stood around in a field for 3 hours in the scorching sun…it got boring fast</p>
<p>The band split into two parts-half on the north and half on the south side of campus. They led the march on each side of campus. We were on the north side and watched the band play a long time while we waited to march through the arch. My daughter was in the band, so that part of the wait seemed great to us. It was pretty amazing to see so many students and parents stretched along the sidewalk marching to the arch. Lots of purple, enthusiastic music, and the feeling that your student was where he or she belonged were the impressions that I had.</p>
<p>It was quite a mass of people - but everyone stayed calm. I wasn’t sure what was going on during a long wait, couldn’t see much. Went by the road construction on south side of campus, marched thru arch. More interesting is the fact they have a freshman group photo up on the website - that’s kind of fun.</p>
<p>First, we (north campus residents) gathered in this field (Ford lawn) and socialized (stood around awkwardly) for a very long. Then the marching band came and played some songs (made it slightly less awkward). Then, we walked to the Arch. There was a traffic jam right in front of it. The actual passing through the Arch was very anticlimactic. Immediately after we had passed through the arch, people started giving us stuff like flyers for clubs, purple arm bands, and a purple cup. Then, we sat in the field in front of the library for a very long time, and it wasn’t as awkward as before, at least for me. Then, we listened to Schapiro and some other people speak. Then, we took a picture. Yeah, I just started over half of the sentences I just wrote with “Then”.
Overall it was okay but not the best welcoming ceremony.</p>
<p>About as interesting as watching purple paint dry…</p>