Best and Worst: Welcome Week 2013

Welcome Week 2013 was so incredible. There were constant activities and events. I tried to go to as many as I possibly could, but I couldn’t make it to all of them. Here’s a little review of the best and worst activities (that I attended).

I absolutely loved this part of Welcome Week. I really didn’t expect a party at the library to be very fun, I mean who would? But there was free cotton candy, popcorn, pizza, and drinks. There was a DJ and a lot of different games going on. My favorite was “speed friending.” People sat on couches and switched just like speed dating, but you get to meet all new people. It was really funny to watch and looked like an awesome time.

This event at the Showlater Fountain was very interesting. There were various booths set up to educate the students about healthy choices and how to handle drugs, sex, and alcohol. When you went to four booths you got free cotton candy, when you went to six booths you could enter to win a  $100 T.I.S. College Bookstore gift certificate, and after 10 booths you could enter to win an iPad mini.

Besides all of that, many booths gave out free t-shirts, fans, drinks, candy, and more, all while blasting some great rock ‘n’ roll.

This was my favorite Welcome Week event. I walked into Wal-Mart and was greeted with extremely loud music and a megaphone siren announcing a free t-shirt giveaway as t-shirts were being thrown from a platform. As I walked around, I saw a mechanical bull, twister, and free Monster drink tastes and giveaways.

I picked up some more food for my dorm and a few things I forgot to bring from home, and I had such a blast walking around and seeing the bouncy houses outside. It was jam packed and so crazy. I would definitely suggest that people attend this event next year.

The first band, the Main Squeeze, was really fun and a very talented group from Bloomington. I really liked their jazzy music and it was good to dance to. Now I don’t want to offend anyone, but Best Coast was not my cup of tea. The songs sounded too similar and in my opinion, droned on a bit. However, I did appreciate the lead singer’s sassiness. She was very funny and entertaining. Mord Fustang definitely made this event. I do not listen to electronic music often, actually never, but the lights were awesome and the music was so fun to dance to.

I would recommend this event to everyone next year. Even if you don’t know the bands, the concert is still a fun thing to do with friends.

Worst: The Freshman Induction Ceremony

I didn’t enjoy the Induction Ceremony. It was nice to attend an event with my family, but it was pretty boring. I didn’t feel any different afterward, and after this event you are supposed to feel like a part of IU. My feeling of belonging came much later in the week after I had been here for a while.

On the bright side, I really liked the student speaker at the ceremony. He said a lot of true things about taking every opportunity and enjoying each part of college, even classes.

I pretty much liked every event I attended at Welcome Week. IU did such a great job putting it all together and I’m sure that the majority of the events I didn’t go to were a blast as well. Welcome Week events are a great way to get acclimated with the school and freshman, especially, should go to as many as they can. 

Check out these articles about Welcome Week: 

• Freshman: Start College Off Right by Trying Something New! 
• The 411 on Welcome Week IU