My colleagues have touched on some of the more serious issues of the day. However, when I arrived at Queen’s, I had bigger questions: Why do people keep yelling “how do you feel?” What’s a “greasepole” and why do people want to climb it? And most importantly, why are there purple people?

For those of you who are confused, lucky you are. Guide you through perils of Queen’s University Frosh Week I will. Ways of the Frosh you will know. Laugh you shall. Yes. Hrmmmmmmmmm.

Also, you should listen to this in the background as you read.

So, without further ado …

The Frosh



They’re small. They’re high pitched. They travel in packs. No one has any idea what they’re ranting about with their One Direction and YOLO. And they’re young. Man are they ever young.

Put in perspective: most of the Frosh were born in 1995 1994. The year the last Canadian team won the Stanley Cup; the Lion King was in theatres, the Jays won the World Series, Brazil won the FIFA World Cup, SEGA released Sonic The Hedgehog 3 and Super Metroid was released for the SNES. Oh, and it was a good year for movies too: Speed, Forrest Gump, Pulp Fiction and The Shawshank Redemption all came out that year (thanks Seank11!). All classics.

Feeling old yet? (Ed note: This initially read 1995, but I was corrected on Reddit by topoftheclasstom and snaggletoothxx)

Queen’s runs 9 separate Orientation weeks from September 2nd to 8th. The Frosh will be everywhere and anywhere, and will dominate the next week on campus. Like Ewoks, they will be ubiquitous, and just when you think you’ve got away from them, they’ll jump out of a tree and attack your AT-AT walker.

How do you feel?

An innocuous question. However, the frosh will respond with the chant of “I feel SO good, OH I feel so good, OH!” It’s a chant, you’re gonna hear it a lot. It’s accompanied by copious pelvic thrusting. This is the only chant I know – there are others, and you’ll become intimately acquainted with them all.

The Greasepole

Step 1: Steal a football upright from UofT.

Step 2: Put it in a muddy field

Step 3: Cover it in grease

Step 4: Put a hat on it

Step 5: Have the engineering students form a giant human pyramid to get to it

Wait, WHAT?

The greasepole is a 30ft+ steel pole, coated in lanolin, with a tam nailed to the top. The frosh, under the observation of the other engineering students, wade into knee deep mud and questionable “muck” to climb to the top. After an hour, the 4th years go in, then 15 minutes from then, the second and finally, 15 minutes later, the third years enter. As a group, the engineers climb the greasepole to get the tam. It’s quite the thing to watch.

Walking side by side

Everywhere the Frosh walk, they walk side by side. In groups of 30-40, they take up most of the sidewalks in the downtown Kingston and Queen’s University area. Be prepared to have to walk through throngs of frosh to get anywhere.

Purple people



Of all the Frosh, the engineers are the most noticeable. Not only do they have the Greasepole (mentioned above), they also paint themselves purple and gel their hair up. They’re as terrifying as a herd of Wookies charging at you.

It’s impressive how their hair looks – I’ve seen some with fans and other things gelled into it. At the end of Frosh week, all male engineers will shave their heads (and some females too). So if you see a bald person in mid-September, they’re probably an engineer.

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And there you go. Queen’s frosh week in Star Wars GIFs. If you see something else you don’t understand, feel free to ask away!

Now, take us away Chewie! (works best if you click this link: http://instantchewbacca.com/

Big thanks to Starwarsgifs.tumblr.com for all the GIFs.