Prosh Week: (An abstract from Farrago, Unimelb's union mag.)

Every year, in the early days of semester two, dozens of students abandon classes, form teams, don silly costumes and take part in all manner of stupidity. They compete, in theory, for the honour of being crowned winners of Prosh Week, but most just do it for fun.
...
About a dozen teams sign up, ranging from handfuls of friends to huge teams of more than fifty people. The six Prosh judges have spent the past year coming up with a full week of events and challenges for the teams, each of which has its own costume theme, colour and song. Through the week their challenges might include the traditional billy cart race around uni, a 24-hour road trip across Victoria, the funniest or most creative lecture stunt, a boat race tournament or a huge and disruptive procession through the city, to name a few.
...
The only offence meant to be caused by Prosh Week is to the staid and sterile place that the University is becoming. Through their frivolous behaviour, the students who get involved in Prosh Week demonstrate in their own way that university is about much more than lectures and assignments and study. Prosh Week is a time when all students can take the oppurtunity to celebrate friendships and share experiences. This is ultimately the point of Prosh Week-- the costumes, the silliness, the beer, the nudity and all the rest of it is to that end.

A group of approximately 30 students, inclusive of both guys and girls, disrupted the Chemistry lecture I attended at Copland theatre this morning. They were butt naked. I'm serious. You didn't read wrg. I repeat. BUTT NAKED. Both GUYS AND GIRLS. They ran in from the right back door of the theatre, down to the front, across the lecturer, up the left aisle and out through the back door on the other side. I, unfortunately, happened to be seated on the last few rows along the left aisle. You guessed it, I've got the "best seat in the house". What a great start for my day. I was stunned beyond words.

Outrage of modesty? What modesty??

Chem lect was followed by Bio lect in the same theatre. In the middle of the lecture, a piercing scream was heard from just outside the theatre. Then, a girl in a green tattered dress came bursting through the theatre door and rushed to the front of the theatre. For some reason, she had portable speakers with her and with that she blasted music out loud from the front. Once the music started, a group of zombies (that's what I inferred from tt grp's bloody costumes and jerky movements. Oh and all that Rarr-ing) came in through that same door, clawing towards that girl who screamed. Once they got her (and smeared some "blood" on her), she too became zombie-ish and guess what? They did a dance. If you think that was it, you can't be anymore wrg. In the midst of their zombie dance, two guerrilla fighters with toy rifles in their hands burst in through the back door, shouted "something something You motherf*****s!", flung themselves at the zombies and started wrestling. Of course, the guerrilla fighters got smeared with blood soon after and they too became zombies. Zombies left and it was back to lecture.

Well apparently the lecturers take things quite lightly. Or should I say they actually enjoy such public demonstrations during Prosh Week every year? According to my Bio lecturer who had also witnessed the Nude Parade last year (hers was worse cos the nudes surrounded her while singing raunchy songs), "it was a beautiful example of genetic variation."

Shocking.

Am I kidding? I wish I am.
To prove my point, here's the front page of this edition's Farrago...:


...and here's the back cover:

This, my friends, is the true meaning of being "butt naked".

No, I don't think they believe in censorship over here.

(Sidetrack: Talking about censorship, a group of students who have issues with the Melbourne Model have decided to show the world, quite literally, how unhappy they are with the new system by coming up with a musical titled "Melbourne Model: The Musical". The school's not doing anything abt it and the performance is well underway. Another culture shock.)

THAT memory from this morning is gonna stick around in my head for quite some time, I believe. WTF. Something's really wrg with these people's state of mind. You really need NUDITY to SHOW what university's really about?! Tsah! I don't know if I shld laugh or cry at the absurdity of it all.

Then again, I'm in Oz. What's so impossible?

10:54 pm