The week began with registration in ASB 9896 on Tuesday, followed by a short welcoming speech. The T-shirts and first week guides were only an hour or two late in getting to the registration room, so the First Week coordinator was only mildly stressed on the first day. The first year's then proceeded to their afternoon classes, and then to the AGM, where much to everyone's surprise, it was announced that the first years had to take an evaluation exam (unfortunately, they were told that it didn't matter, so most of them didn't worry about it). After the AGM, the first years, along with the rest of the faculty and staff, headed up to the AQ reflection pond for a barbecue.

Wednesday's events included the beginning of Gotcha!, and a campus wide scavenger hunt. The first years were broken into their various teams, handed squirt guns, targets, and the goals for the scavenger hunt, and then sent on their way.

Also held on Wednesday was a broomball game. The turnout was probably the best in history (we had over 40 people, unfortunately, there were only 6 first year's). The participants were broken into 2 teams: the people in 3rd year and up versus the people in 2nd year and below. Up until Chad and James switched sides, the upper year side was again proving that age and experience will win out every time.

Thursday was a quiet day (at least for the upper year students). The first years were busy writing their test, with our upper year mole (Rob Johnson) being tossed for cheating and causing a disturbance half way through the exam. A barbecue was held at Blue Mountain Park just after the exam, with 25 people braving the rain for one of Jeff's gourmet burgers.

Friday: the big day. The culmination of First Week was the annual Midnight Madness. The all night scavenger and treasure hunt was still there, as was the Trek of Madness car rally, Bard at Metrotown, as well as the Frozen Boat Races. Congrats to Team D, who actually found the iron ring (Kevin, that's two years in a row, you're making it too easy). All the teams put in an excellent performance at Bard, and they will all be nominated for the appropriate academy award(s). In the Frozen Boat Races, there was more than enough "brain freeze" to go around. The highlight of the event was Gord "Hoover" Morrison's record consumption of one of the coffee and watermelon slurpees.

There were two new events to Midnight Madness this year: the Lip-Sync/Air Guitar performance, and the 6-legged race. We were treated to a live performance from Team E, complete with guitar and drums. In the 6-legged race, Team B ran to an easy victory with good teamwork, and a catchy tune.

The highlight of the evening (morning) had to be the duct-taping of Brendon Wilson to one of the cement pillars in the Pit by Team E. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, his feet were off the ground, and we have pictures (lots). Brendon then got even by sweet-talking a certain judge's mother into letting Team E borrow a certain judge's drum set for the evening. It was sneaky and underhanded, and Team E got a big bonus for it from that certain judge, who then made a mental note to make sure it doesn't happen again.

The entertainer of the night award must go to Paul Helter. His 17 minute demolition of 3 McDonald's Arch Deluxes at 2:30 in the morning was a sight to behold. It should be mentioned that Paul did have a wee bit of scotch before beginning.. After completing this feat, Paul then rushed to participate in the Boat Races, but upon finding out the flavour of the slurpee's, he then decided to let Gord take his place.

The bribes this year were excellent. This was mainly due to a minor rule change. It went from "Judges may be bribed", to "Judges must be bribed". Team E's bribe of waffles at 6:30 in the morning had to be the most memorable. Alan Dyck was heard to say, "OK, that's it. Team E wins."

In the end, it was Team E that won, with Team D coming in a close second. Team A came in third, Team B came in fourth, and Team C had to be disbanded due to lack of members.

I would like to thank all the people who helped organize First Week. Without you, there wouldn't have been one. Thanks to all the group leaders, the first year's for participating, the people who flipped burgers at the barbecues, the people who set up and took down the barbecues, and finally to all the sponsors of First Week.

If you have any comments about how to improve First Week, I encourage you to email me at andrewst@sfu.ca. Hopefully we can make next year's First Week better than this year's.