Although this trip takes place in summer of my Junior year, the trip started at the end of sophomore year.
When the school first started doing these trips, signing up for the trip you wanted was purely first-come-first-serve. It seems like there are always a few trips that everyone wants but no matter which trip you want, you want to make sure you get it. Over the years students began lining up earlier and earlier until they began sleeping out in the quad the night before. My freshman year I heard someone a few years ahead of me telling a sign-up story. They had all camped out in a designated area of the quad in groups. The morning of sign-ups, when the time hit, everyone took off sprinting to the sign up tables to get their group on the right trip. I'm pretty sure tripping and elbowing took place. This last year we were given groups ahead of time and then given a random sign-up order. Despite the fact that everyone had a secure spot in line (we were something like 10 out of 40!) everyone still camped out the night before. Tents filled the quad surrounding the registrar's office, and hardly anyone slept that night. It was absolutely freezing. I wore at least three shirts, a couple jackets, leggings, jeans, and am pretty sure I slept with my uggs on (plus sleeping bag and blanket). No one slept much though. Everyone stayed up trying to finish homework for the next day or running around the quad making noise. In the morning we were woken up (very kindly) by our student president. Everyone sleep-walked into line and we got our trip right away! We cleaned up and I stumbled into Art History late. That's the one day your allowed to be late though -- all the profs know what's going on. Thankfully it was also my Art History class that I was late for, Mark Terry being my professor as well as one of the profs going on my trip. :-)
