The blistering heat, traffic jams full of people in packed cars trying to reach their apartments, and 1,200 girls attempting to squeeze into 10 buses headed for Milledge Avenue. It’s all part of opening the Fall semester in Athens.

Different people celebrate the start of their semester in different ways, but for the members of Greek Council and University Transit, Panhellenic Rush is usually the kickoff. During the rushing period, the potential pledges have to get from Tate Center, where they meet with the Greek Council, to Milledge Avenue, where they visit the different sorority houses.

Enoch Rodriguez, an operations supervisor for Campus Transit, coordinated the movements of the University buses on Friday that tranported the potential sorority pledges across town to Milledge Avenue.

“I love it,” he said. “It’s busy, everybody’s all dressed up, having a good time. It’s the beginning of the year–it’s just a fun time.”

Rodriguez and several other transit workers will work through the weekend to make sure everything goes off without a hitch.

“The drivers are the ones that make this happen,” Rodriguez said. “I can’t take credit for that.”

Rodriguez said Campus Transit uses only the most experienced drivers to deal with the confusion, the intense pre-semester traffic and the excitement generated on and around the buses.

“It’s really crazy,” he said. “You should head over to Milledge Avenue and see it.”

On Milledge Avenue, two seniors picked their house for the same reason many people choose their real estate: “location, location, location.”

Hunter Garrison of Cartersville and Andrew Smola of Tyrone started renting their prime spot on the street a few months ago. When asked if he was aware that Greek women would soon be marching by his front yard on a daily basis, Garrison replied, “Oh yeah.”

So there Smola and Garrison sat in the sun, in kiddie pools, as the scenery went by.

And as the endless flood of sorority hopefuls continued, Garrison seemed to enjoy the soaking.

“I mean, why would you pay to go to Panama City when you can just buy $10 kiddie pools and stay right here?”