Little City of Albany

Eta, University at Albany

For my visit to Albany I got to drive out from Boston, instead of my usual flying. After a nice Thanksgiving break, I picked up a rental car and drove straight across Massachusetts and into New York for my last chapter visit of 2014. Albany isn't too far from the Mass border and the route is basically one highway so I enjoyed the mini road trip!

It was a pretty quiet visit. I had meetings and caught up on a lot of work from before the holiday. All the women live downtown so I did not spend much time on campus. When I finally got to explore the Campus Center, I found it was a lot bigger than I expected. There is also a cool fountain outside the Campus Center, but it was turned off for the winter.

The last night I was there, the fire alarm in the apartment I was staying at was going off and couldn't be turned off. They ended up calling the fire department to take care of it and five men showed up in full gear. Since it didn't seem serious, the women were all snap chatting it. They finally got it figured out around 2AM but it was all pretty funny.

After a nice meeting with the director of Fraternity and Sorority Life, I hit the road for my three hour trip home. I was happy to have an easy drive on the empty road because it was a great time play my favorite music and belt it out. I also spent some time reflecting on the ending semester. I cannot believe how quickly this fall passed by! It feels like fall recruitment season just ended and now it's time to begin planning for those winter recruitment visits. There were so many great parts of this fall and I am so looking forward to what the spring semester has in store! But first, I'm ready for a nice break and spending the holidays with family and friends.

Good luck on finals, all, and happy winter break!


O Albany We Hope by We are Jeneric

Look At Miss Ohio

Rho, Ohio State University

I was excited to return to OSU and catch up with the executive board as their term comes to an end. Just like at IU, I had visited Ohio State for recruitment in January and now they have elected a new eboard- time really flies! I was also looking forward to seeing their new addition. You can't see it in the above photo, but there is a new piece on the side where they blew out the kitchen wall and expanded to make a new chapter room. The outside of it is just about done and it looks like there will be a nice patio on top of the chapter room that will be great in the warmer months.

Friday night was pretty low key in preparation for game day on Saturday. I went to dinner with a few Phis at Tom And Chee, a local chain that serves mainly grilled cheese. I ordered the mac n cheese grilled cheese and it was AHmazing! It sounded great in theory but I was not expecting it to be so good. Tom and Chee also makes a grilled cheese donut and they have food eating challenge. You have to eat 13 grilled cheese donuts in 10 minutes with only one glass of water. We saw two college guys doing it while we were there and neither one came close at all but it was pretty funny to watch.

After dinner we went over to the Alpha Phi house for a little fashion show. The girls putting it on were campus reps for a boutique and asked each sorority for one participant to model. AEPhi had the most attendance so Rho Chapter won $200 towards their philanthropy!

Afterwards we went back to the house for a sisterhood movie night. They set up the new projector in the formal living room and we all gathered on the couches. We watched Divergent, which I had never seen but have wanted to, so I was happy. It was really good and I highly recommend it if you like the Hunger Games.

Saturday was gameday and I was excited to attend my second ever Big 10 football game! I slept in while everyone get ready and went to block. This ended up being a blessing because the mooring was frigid with freezing rain, which made every sidewalk into a skating rink. But the time left the house for the noon game, it was sunny and above freezing. AEPhi had great seats this season and it ended up being a more exciting game than expected because Ohio State didn't destroy Indiana. Even though it got progressively colder, it was fun and we stayed for the whole game.

On Sunday we did officer transitions. I really enjoyed facilitating leadership development and goal setting for the new board. It went well and I am excited to see Rho Chapter continue to grow!


Look At Miss Ohio by Gillian Welch

Back Home Again In Indiana

Epsilon Epsilon, Indiana University

I was so excited to return to Indiana as their semester winds down. I visited for recruitment last winter, when this executive board was just starting out and now they have a new executive board elect. This year really flew by and it was so nice to come back and see their growth!

I arrived on campus in the middle of the big dance marathon on campus, IUDM. I got to go in to visit for a little while with some Phis and saw the chapter president, Sydney, perform with her dance group. IUDM was very similar to HuskyTHON at UConn and it was so cool to see another school's dance marathon!

During my visit Epsilon Epsilon held elections for their new executive and general boards. They had already slated each position so elections went so smoothly, which was great. Below are the newly elected women; I cannot wait to see what they can do for their chapter!

Every year the week before Thanksgiving, Epsilon Epsilon has a sit down Thanksgiving dinner. The kitchen staff and house director worked so hard to put together a great meal and beautifully set tables. Everyone was told to leave their phones outside of the dinning room and we all enjoyed a great meal together. After we ate, everyone went around to say what they were thankful for. It is such a nice tradition that I loved being a part of!

Wednesday evening was AEPhi's Legacy Night. IU used to have pre-rush at the end of the fall semester but now each chapter is allowed to host an event for their legacies to get the opportunity to meet them before recruitment starts. They had a sit down dinner for all the legacies and gave a short house tour. I had so much fun helping set up and seeing the event play out; it really got me excited for the upcoming recruitment season!

I spent a lot of time indoors at the chapter house because of the snow, ice, and frigid temperatures all week. But on my last day I ventured into campus to the Memorial Union for some meetings and had breakfast over near Kirkwood Ave. I also made sure to go down the path of Greek bricks near the Sample Gates. Since I had been to IU a number of times before becoming a TEC, I knew exactly where AEPhi's brick was; I always like to stop by when I visit campus!

I really enjoyed getting to know the sophomores and working with the juniors again. I had a great visit and hopefully I will return for recruitment again this winter!

Back Home Again In by Eddy Arnold

Meet Me in St. Louis

Psi, Washington University in St. Louis

I was so excited to visit Wash U and St. Louis for the first time! I always love visiting a new chapter and adding a new state to the list!

At Wash U all the sororities have a suite in a building on the main quad. It is basically a big living room with a little kitchenette and AEPhi's was so cute. Above is a photo of the builtin board outside their door. The campus is not too spread out and most of the main building are on the quad, including the student center. The place where I was staying was in one corner of campus where a lot of juniors live. I had a private room and bathroom that students and reserve for quests. It was so nice because it was set up just like a hotel room. A couple of times I almost forgot I was staying in a dorm!

My first night at Wash U some of the newly elected executive board took me to Ted Drewes, a local place famous for their frozen custard. I was so excited to try my first St. Louis place and, if you know me well, you know I almost never turn down ice cream. The frozen custard was amazing and they had so many great flavor combinations. Even though it was 32 degrees, I fully enjoyed the experience. 

The next evening I went to dinner with the current executive board at Ibby's, the restaurant located in the student center. Students can use their meal points to pay (just like Chuck & Augie's at UConn's student union) but it also had the feel and menu of an upscale restaurant, rather than a campus restaurant.

Thursday morning the vp-recruitment, Jamie, took me to her favorite brunch place in Clayton called Half And Half. It is a cute little place that is only open for breakfast and lunch. I ordered the veggie hash, which consisted of two eggs on top of potatoes and brussel sprouts.

That evening I got to meet up with Alison's friend Brittany. They were mentors together at Future's Quest two years ago and now Brittany is a second year grad student in higher education administration at Saint Louis University. It was so fun to meet her and hear all about her student affairs experience! She chose Barcelona for dinner and everything we had was amazing. I followed Brittany's lead and ordered the goat cheese and tomato sauce. It came with garlic bread to dip and it was seriously so good that I want to try to make it at home!

On Friday morning a couple women took me to Winslow's Home for breakfast. It is a cute little place that grows ingredients locally and serves breakfast, salads, sandwiches and a variety of bakery items. All the pies and cookies looked amazing and the egg breakfast I had was great.

That afternoon a few women took me downtown to the Gateway Arch. We walked around and took some pictures but there was no way I was going 630 feet in the air in that little tram. As we were leaving, we drove right by Busch Stadium, where the St. Louis Cardinals play. I hope next time I visit I get to explore downtown some more!

On the way back to University City, we stopped at Jilly's Cupcake Bar & Cafe. Jilly's is famous for their cupcakes (they won Cupcake Wars!) but they also have an ice cream bar and a lunch menu. The girls recommended almost every cupcake flavor but I finally chose the peanut butter cup. It had at least a whole Reese's cup on top and the chocolate cake was filled with a peanut butter cream. Even as my lunch, the cupcake was so big, but I enjoyed every bite!

That evening I went with some Phis for barbecue to Vernon's BBQ. My dad is a huge fan of barbecue so I have had my fare share and have tried it in plenty of places. While I am most used to eating Southern style, I have had Texas and Carolina barbecue in my travels. I had never had St. Louis barbecue (Kansas City style) before so I was excited to try it, including the different sweet sauces. The pulled pork and brisket were both so good and I loved the mac n cheese and smoked apples, too!

After dinner we went to an a cappella concert on campus that a sister was performing in. I always loved seeing the a cappella groups at UConn so I was excited to see some good song choices and enjoy the music.

I had such a great visit to WashU in St. Louis and I only hope I get to visit the school and the city again!

Meet Me In Saint Louis, Louis by Andrew B. Sterling and Kerry Mills

Maryland I'm Comin' Home

Alpha Mu, University of Maryland

College Park is such a cool place and UMD is a great campus. I was excited to visit the Alpha Mu chapter for a second time and was very lucky with the weather I got. I took a few long walks through campus and Fraternity Row to see all the foliage and enjoy the sun.

One place I was excited to try for the first time was Bagel Place. Yes, that's it's name. I had heard it was a great spot for bagels and breakfast all day and the prime location behind the sorority housing made it ideal. It was kind of strange ringing up coffee and bagels separately because you order food at one end and the coffee bar is across the restaurant on the other side.

A pizza place, called Blaze, also had just opened up right next to Bagel Place. I was so excited to find out that Blaze was a part of a national chain because I had loved the pizza I got at blaze in Irvine, CA over a year ago. The premise is a personal thin crust pizza where, for only $8, you can add all the toppings you want. Then they cook it in a huge brick oven. I have never made a bad pizza at Blaze so I was very excited to get it again, and for the first time on the east coast!

AEPhi, and many of the fraternity and sorority houses on Fraternity Row, lit up pink at night in support of breast cancer awareness month. This holds a special place with AEPhi because one of our national philanthropies is Sharsheret, and organization that helps Jewish women facing breast and ovarian cancer.







The week of my visit was Alpha Mu's Pink Week for Sharsheret. They held a small event each evening, which were aimed towards awareness for the organization and its cause. One night they all painted mini pumpkins and gourds pink.







Maryland by Vonda Shepard

In the Streets of Downtown Washington DC

Alpha Gamma, George Washington University

Although I have visited GW and Washington DC a couple of times before, I always feel like I don't know many places in the city. But what I love about it is that it is so easy to get everywhere! I walked so much during my visit, but getting an Uber or hopping on the Metro is so simple too.

One of my first stops was Baked and Wired, a wonderful cafe and cupcake bakery in Georgetown. Kind of on a whim, I tried the dirty chai cupcake. I am not a big fan of chai tea or chai lattes but this cupcake was amazing. It was vanilla cake with the chai spices and espresso frosting; literally perfect! The iced americano also made a great pairing with the cupcake!

Friday was Founders' Day so Alpha Gamma planned a Pink Shabbat event at the town house. We had cookies and lots of challah and it was a great little event!

 

Saturday was a gorgeous day so I look advantage of the weather by heading out for a good long walk around the monuments. I had been a couple times before but it is always fun to revisit them and make that trip all the way down and around the mall.

I also got to visit with the American and GW chapter advisors over brunch at Circa and I treated myself to dinner up in Dupont Circle. It was so much fun to be downtown all weekend and to experience such a different university culture from my own undergraduate experience!


Walk in Washington by Scapegoat

Living Out the American Dream

Epsilon Theta, American University

I was excited to visit American University, after visiting them last October too. The women I stayed with were wonderful hostesses and I had so much fun with them!

We focused a lot on recruitment planning throughout my visit. It's crazy that it's already time for recruitment prep in chapters with deferred recruitment! It also gave me quite a few opportunities to be greeky, like attending a Panhellenic recruitment meeting and discussing no-frills recruitment with the fraternity and sorority life advisor.

Spiced apple cider at Le Pain Quotidien

As usual, I got in a few good meals during my visit! I made a trip to Le Pain Quotidien, or LPQ, one morning for breakfast. LPQ is a DC area upscale, French-inspired cafe. There is a bakery as well as a sit-down menu for anytime of day. I had a very nice french toast and spiced apple cider.

During my visit I also got coffee with Monisha, a friend from UConn, who now attends law school at American! It was so nice to see someone from school and to have a little time to enjoy catching up with her.

My last meal at American was one of my favorites! A few of the Phis brought me to a place called Wagshal's, which is right near campus and their apartments. They told me it was a salad place (which I ended up getting) but it had so much more than that. It was basically a deli and market wrapped into one. There were soups, salads, a hot bar, cold sides, pastries, breads, and fresh cut flowers. It was quite the place and I would love to go back and try more things because it all looked so good!

American Life by Madonna

Middle of the Lake Ontario

Phi Nu, Oswego State

Even though my visit to Oswego was very short, it was quite exciting! I had lots of meetings packed into such a short time, so I was very busy. But I also got the unique opportunity to see Al Roker film the Today Show on campus!

Al Roker is an alumni of SUNY Oswego and he comes back every year to film the show on campus. And it just so happened that he was there during my visit! Oswego has a large broadcasting program so they were hosting a few other famous alumnus of the program for a media summit that week as well. Thursday morning we got up super early to go see Al Roker do the weather report and then segments of the 7Am show. It was very exciting to attend with the Phis!

Hasn't Hit Me Yet by Blue Rodeo

Dear Old Syracuse

Iota, Syracuse University

I was very excited to visit Syracuse, even though they are basketball rivals with UConn. Funny enough, if I hadn't gone to UConn, I would have ended up at Syracuse since it was my second choice. I hadn't visited campus since I was in high school so I was really looking forward to returning.

I got there on Sunday, at the end of homecoming weekend. The women warned me that tons of AEPhi alumnae had been knocking on the door all weekend asking to tour the house. But it wasn't until around 9 o'clock that night that I saw if for myself. I was hanging out in the front room with a group of sisters that were watching the Giants game, when a woman and her family came to the door wanting to see the house. The woman was an AEPhi alumna that graduated from Syracuse in 1989. With her was her ZBT husband (who she met while they were undergrads at Syracuse) and two sons, one of which was looking at colleges. They were in town for the high school visiting day happening on Monday and they came in to meet us and see the house. They told us all sorts of stories from when they were at Syracuse, including about their ex's and how they started dating. The family must have spent at least an hour at the house and we all thoroughly enjoyed hearing their old stories.

This week Syracuse AEPhi was holding their Pink Week for Sharsheret and breast cancer awareness. On Monday they held a jewelry sale at the Schine Student Center. Jewelerry is company started by an AEPhi Syracuse 2014 grad. She has a website (jewelerry.com) where she sells lots of items and she has partnered with quite a few AEPhi chapters to do fundraisers and online flash sales. She runs the business from her home and the event and her company are so successful! It was a great fundraiser and she makes such fun jewelry!

Iota Chapter is also holding an Instagram fundraiser all week. Hashtag #SUAEPhiGoesPink and they will donate $1 to Sharsheret per photo!

During my visit, Syracuse had extremely unseasonably beautiful weather. Students are sitting out in the quad in the picture below, taken when it was 65 degrees out. And it was the weirdest thing when it got up to 82 the next day. It was so bizarre for upstate New York in October and I found myself wishing I had packed shorts in my suitcase.

I had heard that the Syracuse chapter house had a great chef and I was not disappointed at all! Mary has been the chef at Iota Chapter for over 10 years and she definitely runs the house. There were so many options for each meal, and always lots of leftovers in the fridge. Mary even made her famous dirt cups during my visit and they were so great!

After a great visit with Syracuse, this evening I'm heading up to Oswego for my last stop on my upstate NY trip!


Dear Old Syracuse from the 1938 musical The Boys From Syracuse

Keep Warm from the Binghamton Cold

Phi Mu, Binghamton University

I had a quick trip to Binghamton over the weekend, but luckily, I had already met most of the chapter during recruitment last February, so it was nice to catch up with each of the officers and see lots of familiar faces!

Friday I spent the day at the (still pretty new) student union. I had meetings all day and really enjoyed being on campus. My favorite part about spending the day at a student union is always the people watching. I can learn so much about the campus culture and student body just by observing for a little while.

Something I already knew about Binghamton is that there is a substantial Jewish population. So it did not surprise me when the Chabad rabbi began walking around the union asking Jewish students to do a mitzvah by waving the lulav and etrog for the holiday of Sukkot. This is the Jewish holiday that both commemorates the 40 years the Jews wandered the desert and celebrates the harvest season.

Saturday I went apple picking with the chapter at a local orchard. The orchard was set up on a hill so we had a gorgeous view of the surrounding area and all the tress in the distance were changing colors. It was such a beautiful fall day and everyone took advantage of the great photo ops!

After apple picking, we headed to the country store/cafe on the orchard property. They make their our donuts, which we could see being made right in front of us. The apple cider donuts were amazing! I am not the biggest donut fan but I always try to get one when I go apple picking. The flavor is just perfect for fall but this was honestly the best cider donut I have ever had!

Making fresh donuts before our eyes!

Unfortunately I had to leave before bagels in the sukkah on Sunday, but I had such a great visit with the Binghamton ladies! Now I'm off to Syracuse for my next Upstate NY visit!

The Hat by Ingrid Michaelson

Everybody Knows Ithaca is Gorgeous

Kappa, Cornell University

Cornell University is a campus so rich in history that I was very excited to explore the area! Though it is the youngest of the Ivy League schools, Cornell has been a prestigious institution of higher education for many years and is celebrating it's 150th birthday this year. AEPhi at Cornell is the chapter of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who is the second female Supreme Court Justice, and the first Jewish female justice. I am proud to call her a sister and was excited to see that the Kappa Chapter received mail from her office!

I also have a little family history at Cornell. My mother's older cousin attended Cornell in the early 50s and he used to always talk about it when I was little. As an undergraduate, he joined Phi Kappa Psi and the Cornell Men's Glee Club. I was excited to finally visit Ithaca after hearing about it for so long. Below is his fraternity's chapter house!

Alpha Chapter house of Sigma Delta Tau (left) and Delta Chi (right)

Fraternities at Cornell are nearly as old as the university itself. In 1868, three years after the university was founded, three fraternities established chapters on campus. For about the next 50 years, many fraternities and sororities came to Cornell. A majority of the fraternities on campus originally founded their Cornell chapters in the late 1800s and by 1920, most of the current Panhellenic sororities had chartered at Cornell as well. Many of the organizations on campus are single-letter chapters of their National organization because of how old Greek life is on campus. Another great piece of the fraternity and sorority history there is that three National organizations were founded at Cornell University. Campus is home to the Alpha chapter of Delta Chi (1890), Alpha Phi Alpha (1906), and Sigma Delta Tau (1917). Today there are over 50 fraternity and sororities at Cornell, over 40 of which are housed on or around campus, and a third of undergraduates are affiliated.

Because the ladies were so busy being studious and taking lots of exams, I had plenty of free time to explore the campus area. Being greeky, I started off with a tour through the fraternity and sorority neighborhoods on North Campus and West Campus. So many chapters have great, big, beautiful houses.

On my way around I had to cross a number of different bridges, which led over the various gorges that cut through the area. To the left is a picture I took of Ithaca Falls from one of the bridges I walked. Below is the view from the other side of that same bridge. "Ithaca is gorges" is probably the most cliche thing ever said about the city but it is so true. Every view was amazing and prettier than the last.

It was quite the workout to walk around campus so much because of how hilly it was. But I made it to the far, opposite end to check out Cornell Orchards.

Early October weather is the perfect fall weather. Despite the little bit of rain, it was so beautiful all week. It was chilly enough to wear my favorite sweaters, but bright and sunny with beautiful leaves everywhere. It is my favorite part of fall and wish it would last forever!

I also made it over to the Cornell Dairy Bar, which is located in one of the food science buildings way over on the east side of campus. The set up was a little different than what I was expecting (based on the UConn Dairy Bar) but they had great espresso chip ice cream! And because it was 65 degrees, which is practically shorts weather in October, I decided to eat my ice cream outside. That's how you know I'm really from the Northeast. 

By far, my favorite spot and the place I spent most of my time was Collegetown Bagel. Collegetown is a neighborhood that borders the southern edge of Cornell, where lots of students rent houses and apartments. There are also lots of restaurants and little places to shop. Collegetown Bagel, or CTB, is right on the very edge of campus, as you can see from my picture below. I loved looking out at the cute seating area and being able to see the Cornell Law buildings in the distance. The combination of great food, good people watching and a nice spot to get work done made CTB so amazing.

View from Collegetown Bagel

Every morning I made my way to CTB for breakfast or brunch. I'm embarrassed to say that means I went four day in a row, but the menu is just so large and everything looked amazing. Talia had given me suggestions for what to order but when I stood in front of the menu I was so overwhelmed by the choices. Even on the fourth day, I had to take a few minutes to look at everything on the wall and decide what to try.

Each morning I grabbed a bagel and coffee and I'd find a spot to sit doing work for hours. I loved the iced coffee but I made sure to try a different bagel each day. Of the things I tried, all four were amazing, but my two favorites are shown below. The top one is the Nutella and bananas, which I chose to put on an apple cinnamon bagel. The one below is tuna salad with lettuce and tomato on their famous rosemary and salt bagel. Both were incredible, as were the lox and the pumpkin bagel I also tried.

I am so happy I finally got to experience Cornell University! I had such a great time eating and exploring! Now I'm off on the rest of my Upstate tour!


Our Town by Dynamic Inkline

It's the Street I Live On, Massachusetts Avenue

Beta Epsilon, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

My visit to MIT was my first to any of the Boston area chapters so I was pretty excited to see it from the student perspective. I live about a twenty minute drive from MIT and I never really knew anything about that part of Cambridge so I definitely had a good time exploring my backyard!

It was pretty gray and rainy all week, so I ended up not doing too much walking around. MIT is not the prettiest campus either, in terms of old gray buildings, but the school was founded in 1861 and is full of engineers, so maybe it doesn't bother them. Campus is definitely in a cool party of town, though. Kendal Square is right on east end of campus, which is filled with cool restaurants, has a branch of the Coop, and is right on the T (Boston's subway system) red line. The Charles River, which splits Cambridge from Boston, lines the south side of campus. Many of the dorms face the river and have a great view of Boston. And Massachusetts Avenue, or Mass Ave, runs right though the middle of campus. The building shown above is on Mass Ave and the picture below is from the bridge over the Charles that Mass Ave runs on. I found it interesting that this is called the Harvard Bridge, since it is literally right next to MIT. But if you were to follow Mass Ave through MIT and deeper into Cambridge, it would only take about ten minutes to get into Harvard Square.

View of Boston over the Charles River from Cambridge at Harvard Bridge

I tried a couple good places in the area, the first being the Miracle of Science Bar & Grill. Courtney, one of Beta Epsilon's advisors, and I went for dinner on my first night. It is right on Mass Ave only a couple blocks up from campus. It was definitely sciencey because the menu was posted on the wall in a periodic table. No joke, each square had the initials of the element and then listed a food item under it. They didn't even have a menu for the table and when we asked, the waitress seemed to think we were crazy for wanting to read it in front of us. In any case, the food was good and it was an interesting experience.

The other place I went was the Flour Bakery & Cafe. Alison had been when she visited MIT earlier in the semester so I decided to go try out the breakfast sandwich too. The cafe was really cool, and also right on Mass Ave close to campus. They had so many sandwiches and baked goods that looked great. The breakfast sandwich had a big chunk of scrambled egg with bacon, tomato, arugula and dejonaise (dijon mayonnaise), which was delicious! Definitely a must-try if you are ever in the area.

Now I'm looking forward to my couple days off for Yom Kippur, then I'll be headed to upstate New York for two weeks!

Massachusetts Avenue by Amanda Palmer & The Grand Theft Orchestra

San Luis Obispo Is Where We Want To Be

Beta Lambda, California Polytechnic State University

My week at Cal Poly was everything I had hoped it would be! I visited them quickly last winter but I didn't get the chance to explore SLO or even really meet all of the chapter. So I was very excited to visit for work week and spend so much time getting to know everyone!

First off, the week was beautiful. It was 80 and breezy almost everyday and the mountainous scenery surrounding SLO is amazing. Someone might have thought I'd never seen mountains, the way I admired them each day.

This didn't really fit in anywhere else, so I just have to briefly comment on the word I heard a million and one times during my visit: "basic." I literally heard an explanation or debate over the definition at least once per day. I don't know that I had ever heard someone explain it, so if I wasn't sure what qualified someone as "basic" before my visit, I sure know now. It was actually hilarious to hear the women talk about who was basic and why (i.e. wearing Lulu and drinking lattes).

Cal Poly's work week started off strong and there was "sorority school," as they call it, everyday of the week. One morning we started the day off by visiting a local elementary school, which Beta Lambda has worked with before. They brought a ton of school supplies to donate and then we all played with the kids during their morning recess!

Beta Lambda was so happy to spend the morning at Pacheco Elementary!

Another fun part of work week was getting to spend some much time bonding. One day after workshops were done we went on sister dates and I got fro-yo with a couple phis. Then at the end of the day on Friday, I led the group activity shown below. The chapter had to fit onto one sheet and, while still standing on it, flip it over. Everyone worked really well together, and I think they had fun in-between the frustration of the activity.

  

  

Beta Lambda got close during this fun teaming building activity!

It wouldn't be a complete visit without trying some great local places and lucky for me, SLO had no shortage of those! I had so many great meals because almost all my meetings were set up to take me to the great places around the area. Enjoy the mouth-watering photos below!

Acai bowl and fresh orange juice from Sally Loo's Wholesome Cafe

Vanilla iced coffee and lox bagel sandwich at Kreuzberg Coffee Company

San Luis Obispo Donut Company

Chocolate glazed, Maple glazed, Peanut butter - The maple is incredible!!

Strawberry and Nutella crepe at Le Ciel

Every Thursday night in SLO, the main road downtown turns into Farmers Market. It is a fun tradition for the town and tons of Cal Poly student attend, especially first years during Welcome Week. It was unlike any farmers market I had ever seen. A lot of the booths were selling fresh produce, but there was also carnival food, full meals, live performances and Cal Poly clubs and local shops promoting themselves. Beta even had a Pie-A-Brother booth. The Panhellenic community took full advantage of this event. Every sorority was out in their matching pre-recruitment tanks, handing out "Go Greek" hair ties and meeting potential new members.

Higuera Street gets packed every Thursday night for Farmer's Market

On Friday night I attended Shabbat dinner with most of the chapter. There is no Hillel house so they use a local synagog. I went early with Dylan to help set up and we all thought there was way too much food. We ended up being wrong about that because way more students showed up than they had ever had! Over 100 students came, which is huge for Cal Poly. A ton of them were also first years so the AEPhis and AEPis were all on their recruitment A-game. I met a lot of new people and really enjoyed spending time at Hillel for the evening!

On Saturday we did tons of crafting. There was so much to be done: bid day posters, door decs, nautical bid day decorations, tissues paper flowers, the new wooden letters... the list goes one. Fortunately I like to craft and am pretty good at it, so my job for most of the day was free handing sea creature shapes, cutting them out, and outlining them is glitter glue. I am obsessed with the sea horse! The posters are going to make such cute bid day signs for their new members!

   

      

Crafting for a nautical bid day!

Sunday was finally the WOW Showcase. We set up the gorgeous new letters and easy-up tent in the morning and Beta Lambda was ready meet some PNMs! They all looked so cute in the summery orange tanks!

Unfortunately I had to head to the airport during the fair. I was glad so many women were there to say goodbye to but I was sad to go. I honestly would have stayed if I wasn't going home to my mom and my own bed!

I am so proud of all the Beta Lambda ladies! They are AEPhi's newest chartered chapter but I don't think people would know after seeing them operate. They have made such strides and I am so excited for Cal Poly's first recruitment as an installed chapter!

San Luis Obispo by Coyote