I'm back to livin Floridays

Beta Zeta, University of Central Florida

I was so excited to visit UCF again because they were my very first visit back in August! I was so happy to walk into Chabad for dinner and see so many friendly faces ready to hug me! I had so much fun catching up with the Beta Zeta ladies and seeing what great things they have done since the beginning of the year!

                    

During my visit was their Sping semester philanthropy, Bowlanthropy. It was their 9th annual event and it was so fun to see everyone together and see the excitiment of the chapter. There was a great turn out from all the other sororities and fraternities and Beta Zeta announced the winner of their Phi Guy competition. 

The last night I was there was their last sisterhood event before spring break so we all went to Boing, a trampoline place right near campus. It was the first time I had ever been to a place like this so I was excited to finally experience it. It was so tiring so I could only jump for a few minutes at a time but then I got a second wind and a third wind. It was such a good workout too! The president, Sydney, and I jumped a lot and tried really hard to get a few good pictures. 

I felt like a princess while I was there because they took me to all their favorite places, and Sydney even made me breakfast one day. One of the places I liked was kind of strange but really cool. It was a sushi place that makes a Japanese version of a burrito bowl. You start with rice, choose which kind of raw fish you want, toppings, like avocado and cucumber, and sauces, like spicy mustard. I also went to a good fish taco place, called Jimmy Hulas and the best bagel and coffee place, Brooklyn Water Bagel. I was sad to leave UCF and the Florida weather but I am so happy I got to work with them again!

Floridays by Jimmy Buffett

Back at home in sunny San Diego

Epsilon Nu, San Diego State University

I had a fun week being back in San Diego! It was a great escape from the east coast weather and I really enjoyed seeing cool new places and eating some great food!

In San Diego, Taco Tuesday is a city-wide event where all the Mexican bars and restaurants have deals on tacos and margaritas. I went to Fred's, which is known for their unique tacos, with a few AEPhi seniors. It is in Old Town, a historical district of San Diego. I got a buffalo chicken taco and a Texas barbecue taco. Both were really good and I was happy to try something specific to this restaurant.

I rode the trolley while I was at SDSU because they have a stop right on campus next to the student union and it goes to all the shopping centers in Mission Valley. The trolley is raised above street level at some points and has a really great view of the small mountains throughout this area of San Diego. The cars seemed pretty new and were very clean and I could actually understand what the conductor said over the PA system. The only thing that confused me was that it seemed easy to ride the trolley without paying because of the lack of regulation or ticket machines. But I thought it was really cool that students can take the trolley for $2.50 right from campus, down three stops to the football stadium (especially since I used to take make the 40 minute drive from UConn to the stadium). Just a few stops further are the different chopping centers. Even though I have been to a few Southern California malls this year, the outdoor style still amazes me.

Wednesday, February 12th was Sharsheret Pink Day, so we wore pink all day to show support for one of our national philanthropies. Sharsheret, which means chain in Hebrew, is an organization that links Jewish women with breast and ovarian cancer into support groups.

Wednesday I also got to make a visit to University of California San Diego (UCSD) to do some work with our chapter there. I really enjoyed putting on a program for the Beta Eta Chapter and getting to know their executive board. I'm glad I got to visit both San Diego chapters while I was in town, even though it was short at UCSD!

On Friday night, I got dressed up for a GALentine's dinner with Rebecca, the Epsilon Nu president, and her roommates. We went to a Greek place they like in the Pacific Beach area call Cafe Athena. It was such good food; I had a sampler of different popular menu items and a pear crepe a la mode for dessert. Even the car ride home was fun because we sang 90s songs the whole way back. Literally all the songs were ones I used to sing on e-kara karaoke with my sister when we younger. I used to love singing e-kara, which explains why I still remember every word to Aaron's Party.

The weather was so gorgeous and just got better as the week went on. By the last day of my visit, it got up into the high 70s so we decided to go to the beach. Rebecca and her roommate Hannah took me to Coronado Beach on Coronado Island, which is actually a little peninsula across the bay from downtown San Diego. It is a gorgeous place, full of palm trees, million dollar homes, pretty hotels and little shops. They equated it to Malibu, but for the east coasters I would have to go with the Hamptons. To get to Coronado you have to drive over a bridge, which is pretty high up and has a fabulous view of the island and of downtown. The beach itself was great too. The sand is glittery and actually looks like someone dumped gold glitter into it. I really enjoyed relaxing for a bit but I also could not get over that going to the beach in February was not that strange for everyone else.

View of downtown from the bridge going over the San Diego Bay

After the beach, we were all pretty hungry and decided to go to Slaters 50/50, a burger place down by the Naval base. Hannah had been there before and they have a substantial gluten free menu (for Rebecca) so it was the perfect choice. Their signature burger patty is 50% bacon and 50% ground beef, hence the 50/50 in the name. I decided I wanted to try that even before I saw the menu but once I did see it, I realized they had bacon in a lot of their dishes. I couldn't resist trying the fried bacon mac n cheese balls, since I love mac n cheese and was told they are good. I was definitely not disappointed at all. Then after the huge burgers, Hannah and I shared the chocolate brownie a la mode topped with bacon bits. I have to admit that it was pretty weird, but I did enjoy the brownie and ice cream. This place also had over 100 beers and ciders on tap, so over all it is a cool place and I recommend it if you're ever in San Diego.

From left to right: bacon mac n cheese balls with hot sauce ranch dipping sauce; build my own burger with signature 50/50 patty; brownie a la mode, topped with bacon bits

One last random thing about Rebecca and her roommates is that they really like Disney movies. They have a huge bin of Disney movies on VHS and during my visit we watched Spirit, Mary Poppins and The Lion King (I conquered my childhood fear on that last one).

Thanks for reading!

Christmas Eve in San Diego by Neal Svalstad

New love, New York

Phi Mu, Binghamton University

My visit to Binghamton was all about recruitment! I arrived on the second day of formal recruitment and left the day after bid day. I spent most of my visit in the new student union for my meetings and recruitment rounds. The building is brand new this semester and I loved the market place because it has Starbucks and Red Mango.

I stayed in the junior house, which is unlike anything I've ever seen. The entire junior class lives in this house together and it is three floors of opened up apartments. It almost reminds me of a boarding house because of the set up but I think it's really cool that they all get to live together.

                              

The picture above is of me and Gladys, the president, at preference. They did such a nice ceremony and I loved some of the old AEPhi songs they use.

This is the Phi Mu Chapter with their new members on bid day. Panhellenic held a pizza party and after bid reveal for the entire community and afterwards AEPhi had an ice cream party. Their bid day tanks were really cool too. Even though it was a quick visit, I had a lot of fun and really liked all the women!

New York by Ed Sheeran

In these San Luis Obispo nights

Cal Poly Colony, California Polytechnic State University

Despite my rough start (getting delayed in Boston during a snow storm; missing the last flight to SLO and staying the night in Phoenix) I had a great visit at Cal Poly! The weather was a little unfriendly for a couple days but I got at least one day of gorgeous weather. Some of my favorite parts of the visit were dinner with the executive board, their pot-luck, Shabbat at Chabad and Doc Bernstein's Ice Cream Lab. I really enjoyed just spending time with them all!

Arriving in the rainy weather

Cal Poly mascot

pretty view from the University Union

"Snow Cone" cupcakes that my group made for the pot luck

I miss the ladies of Cal Poly already and hope I get to go back at some point to catch up and to explore SLO a little more!

San Luis Obispo by Scissor Sisters

Hoo-rah for AEPhi!

4-H Youth Conference Center, Chevy Chase, MD

I was so excited leading up to President's Academy because it meant I got to see the other TECs, Cheyenne and Talia, and lots of volunteers and new collegian presidents. After arriving from San Diego on a red eye extremely tired, I took a nap and drank a lot of coffee to prepare. Luckily the energy of the all my sisters kept me going all weekend. I loved getting to catch up with some of the presidents I already knew and also connecting with some new women that I may visit over the rest of the semester. The TEC room was also fun and it was so nice to see all the volunteers and past TECs that were in attendance. Here are some highlights:

 Running registration with my TEC loves

 So happy to see fellow Alpha Xi chapter sister and past TEC, Ally

Obsessed with these ladies

TECs, past and present

President's Academy is a fabulous program sponsored by the AEPhi Foundation and and it was such an awesome learning experience, even for me and the other alumnae! If you ever get the chance to attend, or another organization's equivalent, I definitely recommend it!

Hoo-rah - One of my favorite AEPhi recruitment cheers

San Diego sounds like fun

Epsilon Nu, San Diego State University

I got a little behind in my blog posts so expect a few more today. Here are the highlights of my trip to SDSU last week!

I was very excited to visit San Diego because of the weather (which was great all week)! There are palm trees everywhere and people just seem really relaxed. This is still pretty foreign to my Northeast born and bred self but I have to say that I loved it! I was also so thrown off at first by all the open building structures with minimal roofing. Clearly that would never work in Boston but it's awesome that they can sit outside while still technically in the student union (pictured above).

All week SDSU was having informal recruitment events so we were pretty busy all the time. Above is a picture from tabling the day we all wore tie dye and below is from their mocktails event!

Below are pictures from La Jolla beach. It took me a few times to actually pronounce that name with an "H" sound because I know zero Spanish. It was kind of hazy at the beach but I learned that is pretty common for California beaches so I couldn't be too disappointed. It was still so pretty!

I can't wait for my next visit to San Diego, when I'll hopefully get to do even more exploring!

San Diegeo by Feeder