This past week has been filled with Chi O events and the ball seems to be rolling, in more ways than one.
Our philanthropy event, Chi Olympics was this past Sunday, which consisted of various inflatables and obstacle courses. Almost 50 teams signed up, with the funds raise going to Make A Wish foundation. The little girl who we were raising money for, Alexis, actually attended the event and we were raising money for her to go to Disney World.
The IM fields were filled with a variety of inflatables (jousting, bouncy castle and hamster balls, hence by pun earlier) and other games like shot put and tug of war.
I was a team coach, and my team were a lot of fun to work with even though we stood no chance of winning. I didn't manage to take pictures at the actual event because we were too busy running it, but I did get one of the token super-American banner we had.
For the rest of the week, we began the process of choosing our "big", someone who is assigned to us and who becomes my role model during my time in the sorority. Apparently the bond between big and little is very special, and is often a lifetime bond.
Every day for four days I had to collect gifts from my big, in an attempt to guess who she was from any hints she left me. It's really nice since I got mason jars from her that spell C-H-I-O and my first pair of letters, things I'll be able to take home. Which I appreciate a lot more than a girl in my pledge class who got a fish.
One day 2 there was the traditional giving of hand-me-down Chi O clothing as some way of showing the continued sisterhood. I conveniently got a "Potter" one, which was obviously a nod to my British-ness.
I had no idea who my big would be, so on reveal day everyone was given t-shirts by their big, and they were all lined up in the garden wearing sweatshirts. On the count of three they all took off their sweatshirts and we had to find our big by our corresponding t-shirts.
I was so happy, since my big is Sarah. I've got along with her really well ever since recruitment, and it's nice since she is studying abroad at Swansea next semester. Goes to prove Chi O can go international when we have a big/little reunion once I'm back home!
These past few days have definitely brought the whole study abroad experience down to reality. It's so weird having all my friends back home move back to Keele and me not be there with them.
I'm starting to see pictures from freshers week now and that's made it really sink in.
I arrived back from the mountains (I'll explain later) to a late birthday package from Jane and it couldn't have come at a better time. The one weekend I'm missing being at uni, I get all the things that make me feel at home from her. Milk tea being the main one. She introduced me to the stuff and I'd always go down to her bedroom whenever I fancied one. Since it's Hong Kong style tea, it's a lot different than normal cuppas you'd be used to, but something about sitting here drinking it, with the rain pouring outside makes me feel very much like I'm back at Keele even though I'm 4,507 miles away.
I skyped the girls at the new house a few days ago while they were planning Jasmine's 21st birthday party. I've already missed a lot of developments in that house, for example Larry the house hamster. God help the poor thing when I get back, apparently he lives in between mine and Jenny's room, and we've been known on occasion to get quite rowdy.
Skyping Haruka this morning was a lot stranger since she lives in the block two away from where we lived last year. It was nice seeing her new room filled with posters I'd given her early last year (SHINee related of course) but also made me really sad when she said she keeps expecting me to keep popping in like I always would. I miss that girl a lot, and I can tell she will a lot more this week since we usually drunkenly snuggle in her room after a night out!
Snuggling ties me in nicely to our weekend in the mountains, a trip to CSU's Pingree Park organized for the internationals. It's about two hours away so we had to be up bright and early, and the day started great for me since I'd spilled an entire flask of hot chocolate on my jacket before we'd even got on the coach. We headed there, wonderful mountain roads causing us to all feel a bit sickly, and got stuck into the days activities as soon as we arrived. The low ropes course was a bit patronizing and reminded me of PGL back in the day, but Caragh and I (okay, mainly me) spent the majority of the day staring at the attractive leader in our group called Shane.
In the late afternoon we walked along a small trail through Pingree and managed to get some pretty dodgy looking sunburn from that, Caragh, quote Leif, resembled a battenberg, he had a sunglasses tan and I had a pink rim around my hairline. The Keelites looking as sexy as ever.
We had a cultural talent show later, and in all honestly had no idea what to do. So the Australians (Eleni, Chrissie, Harry & Liam), the Keelites and the rest of the English kids (Jack, Megan, Jonny and Carly) decided to join forces and become "TEAM COMMONWEALTH". The Aussies taught us a dance called the Nutbush, which I can only describe as something similar to the Macarena or Saturday Night being played at the SU. We did it flash mob style, with two of us adding to the dancers every so often. We killed it, even if people stole our flash mob idea later on, and the video of it has proven Jack's amazing ability to exit the stage in a suave fashion.
After the talent show, we headed to a campfire where we sat and made smores under the stars. The sky was super clear, and with us being at 9,000ft you could see way more stars than usual, it actually looked like a 3D painting. We then headed back to the dorm and spent the night laughing over smuggled alcohol.
The next morning, we had to be up super early again, and I think Caragh and I were the only ones who got a good sleep since we had the bright idea to snuggle all night for body warmth. Start of a great friendship right there. It was such a cool place to have visited and as I'm writing this, we're actually planning to go camping again this weekend before it gets too cold.
Now for the sorority update! Short and sweet this time, but I went on yet another owl pal date for fro yo and got informed that I apparently have a huge amount of the girls wanting to go on dates with me. Obviously being the only Brit they've every had is an exciting thing for them! On Friday night we had our new member retreat, which was an optional sleepover, but I couldn't do that due to the weekend in the mountains. We shared stories about things sentimental to us, so obviously I took my Pooh Bear and told them how I take pictures of him everywhere I go. Afterwards we painted mason jars, which I did surprisingly well with since I'm not the most artistically talented of the lot.
All in all, a good weekend!
This past week has been filled with Chi O events and the ball seems to be rolling, in more ways than one.
For the rest of the week, we began the process of choosing our "big", someone who is assigned to us and who becomes my role model during my time in the sorority. Apparently the bond between big and little is very special, and is often a lifetime bond.
One day 2 there was the traditional giving of hand-me-down Chi O clothing as some way of showing the continued sisterhood. I conveniently got a "Potter" one, which was obviously a nod to my British-ness.
