Okay this is gonna be one big Ol' Blog post, as I have been neglecting my duties to inform everybody. So lets get started! First off, fraternity rush!
The last month or so has been marked by rush. It started off long ago and far away (at least it seems that way now) with open house Sunday, when all the fraternities had open houses and formally began rush. The purpose was to meet and greet the brothers and see who you liked etc. You then had the opportunity to go to 3 open events with the brothers, spread out over the next two weeks. The events included skyzone (a giant warehouse filled with trampolines you could play dodgeball in), Buffalo Wild Wings (all you can eat wings), lazer tag, and demoball (a bizarrely awesome mix of lacrosse/field hockey and bumpercars). After all these events, each fraternity would have 2 closed events, which you had to be invited to, and then finally, on Thursday the 10th (I believe, I'm starting to get the dates mixed up), the fraternities would extend bids, and then you would accept on Saturday the 12th.
Going into the process, I was interested in Kappa Sigma,because I knew a bunch of brothers, and Sigma Chi, for legacy reasons, as well as them being known as the exclusive frat on campus. But as I went on through the process, I became more and more interested in Sigma Nu. I really liked the brothers, and it was a small brotherhood, meaning that the entire fraternity was very very close.
On bid extension night, I was told to be in my room from 9 to midnight from both Sigma Nu and Kappa Sig. I waited excitedly, until a loud knock on my dorm came, and I found two of the brothers from Sigma Nu waiting in suits. They told me to put on my shoes and grab my coat. They immediately took me down to a car, blindfolded me and another ghuy from my floor, and drove off into the night. After many turns and twists, we finally arrived, and were told to extend our right arms and hold onto the shoulder of the guy in front of us. We were led up stairs, and eventually the blindfold taken off, being told to stare straight forward. We were confronted by five men, in robes, candles and a eerily cultish ceremony. They informed us that we had been unanimously chosen by the brothers. At the end of the ceremony, the brothers behind us offered our congratulations, and we were told to come to the house any time after 12 if we were to accept the bids with our signed bid cards. Kappa Sigma did more or less the same deal, although it was just one potential pledge-y instead, making it significantly creepier/more awesome.
In the end, however, I already knew that I wanted to pledge Sigma Nu. I knew four other guys who got bids there and definitely were going to pledge, so it really was no contest. We all walked over at around 6pm to turn in our bid acceptance letters. And before I continue, it's necessary to explain the layout of Sigma Nu. It's kind of convoluted so hand in there. The house layout such that part of the house extends parallel to the walkway of the door, and that part of the house has these panels which can open out towards the walkway/porch. It's a weird mix of window/door, but the point is that they can be propped open and people can go through it. They were propped open when we came up, and as we knocked on the door, we hear screaming, and suddenly, four brothers (including the President) burst out of the window/doors, yelling and cheering. The front door then bursts open too and we're surrounded by brothers who were waaaay more excited than we were (and we, being the little bunny-like freshmen we are, were quite excited).
The next day we had our initiation to become candidates, or whatever. As exciting as this all was, it was intimidating. There were a bunch of events and steps we had to do which would be a lot of fun, but a huge time commitment. As the week went on I became more and more worried/stressed about whether or not I had over extended myself with EMT class, wilderness project, and now Sigma Nu. I met with the pledge marshal, and discussed the dates, and as much as he reassured me we could work around me schedule, ultimately I realized that I would not be happy with this many commitments and that I needed to drop something. Unfortunately, this meant Sigma Nu.
I sent an email to the marshal, and he replied with a very kind email, saying how he totally understood, but was sad that I would not be pledging. That day I got several very nice messages from some of the brothers, saying how they were sad that I was dropping, but they understood. They also invited me to hang out and get to know brothers as much as possible and pledge the next semester. It was very nice of them and really told me that not only had I made the right decision dropping, but I had chosen the right fraternity to join. I've already decided that I'm going to make pledging a priority next semester, as I know that Sigma Nu is an excellent group of guys that I want to be a part of.
But besides frat life, the other main event of the last couple of weeks was the second training trip for wilderness project! FUN FUN FUN! This time we learned more of the basics of camping, like how to work the different types of stoves, how to orient yourself, etc. Again, wilderness project proved to be an excellent decision. The entire time it was simply a lot of basic clean fun. For example, we started playing this game called "How's yours?". A group of people would come up with an object or body part which they all had, such as a childhood, or stress, or a zipper, or a tongue. Then somebody would have to figure out what the object was by asking "how's yours?" to everybody in the group. Some of the responses were quite clever, and almost always made it sound dirty. Simple games like that entertained us for hours and it was excellent to bond with such an eclectically awesome group of people. The only problem was the rain. After a week full of absolutely gorgeous weather, the one day we decide to go camping, it started raining. This would have been fine, as we had prepared for cold and rainy weather. But whoever set up the tent I was in forgot to tuck the tarp under the tent. This would have been fine if they had been able to properly stake down the rain tarp. But they weren't. The result was that a good 1/4 of the 5 person tent was a swamp, so the 5 of us had to cuddle up on the other side. Even when you're good friends, being crushed between the tent wall the other tentmates is never fun. But I survived only a little be water logged. The next morning was absolutely gorgeous, and it made the entire night of rain and cold worth it.
Well that's about all for now. This must be quite disjointed and rambly, I know, but it is the only good way for me to record down all the shtuff thats been going on the last few weeks. Hope it all makes sense!
Love,
-Brendan
Monday, February 21, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
First Week, Round 2
As of 4pm today, my first week back will be officially over. It's been defined by the avalanche of syllabi and paperwork. But I suppose I should back up to the very beginning.
The flight back to St. Louis was quite bumpy, but mercifully short, only 3 1/2 hours instead of 4+ hours, thanks to some crazy tail winds. Arriving back it was surprisingly mild weather which was great. On the plane I happened to sit next to another WashU freshman who was planning on taking a cab with another friend. He asked if I wanted to share the cab, which was nice because it got us back to campus in 20 minutes instead of an hour and for only 10 bucks. By the time I was back on the floor, it was still pretty deserted. At least in terms of guys. Most of the girls had come back a week early to rush, so I got reunited with all of them immediately, but had to wait for the guys to trickle in over then next few days. But by Tuesday, the first day of classes, everybody was back and ready to go!
The first class was a film studies class, Visual Media and Youth Culture, which was a really interesting class, but it has screenings every Tuesday night at 4. Because of this, I decided to drop the class, making my course load the normal 15 instead of 18 credits. That night I had my first EMT class, which was probably the most boring 3 hours of my life. The teacher is a guy that could be accurately described as a big blueberry. He's just a big round guy, that's all there is to it. And I'm sure he'll be a great teacher, but he has a very odd sense of humor and personality. The class itself was really interesting once we got into it, but the first 3 hours were just paper work and describing the paper work which is never fun. But overall I'm excited for the class, especially because I know that our new medic class is going to bond over the painful semester long classes.
But other than rambling about EMT class, my chemistry and physics classes are more or less the same old, although I do have a new chemistry lecture professor. As far as we can tell he's from Romania, and did his graduate work at Standford and taught at Berkley. So at least his resume is rather impressive. I'm not too sure about him as a professor, because we've only had 1 real lecture section, but so far so good!
Last but not least is my Science Fictions (emphasis on the plural) class, which so far has been fantastic. My professor actually a Spanish professor who just happens to love science fiction writing, and how all the stories have influence other works. What's cool about him is he sees all these connections and loves to discuss them, even if it's outside his professional area. He also lived in Argentina for a couple of years so he has a really interesting perspective. Everything about the class seems to be a combination of random but really cool factors.
Also in this last week, we had our first big St. Louis snow. The snow started around 7 and didn't stop till the late into the morning, giving us around 10 or 12 inches. This was awesome, except that I had my first Wilderness Project Leaders meeting. Which was outside. At midnight.
(As an aside, I don't know if I talked about Wilderness Project (WP) is yet. It is one of the pre-orientations programs which is entirely student led, and takes the incoming freshmen out hiking or rock climbing. I applied and was selected to be one of about 25 leaders.)
The instructions were vague, and secretive, telling us to meet on one of the fields under a big tree, with lots of warm clothes. Me and a friend headed over there with lots of layers and boots on (as it had already snowed at least 4 inches) and met there. After a little while waiting, we saw a couple of figures slowly walking towards us, encircling us. The figures approaching us were the previous leaders who were in charge of interviews (called Steering committee) and they quickly yelled to be quiet and shut our eye. They then lined us up and made us hold hands, then led us around campus (with our eyes closed the whole time, in the snow) until we eventually made it to Brookings quad, where we were put into a circle, and could finally open our eyes. We then had a little funny ceremony where we could jump into the circle and say something. It was kind of cheesy but really sweet because everybody was really excited to be there and really excited to bond with everybody. After everybody had gotten a chance to say something to the group (most of it silly), we were again told to close our eyes. The steering committee promptly ran away, leaving us to bond as new leaders. We played in the snow for a while, and it was all good fun, especially because Brookings was gorgeous during the snow.
The next night we had an actual meeting, telling us all the information we needed for now. I didn't realize how big of a time commitment this was going to be but I'm extremely excited for it. If nothing else, it will be an awesome excuse to go hiking a bunch over the semester!
Sorry if this has been so disjointed and rambling, but I tried to hit all the major events that happened over the last week. I think I got it all, but if I forgot I'll update everybody soon!
Hope all is well,
-Brendan
The flight back to St. Louis was quite bumpy, but mercifully short, only 3 1/2 hours instead of 4+ hours, thanks to some crazy tail winds. Arriving back it was surprisingly mild weather which was great. On the plane I happened to sit next to another WashU freshman who was planning on taking a cab with another friend. He asked if I wanted to share the cab, which was nice because it got us back to campus in 20 minutes instead of an hour and for only 10 bucks. By the time I was back on the floor, it was still pretty deserted. At least in terms of guys. Most of the girls had come back a week early to rush, so I got reunited with all of them immediately, but had to wait for the guys to trickle in over then next few days. But by Tuesday, the first day of classes, everybody was back and ready to go!
The first class was a film studies class, Visual Media and Youth Culture, which was a really interesting class, but it has screenings every Tuesday night at 4. Because of this, I decided to drop the class, making my course load the normal 15 instead of 18 credits. That night I had my first EMT class, which was probably the most boring 3 hours of my life. The teacher is a guy that could be accurately described as a big blueberry. He's just a big round guy, that's all there is to it. And I'm sure he'll be a great teacher, but he has a very odd sense of humor and personality. The class itself was really interesting once we got into it, but the first 3 hours were just paper work and describing the paper work which is never fun. But overall I'm excited for the class, especially because I know that our new medic class is going to bond over the painful semester long classes.
But other than rambling about EMT class, my chemistry and physics classes are more or less the same old, although I do have a new chemistry lecture professor. As far as we can tell he's from Romania, and did his graduate work at Standford and taught at Berkley. So at least his resume is rather impressive. I'm not too sure about him as a professor, because we've only had 1 real lecture section, but so far so good!
Last but not least is my Science Fictions (emphasis on the plural) class, which so far has been fantastic. My professor actually a Spanish professor who just happens to love science fiction writing, and how all the stories have influence other works. What's cool about him is he sees all these connections and loves to discuss them, even if it's outside his professional area. He also lived in Argentina for a couple of years so he has a really interesting perspective. Everything about the class seems to be a combination of random but really cool factors.
Also in this last week, we had our first big St. Louis snow. The snow started around 7 and didn't stop till the late into the morning, giving us around 10 or 12 inches. This was awesome, except that I had my first Wilderness Project Leaders meeting. Which was outside. At midnight.
(As an aside, I don't know if I talked about Wilderness Project (WP) is yet. It is one of the pre-orientations programs which is entirely student led, and takes the incoming freshmen out hiking or rock climbing. I applied and was selected to be one of about 25 leaders.)
The instructions were vague, and secretive, telling us to meet on one of the fields under a big tree, with lots of warm clothes. Me and a friend headed over there with lots of layers and boots on (as it had already snowed at least 4 inches) and met there. After a little while waiting, we saw a couple of figures slowly walking towards us, encircling us. The figures approaching us were the previous leaders who were in charge of interviews (called Steering committee) and they quickly yelled to be quiet and shut our eye. They then lined us up and made us hold hands, then led us around campus (with our eyes closed the whole time, in the snow) until we eventually made it to Brookings quad, where we were put into a circle, and could finally open our eyes. We then had a little funny ceremony where we could jump into the circle and say something. It was kind of cheesy but really sweet because everybody was really excited to be there and really excited to bond with everybody. After everybody had gotten a chance to say something to the group (most of it silly), we were again told to close our eyes. The steering committee promptly ran away, leaving us to bond as new leaders. We played in the snow for a while, and it was all good fun, especially because Brookings was gorgeous during the snow.
The next night we had an actual meeting, telling us all the information we needed for now. I didn't realize how big of a time commitment this was going to be but I'm extremely excited for it. If nothing else, it will be an awesome excuse to go hiking a bunch over the semester!
Sorry if this has been so disjointed and rambling, but I tried to hit all the major events that happened over the last week. I think I got it all, but if I forgot I'll update everybody soon!
Hope all is well,
-Brendan
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