Play fair last night was quite fun. A lot of personal bubbles were popped, new friends were met, and standing ovations were had. :-)
After Playfair, we returned to our rooms sleepy as ever. While winding down I complained of the exhaustion and pain that had been enduced on my body throughout the day. My arms were quite sore from clapping... and the rest was from getting up and down all night at play fair, and sitting on friends. Katelyn and Lexi made fun of me for being sore from clapping. My excuse was that I was tired and couldnt think of many other reasons why I was in pain.
Busy day one started with a 6:30 am wake up. Why 6:30, you may ask? So we could venture down to the lobby, pj's and all, to avoid the line that would accumulate at starbucks. We encountered one other greek friend on our journey but other than that, starbucks was free and clear. After choosing our caffeinated beverages we returned to the room and got ready for the day!
The first session of the day was called RESPONSE ABILITY. Obvi we were early and were able to sit in the front row. We watched a video about the bystander effect that Lexi, Katelyn and I had already seen at last fall's Gamma Phi retreat. There was also a speaker that elaborated more on the subject. This exercise set up the subject matter for the rest of the day's activities.
TRAUMATIC MOMENT OF THE DAY: As most of you know, I have an irrational fear of escalators. Yes, escalators. They catch your shoe laces and pant legs then suck in your leg and kill you. Or so my brain thinks. So it takes me a bit of time to get on them. Once on, I am usually ok. WELL, today while on the escalator, it conveniently decided to STOP! and LURCH forward. My eyes immediately welled up with tears as my Panhellenic dear, Jess Murphy Grabbed my arm in an attempt to save my life. All was ok and we walked down the remaining stairs. NOT cool.
Anyway...
After our session ended we were broken up into smaller groups to discuss the speaker and learn more about the bystander effect and the barriers. Honestly, all through the day I realized how much this theory comes to play everyday. Once we had some group discussion, it was time for my favorite part of the day...
The Affiliation luncheon! The moment that I have been waiting for since arrival... meeting fellow Gamma Phis! I had the pleasure of sitting next to Sandy Burba, Gamma Phi's NPC delegate! The two things i love the most: Gamma Phi Beta and NPC... was it FATE??? I think so. I basically felt like I was in the presence of royalty. We also got to meet 7 Gamma Phis from other chapters. It was so AWESOME! Lunch was also delicious! We had salad, manicotti, and terimissu. So good!
Next we had our business sessions. My first one was called "If Hazing Really Works, then Why Isn't our Chapter Excellent?" We discussed the characteristics of an excellent chapter, why chapter's haze, and what the real effect of hazing are. I was so very surprised at the amount of people in the room that took a strong supportive stand for hazing practices. How does that make you feel? The next session I went to was about quality membership selection. This was a lot of fun because we had a mock recruitment for our "ferority"where we chose from a list of descriptions. We all went over why we made our choices and learned some valuable lessons. I also had a fabulous time chatting with some ladies from Alpha Xi Delta. I exchanged e-mails with one that was a past Panhellenic President. For the last session, I learned about relating greek life to everyday life. It was interesting to think of how many ways that it does relate to everyday and future life. Can you think of any examples of this, too? While at this session, I met up with one of the Gamma Phi girls from Rutgers that I met at the affiliation luncheon. She was adorable and also a past Panhellenic Presdient. We talked about Gamma Phi and Panhel and also exchanged some fun info. I am hoping that her Panhellenic experiences can help me to mold BSC Panhellenic in the future.
When the sessions were over we returned to our chapter meetings from earlier in the day and debriefed about our sessions. I loved hearing what everyone else went to. Then it was time for dinner!
For dinner we went to this Irish Pub place that was really loud and had some rather inappropriate friends in attendance. We sat at a fun table that was high up so my feet could not reach the ground. I had a yummy sandwich and fries. I learned that I have issues managing my non-verbal communication when I am unhappy. This is something I plan to work on. We chatted about some fun things, finished dinner and made our merry way back to the Greek boutique. Unfortunately, it was closed so we hope that it will be open tomorrow so we can order fun things.
Now we are sitting in the starbucks downstairs partaking in our new favorite hobby of blogging. Woot. I am pumped for pajama jammy jam tonight with my NGLA friends. Tomorrow should be fun with all of my Panhellenic sessions. I am PUMPED!
My computer is dying so I must finish.
Goodnight friends!
Aubree
No comments:
Post a Comment