From Maine to Jersey to New Orleans... I'm back after break and better than ever!

Hey y'all! It feels so great to be back in New Orleans after going up north for spring break. The sun is shining, the flowers are in bloom, and the outdoor social pool is open!! It's definitely spring time down here in NOLA. But let me give y'all a little recap on the past few weeks...

The week before spring break was so chaotic, seeing as I had a Spanish exam, a spanish oral exam, an American Government Exam, and an Evolutionary Biology quiz. YUCK! As you can tell, it was most definitely hell! But I got through it, and it made my spring break so much more enjoyable! I left early friday morning to fly up to Maine to see my sister.

Brrrr... it was so chilly up there; although the snow covered Colby campus was beautiful. This was my first visit to Colby and, after not seeing my sister for over two months, I was overjoyed when we finally reunited. It was really cool to see the life she was living so many miles away from me. I got to see the campus, meet her friends, eat the food, and form great memories with Meredith. And I guess I was there for a big weekend as well, a weekend called Doghead. It's in celebration of St. Patricks Day, where you stay up all night on Friday. It was reallllly fun... but I'm sad to say I couldn't stay up all night. My sister and I took a nap and woke up really early in the morning to join in on the festivities. It was snowing too! I loved it.

I stayed until Sunday and then I went home to New Jersey. I had a really mellow trip, seeing as a lot of my friends had already had their spring breaks and were back at school. Nonetheless, I had the most wonderful time with my mom and dad. My mom and I had quite an adventure one day, when we went to the city (New York City... I guess depending where you live, "the city" could have a different meaning!) to have lunch and see a Broadway show. We went to Virgil's, a barbeque joint very close to Times Square. I live in the South now, and I still think that this restaurant has some of the best barbeque I've ever had! Afterward we went to see one of the newest shows to Broadway: Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein. It was the most hilarious show... and even a little bit vulgar... to say the least, it was a VERY Mel Brooks comedy. It was one of the funniest shows that I've seen, actually! My mom and I also went to see something of a little less quality theater, Step Up II. It wasn't quite as good as the first Step Up, but the dancing was awesome. And don't worry, the leads were still so good looking.

The rest of the week, I just kind of hung out. My sister came home for her spring break on Thursday so I got to spend even more time with her! On Sunday I came back here. The dorms were open throughout all of break, so I had no problem returning early. Since school didn't start until Tuesday, I was able to unpack, get settled, work out and eat at Bruff with Stacey and Joe, and go to the Boot for a bit. It was a very relxing night! The next day I worked out (again!!) and then I had a tour in the afternoon. Later I reunited with my girls... and just in time for ordering in food and watching the Greek season season premiere. It was soooo fun! A bunch of us had work to finish up, so I went to be relatively early.

Tuesday was awesome! I woke up for my 8am and then had appointment after meeting after appointment for most of the day. I even had USG and Pi Phi at night! Somehow, though, I got all of my work done and was able to go out with the girls to the Boot. It was so fun! And I was wearing the most adorable and summery shirt from J. Crew (bargain buy at the outlets! you can never go wrong there). So naturally I was in a good mood because of my outfit and it was a perfect night!

Wednesday my sister came into town!!!!! It was her first NOLA visit. Unfortunately her flight was very very very delayed, and we were unable to go out to a nice dinner. But I did take her to the Crepe stand, which is always delicious. Then she got to meet all of my friends. I was so happy to show her off to everyone, and visa versa. Thursday was awesome. Mere and I woke up early, had a hearty Bruff breakfast, worked out at Reilly, and then laid at the pool until my Bio test at 3:30. To understate it, we got A LOT of color. It was really relaxing.

After my test I had to shower and go to Emerging Leaders. Then Katherine, Christina, Dani, Amanda, Mere and I went to Fresco's for dinner. Always yummy. Then we went to a new place called Philip's. It was ladies night, so of course we had to check it out. We got all dressed up too which was fun. We first went to a ZBT party,... and that was so fun! Mere, Becky, and I dominated flip cup like nobody's business. Yeah baby!! So then we went to Philip's and didn't leave until pretty late. Friday was fun, too. We woke up early and laid out by the pool again. We pretty just hung out on campus all day and then went to Superior Grill for dinner. Another delicious food excrusion!

So that brings my to today! Mere just left and I'm definitely a little sad. I miss her already! Luckily I have lots to look forward to this weekend... including initiation. I cannot wait! I'll keep y'all posted.

Until next time, stay classy, readers, stay classy.

Oh, to Be Seen in Green!

Hey, hey, hey!! So much has happened this past week! I cannot wait to fill y'all in! I'm just gonna do bullet points because there's just so much to cover.

-I just joined Alpha Phi Omega service fraternity! Basically it is a chapter of an organization that does community service projects all over New Orleans. Since it's a fraternity and there aren't as many members as some of the bigger organizations, it's a lot more intimate and allows people to become a lot more involved. Last sunday we went to New Orleans Animal Shelter, where we walked dogs and took care of the other animals. It was really great to help out because the NO Animal Shelter was founded as a non-profit organization to protect and find homes for all of the animals after Katrina. It's a great cause and it was really fun to be around animals since I miss my puppies so much!

-On monday it rained pretty much all day... and at night there was an awful thunderstorm! But around 11:30 I received a mass text message from a Pi Phi senior saying that my New Member class was expected to be on the Monroe Quad in 15 minutes for some mud football. AH!!! I didn't know what to do... it was so stormy! Luckily it cleared up, and my friends and I ran onto the quad with our game faces on. I'm sure it must have been absolutely hysterical to watch this as an outsider: A bunch of sorority girls trying to play football in the mud and rain... sliding everywhere and running in the opposite direction of their respective teams end zone. I'm laughing just looking back on it. And I loved the spontaneity of it all. It should definitely be a Pi Phi tradition. Afterward I was pooped (seeing as I worked so hard out there? or something), and needless to say I slept like a baby that night.

-Tuesday was the start of Green Week, with free snowballs and t-shirts. It was a huge success. It definitely made all of the stress of planning it worth it. And on Tuesday there was a great turnout for the baseball game as well. It was awesome. It set the tone for the rest of the week, as so many Tulanians came out to all of our events. It was awesome. ROLL WAVE!

-Thursday was unbelievable! On tuesday, wednesday, and thursday I had been receiving tons of Pi Phi goodies from my mystery Big Sis! All three days I came back to my dorm with tons of goodies all over my side of the room: Pi Phi key chain, pins, umbrella, fleece throw, t-shirts, sweatshirt, cups and coffee mug, ice chest and chair, and candy and a fun fetti cake. How ridiculous?!?!? It was so special. So, since thursday was the last day of goodies, it also meant that later that day we would have Big/Lil' reveal. I put on one of my new shirts and headed over to the house with a bunch of my very antsy and anxious Pi Phi ladies. We all had to close our eyes and then the older girls placed in front of our Big Sisters. I opened my eyes and I couldn't have been happier when I saw that Lindsey was my Big Sis! And Vanessa, my twin. It was very exciting. Then my entire Pi Phi family went out to a new sushi restaurant. It was sooooo delicious!!! Afterward we went to the Boot for the Sig Ep Pledge Auction. It was so hilarious. I didn't buy any boy, though. Afterall, I'm on a college kid budget... and those Sig Eps, they're no cheap dates!

-The week flew by! I gave a tour in the morning on friday and then went to class. Later I had a random craving for crawfish, and opted to treat my friend to a crawfish picnic dinner in the Monroe 8 common room. 12 pounds of crawfish, corn and potatoes later, our craving had certainly been slaked. Ahhh, what an amazing dinner! Then we went to PhiStock, Pi Phi's Woodstock themed date party. From the left: Me, Brittany, Blakely, Stacey, Lynleigh, Christina. We look so fab. in our hippie attire, I know. This was also my first date party as a Pi Phi!!! It was soooo fun. Everyone was so dressed up and hippie-ish and happy! I swear the costumes threw us right back to the good ole days of 1969. There I am again (below)! With my date, Blakely, and Blakely's Big Sis, Alison.

-After the date party I was to Der Ratskellar, a restaurant in the LBC that's open from 8pm to 8am, and got some delicious cheese fries! Then I went to hang out with some SAE's that couldn't make it to our date party. To wrap up my night I went back to the Boot, just to see if just maybe something else was going on. I quickly decided that I had done enough party hopping for the night and should probably go to bed. All and all, though, it was an extremely awesome night!! So awesome, in fact, that I felt no need to go out on Saturday. Which means I made up for all of the sleep that I didn't get on Friday. Mission accomplished, for sho!!

A One, A Two, A Helluva Hullabaloo!

Hey y'all!! As usual, Tulane has left me with not a single dull moment to blog! Between GWA and USG (Undergraduate Student Government) and Pi Beta Phi and the start of baseball season and hanging out with friends it's been nonstop action. It's exhausting just recounting it all. But don't worry, my lovely readers, I have not left you hanging!

Pi Phi has been such a blast!! I love my sorority so much... especially my insanely awesome pledge class. I never thought that it could be done, but somehow all 52 have bonded in such a unique way. We have all become so close. It's so cool that I have another whole outlet of friends. And we've had some awesome parties. We had our first date party two weeks ago. Except, instead of bring our own dates, we brought a whole fraternity instead. We went to the Red Eye Grille. It was a blast. The theme was "America." Ambiguous, right?!? Well... girls in our sorority like to think outside the box anyway... so there were all kinds of costumes!! Some people dressed up like white trash, some just wore American flags somehow (I wore an American flag dress), my friend Blakely dressed up as Barbie, and Christina as an Indian. It was such a crazy fun time. And an awesome way to get to know another fraternity (SAE). I loved it!!

The following weekend we had mixer with Pike. It was a little classier, as we all had to wear cocktail attire. I was so psyched because I had just gotten a new dress that had not yet made its Tulane debut. After that mixer, I decided I was hungry, so I went to the Boot to see who was around, and then quickly went next door to the Crepe stand, and had the most delicious crepe EVER... at one in the morning! Only at Tulane, only in New Orleans!

That same weekend was also the opening weekend of the Tulane Baseball season... and the grand opening of Turchin Stadium, our brand new, GORGEOUS baseball stadium. It was so fun!! There were fireworks and a bunch of alumni came to throw pitches for the first inning of the first game on Greer Field. It was really exciting. I went to the game with one of my friends who, as a local, had been going to Tulane games since he was a little kid. His family was there too. It was really cute. There are so many families that come to the games: little kids in Tulane baseball caps with their old siblings, parents, and grandparents. The sense tradition radiated throughout the stadium as Tulane scored a home-run and ROLL-WAVE-ROLL-WAVE roared from the stands. I was never really a baseball fan in high school... I just went to watch my cute friends as seniors! But now, I love it... and I'm so excited to be a part of this Tulane tradition.

To let you guys in on the tradition, I'm gonna post the Hullabaloo lyrics... the song that the crowd always sings after every home-run.

A one, a two, a helluva hullabaloo!
A hullabaloo ray, ray
Hullabaloo ray, ray
Hooray, hooray
Varsa-, Varsa- tee-ay
Tee-a, tee-ay
Varsa-, varsa- tee-ay
Tulane!

Now that you know it... there's no reason why you can't come check out a game and sing along!

And Tulane spirit has even been pouring over into USG. Lots of stuff has been going on with USG. I'm the committee chair for Green Week, a kind of spirit week that Tulane has in the spring to show our support for Basketball at the end of its season while getting students psyched about the upcoming Baseball season. We have so many events planned for this week I can't wait. And of course, like always, Tulane is giving out tons of free stuff. We're giving out the coolest "Be Seen in Green" t-shirts, food (Raising Cane's Chicken, Lucky Dogs, cotton candy, and snowballs), and awesome raffle prizes like Tulane Baseball jerseys.