Barcelona

I had been to Barcelona before, but it is definitely a much different experience with friends. I was traveling with two other girls and two guys from my OSU program. We got there late wednesday night. so we just checked into our hostel (which was very nice) and passed out. We hadn't slept in a longgg time so luckily nobody set an alarm for the next morning. When we finally woke up and got ready, we found some much needed starbucks and were on our way. We took a VERY long walk to las ramblas which is the main street in barcelona with a ton of kiosks, restaurants, markets, etc. We bought some lunch and a had a little picnic while enjoying the nice weather. After that it was time to head to the beach. The nice sand was much better than the rocks on the beaches at Nice. That night we had a nice authentic spanish dinner (although i wasn't too fond of the seafood paella)

Friday we slept in again and went to see the Barcelona stadium which was very nice. We went to the sagrada familia, but the line was too long and we were too hungry, so we got some lunch and headed to the beach again. We ended up staying on the beach most of the day and having a yummy dinner on the boardwalk. That night we went to one of the big clubs on the beach and it was so much fun. We met a lot of americans and most everybody spoke english, so that was an added plus. In true spanish form, we didn't end up getting home until about 5. 

We slept in late again on saturday and decided to finish up all the touristy things we hadn't done yet. We went to the sagrada familia again and went inside this time. Although this was my second time seeing it, it was still very cool to see how much they had worked on it in the 2 years since i'd seen it last. Afterwards we went to the Guell park to see gaudi's works and to have an awesome view of the city. We had some good tapas for dinner and then got to bed early. this morning was very early (5:30) and i didn't get back to my hostel until 7:30 p.m. woof

This week we only have 3 days of classes and then a long weekend for bastille day. Can't believe i'll be home in less than two weeks!

Tours and Belgium

The following weekend (the 3rd of the program) my parents, brother, and my brother´s girlfriend (betty) came to france. they had been in paris for a bit and then came to Nantes to visit me. They took me and some of my friends out to dinner and we´re excited to see where i had been studying. That weekend we rented a car and drove through the Loire valley. This is the famous valley of the chateaus and we saw 4 of them. Including the one that inspired sleeping beauty and the beauty and the beast. It was nice to have a relaxing weekend where i could go to bed early and sleep in. That sunday I took a train to belgium. For part of our program, we were spending three days in Brussels seeing various parts of the European Union. I had been to brussels before, but it was a long time ago. The hotel we were all staying in was very nice and in a good location.

The first night we were was the 4th of july. needless to say, we needed to celebrate. there were about 50 americans staying at the hotel in brussels and almost all of us ended up at the same bar that night. it was called delirium (i think) and had over 2,000 beers and a very cool atmosphere. they played lots of american music for us to sing along to, and i´m pretty sure most people that weren´t american there hated us, but oh well. all in the name of ´¨murrica.

I could tell  you about what we did during the day (the european comission, council and parliament) but honestly i don´t remember much because it was all so boring (sorry EU). Overall it was a fun week and nice to have classes outside of Nantes, but i didn´t really learn much about the EU, which was probably the intended purpose.

Wednesday night we took a flight to barcelona and will be here until sunday. So far we´ve shopped, went to the beach, and had an authentic spanish meal complete with sangria. Today we´re going to la sagrada familia and to see the barcelona stadium. (and hopefully some more beach time!) I´ll update more on sunday when i get home and finally upload pics to facebook!

Nice

It´s been way too long since i´ve had a decent computer to write on or enough time to actually do it. so time to catch up

The week after paris we had our first test that thursday morning. it wasn´t very clear what our test was even on, but i studied as best as i could. unfortunatley there were things on there that im not sure we had ever even discussed in class, let alone known they would be on the test. Needless to say im not sure i did too well, but we dont have our grades back yet, so oh well. That night we took a train to paris and then a night train to Nice. I had been on a night train before to switzerland a couple years ago and i didn´t remember it being that bad. so i went in with a optimistic outlook. clearly the train we took to nice was not as nice as the one we took to switzerland. It was the smallest room ever (smaller than my cloest) which had two sets of bunk beds. but these bunks had 3 beds, not just 2. so it was myself and the three other girls i was traveling with and another french lady. very awkward

by the time we got to nice we were beyond exhausted but it was so worth it. I´ve been to tons of cities and countries, but nice is by far my favorite. theres a cute old part with buildings hundreds of years old and twisty turny walkways full of shops and restaurants. theres also a newer place with nice hotels and restuarants on the beach. speaking of the beach, i´m used to nice soft bermuda sand, so the rocks on the beaches of nice weren´t that fun, but it wasnt too bad. It was the birthday of the twins i was traveling with. so we definitely had a good night out for that. the train ride home on sunday was pretty crappy as i hadn´t slept much the night before. but as our fellow french friend said "when you´re dead you may sleep". clearly we´re teaching them helpful phrases.

Classes and Paris

So the first week of classes wasn't too bad, but it's going to take a while to get used to the French class schedule. We usually have class for 6 hours a day with only an hour or two for lunch break. Going from 9-1 straight is VERY exhausting, especially when some of the teachers' accents are hard to understand. This past Thursday we went out with all the French people in our classes and it was very fun. We went to this really fun club (one of the biggest in France) and didn't get home until 430. We had class the next morning at 9 so it was a very rough morning for all.

We left Friday after class for Paris, unfortunately our train was delayed for 2 hours so that was a bummer. We eventually got in around midnight and we were all starving. Luckily in Paris you can find food whenever. We woke up relatively early Saturday and wandered around our hostel (north Paris). Unfortunatkey we ended up getting quite lost....we almost were off the map. Lucky somebody who spoke English pointed us in the right direction. Saturday afternoon we did some more wandering and saw the louvre and the notre-dame. It was my 3rd time in Paris and seeing everything, but I still enjoyed them a lot. After all that walking, we were exhausted, so we had a very nice Italian dinner complete with good wine. Afterwards, we walked to the Eiffel tower and saw the light show which was very cool. Afterwards we were practically dead so we went home. Sunday we saw the arc de triumphe and the champs-elysees and walked around.we got back to Nantes late last night and I was happy to be home.

Today we met another new professor who is from Texas and a UT alum. Needless to say, she's very charismatic and says y'all so I love her. This weekend we'll be in Nice, so I'm hoping for some good weather!

Nantes!!

After the longest trip ever, I was so excited to finally get to Nantes and it was well worth it. I'd list a bunch of useless facts about the city but the most important things are that it's in the western loire valley of France, relatively near the coast, and beautiful. I'm living with a host family relatively close to the main downtown area and a 10 minute tram ride to audencia (the business school where we take classes). I have a mom, dad, 12-year old girl 21 and 23 year old boys and a 25-year old girl. But the 12-year old is the only sibling here all the time. I also have another OSU girl staying here too. Typical French house with insanely high ceilings, small bedrooms, and weird bathrooms. But its very cute!

Since being here I've had spinnach, tons of cheese, duck, and some other stuff I don't want to know, but all of the food is delicious. My host mom is a great cook. We had a bank holiday on Monday, so I took that time to wander around Nantes a bit. Little did i know, our school had already arranged a tour for Tuesday. The official tour was way more thorough and informative than mine and I learned a lot about the city. Tuesday night, all of the Americans in the program (including OSU, UC, BG, and some other random schools) and some of the French people from audencia all went out together. Drinks here are VERY expensive, but very good. The bar was mostly our group, but it was a good way of getting to know everybody.

Today was an early morning (730) after last night, so I definitely learned I need to head in a bit earlier on week nights. We had class for three hours, then a 2 hour lunch break, then three more hours of class. It was NOT fun at all. Everybody was very tired and it was extremey hard to stay awake. Hopefully that gets better with time. We're going to Paris this weekend and I can't wait to go back to one of my favorite cities!

Getting to France aka the adventure of a lifetime

So since I already had a blog from my Greek leadership class this past spring, I thought I could keep it going while I survive europe for the next month and a half.

Back to the beginning: Saturday morning I woke up with no phone, no wallet, and quite the headache. The previous night I was convinced to join in the festivities of my friends 21st birthday-not the best decision ever. Long story short, my purse got locked in somebody's room who then proceeded to fall asleep quite soundly. So i went home with nothing that night telling myself I'd wake up early the next day to get it back. I wasn't feeling the best when my alarm went off the next morning at 8. We thought it'd be a good idea to have a slumber party on the informal room floor and my back hurt like hell. I also realized I hadn't packed at all and needed to leave by 11:30 for my flight. Woof. Finally I was getting everything together (including my bag) and then my suitcase handle decided not to work. We tried for a solid 10 minutes and I was near my breaking point. Eventually I unpacked, fixed the handle and then shoved everything back in and left. I finally got through security in Columbus and thought I was good to go. Then I got a text from continental saying my flight from Newark to Paris was 5 hours late. I was in the middle of chilis having a panic attack about missing my train to Nantes. Not okay. Eventually my parents were able to rebook my train ticket and the rest of my trip went relatively smoothly (besides my 6 hour layover in Newark). I finally got to Nantes and it was well worth it!

Roundup gets rowdy

Roundup at UT. if you're from Texas, you've heard of it, been to it, or know people who have. It's basically one massive party for all the fraternities at UT. Picture massive amounts of people, incredible performers, and neon fanny packs everywhere. everybody in Greek life goes there, and often high schoolers who know they're not only headed to Austin the following year but also into Greek life attend. sometimes even fellow Greeks from other schools in Texas attend. As you can imagine, all these people (mostly intoxicated) can cause issues. According to the Daily Texan, this past year there were reports of a woman getting assaulted and apparently racist intentions behind it. The article also references other racist incidences that have occurred in the past. This was definitely something new to me. I had always viewed it as one big party, although now it's evident that even things with the purest intentions can end up bad. As a Greek community we cannot tolerate this behavior. If we expect the community outside Greek life to respect us, we must not allow things like this to occur. Eventually the administration will cut down on any and all events which could produce these types of offenses.

http://www.dailytexanonline.com/news/2011/04/13/racial-conflicts-tarnish-history-roundup


some pictures from roundup this past year

bystander effect

So in college, there have been various times when i know myself, as well as my friends and sisters have all been bystanders. Luckily, nothing serious has happened because of it. there was a time, however, in high school where something more serious occurred. My junior year i was hanging out with a bunch of my friends on my soccer team and we were all drinking having a good time. Eventually, people started separating off and going to different places. I went to my boyfriends house with a couple of my friends and some of the other girls went to another party. Everything was going fine until i went to check my phone upstairs and i had about 10 missed calls, all from various people.  One of whom was my ex-best friend. We had a falling out over a series of things, including her boyfriend at the time and i didn't really want to talk to her. so i didn't call her back

About 25 minutes later, i got a call from her boyfriend and picked it up. He was freaking out and screaming and telling me that something was wrong with erin (my ex-friend). All he kept saying was he thought she was unconscious and didnt' know what to do. So i told one of my teammates that wasn't drinking and she drove us to where they were. When we got there he was holding erin, and i have never seen anything scarier in my entire life, she really and truly looked dead. We took her to a guy friends car and me and another friend jumped in the back with erin. We took off for the hospital at speeds i don't even want to think about. Cops tried to pull us over twice, but realized we weren't stopping for anything and they gave up. We finally got to the hospital and rushed her inside to the emergency room. More and more people kept showing up at the hospital, including erin's mom, whom i had to call. she was hysterical and screaming at me and telling me it was somehow my fault. Luckily, another one of the soccer moms was there to calm her down. While waiting i got the full story.

One of the seniors on the team had gotten erin some Everclear for the evening (it's legal in texas). However, Erin decided to drink almost half the bottle by herself. While she continued to get more and more drunk, none of the people she was with stopped her. I can imagine she was beyond belligerent, and at no point did anybody she was with stopped her. I'm assuming this is mostly because none of them had really drank before, so they didn't know how to handle it. Regardless, it was stupid of them to do absolutely nothing. Just like it was stupid of me to ignore all those phone calls. had i picked up earlier, maybe i could have changed the outcome of the night. Erin ended up having alcohol poisoning and she was released from the hospital the next morning. Unfortunately for her, gossip travels fast at our school, and by the following monday EVERYBODY knew and was talking about her. I felt awful. She was also grounded for 8 months. Her mom made her apologize to anybody involved, although i think many of us should have apologized to her. Me and erin never solved our previous issues, and to this day we still aren't friends/don't talk about what happened that night.

As far as the greek community, i think my experience definitely taught me to always be watching out for people. I certainly like to have a good time when i go out, but my sisters' safety is my number one priority. I will always make sure somebody is walked home, not by themselves, etc. Honestly in serious situations, you really do "sober up quick." Luckily for me, my best friends are my sisters, and i know they ALWAYS have my back, and would do anything to help me out. however, i know thats not the case for anybody, and that is a serious issue that must be addressed within the Greek Community.

Oath

So our blog prompt this past week seemed simple enough. After all, it was only one word. however, this one word holds a lot of meaning, especially to somebody who has taken an oath. As discussed in class, there are not that many times in your life when you take an oath. Confirmation, pledging a fraternity or sorority, and marriage are some that i can think of. These are very serious promises you make to uphold a set of values

For a fraternity or sorority, these pledges are often made without full knowledge of what they're doing. Initiation is often a hectic and confusing process, and new members aren't sure exactly what they're promising. Looking back, i know i promised to be a good citizen and sister and to help others follow this same path. However, i wish it was more clear as to what we were promising. I know we can't divulge the secrets of our initiation before the process, but i wish we could find some way to better prepare our new members so they understand the full extent of what they were promising. Perhaps this would help once they girls became active.

Citizenship

Well this is certainly not the easiest blog to do. The others have been pretty simple, and the answers just came to me. This one, however, i had to actually think about. i know, how horrible. 


How are you (individually) displaying citizenship within the fraternity/sorority community? 
- When i think about displaying citizenship within the greek community, i try and think about what i've done to help the greek community as an individual. Things like attending other fraternities and sororities events and greek-wide events all help promote greek unity. I try my best to never talk badly about greek life to those who aren't in it. This will hopefully keep the greek community in a good light.


How does your chapter display citizenship within the fraternity/sorority community? What does this look like?
-this is a bit harder to think about. As a whole, we try and get all our girls to attend things such as speakers, philanthropy events, etc. but it is really hard to get a chapter of 95 girls focused on one thing at a time. This is definitely something we are looking to improve in our chapter right now.


How does the fraternity/sorority community display citizenship within the greater university community.  
-We as a greek community constantly talk about bettering our image and improving relations within the university community. but there is no way that we are effective at this. Ask any "non-greek" and they will sit there for hours and talk about the crazy parties they went to as freshman, seeing people walking in weird costumes during greek week, and being obnoxious at the O. As fun as all this stuff is, they don't have the benefit of seeing all the other stuff we do. The philanthropies, the service days, the sisterhoods/brotherhoods. If i weren't greek, and all i saw were the things that focused around drinking, i would think we "paid for our friends" too. This is a serious problem that we must aim to fix if we ever hope to become a more rounded greek community and university. 

feedback from class

So in class, despite the disgusting weather, we separated into groups and went out in search of Greeks whom we could survey. While we did one survey on the street with a random SigEp we saw, most of what we did was based on phone calls and house visits. The biggest thing i noticed was everybody's initial reaction. Most people i talked to were surprised about our questions. As a PHA women, this made me laugh, because during formal recruitment the answers to these questions are drilled into our heads on the off chance a PNM asks us about something other than our live-in requirement. It seems however, that once january is over, the "correct" answers go straight out the window. I found that the best answers i got were the ones who previously held positions and often the upperclassmen. The younger ones had more issues with the questions.

When people did manage to get a response out that wasn't "uhhh" almost everybody answered with the same repetitive answers. "We value sisterhood/brotherhood, leadership, we like to have socials and are involved and our ritual is what separates us from other chapters." Ironic isn't it that no matter what council and what chapter you were, you said almost the exact same thing. I'm thinking that's what kristen's point was.....

a family thing

So when we got the assignment to pick an organization, the first thing to pop into my head was Exxon Mobil. This is simply because both of my parents work for Exxon and have for quite some time. So of course i was brought up learning all about everything they do and why they do it. It's very common for the general public to dislike big oil companies, especially in today's day and age. However, i know that is a mistake. Exxon is constantly looking for useful alternative energy resources. They travel the world to find other resources they can use besides oil. Because of this, i think they do a very good job of showing their organizational values. They are also a notoriously conservative company, from the attire they expect their employees to wear, to general business conduct, Exxon certainly values hard work and good ethics. A good example of this is their reaction to the BP oil spill. Instead of distancing themselves from BP and trying to take advantage of a competitors downfall, they reached out. They approached BP and offered help and advice to how they could come back from such a devastating event. Exxon shows its values in many ways including its actions with BP and its many commercials to keep the public informed about their most recent activities.

A picture of my mom and other Exxon Mobil employees donating to United Way, one of the charities Exxon has close ties to.

Values

When i think of this topic, i think of the countless weekends i've spent at conferences both for OSU and for Delta Zeta. No matter what the main purpose of the conference is, it always goes back to our values. We discuss what our chapters were founded on and strive to live by these everyday. While Delta Zeta's values are good and all, i have my own set of values that are important to me.
1. friendship
-My friends really mean the world to me. They've always been there for me, regardless of what was going on in my life or how far away we are. No matter how successful you may be in life, you're nothing without your friends.
2. honesty
- I never expect people to be perfect, but i do expect people to be honest. One of the hardest things in life is when to admit that you messed up and when you're wrong. I really value people who are capable of doing that.
3. Giving
- so as i'm sitting here writing this blog, i was asking my sisters for some advice about what my values are. I know, it seems weird that i should ask them about MY values, but they do know me better then myself sometimes. They suggested giving. I try to always give what i can to my sisters. Whether that be a ride to class, clothes for a date, or the perfect headband to wear out at night :) personally, i believe strongly that what's mine is theirs. After I graduate i hope to continue this in my place of work and my family.


I have plenty more such as trust, courage, and intelligence. But i feel as these are pretty self-explanatory and i'm willing to bet many people will have these as well.

Hypocrisy

Hypocrisy.

Everybody hates it. I've found that in the Greek community, including in my own chapter, there are hypocritical people by the dozens. Everybody talks about living by our values and joining greek life for good reasons. Unfortunately some of these very same people, are the ones going against these "values" every time they go out. The ones who, during the day, preach about sisterhood or brotherhood, are sometimes the very same people who go out, get wasted, and do stupid things. 

Look I understand, it's college, and everybody likes to unwind and relax on the weekends. But, if this is what you like to do, then own up to it. Don't walk around like you are god's gift to Greek Life, just to act like a complete idiot on the weekend. Personally, i will be the first to admit that i've done stupid stuff i've regret and I know there are times that I don't live up to the values our founders founded Delta Zeta on. But at least i'm honest about it. And i know that's something our founders would appreciate--honesty. 

First Official Blog Post

So I'm officially writing my first blog post. My brother and sister-in-law (who are avid bloggers) must be so  proud. It will certainly be interesting to see how this goes. Now, for Tyler's questions.

Who am I? I am a second year finance major from Houston. Being far away from home can sometimes be hard, but I love being at OSU. When I'm not busy with Homework or DZ, I love shopping and being outdoors. I also enjoy traveling and i've been to 16 different countries.

Why am I in a sorority? Well for me, i was a part of the "always joiners" recruitment books talk about. In the south, everybody goes Greek, it's just how things are done. My older brother was in a fraternity at UT and he met his wife at her sorority semi-formal. Needless to say, Greek life was a necessity for any college I wanted to attend. While Greek life up here certainly isn't what it is down south, i love it. Recruitment was stressful of course, but I am so happy that i ended up at Delta Zeta. Currently I am the Vice President of Membership, and I definitely enjoy it.

How do I feel? Well i actually enjoy a blog as opposed to carmen, or a different type of website. It gives it a bit more of a relaxed feel, and the videos are a nice way to break up all the information. I am definitely looking forward to having some great discussions about how we can change Greek life for the better.