First Stage - Day 2 -
Today I wore a denim mini skirt, huge earrings and white flats. My shirt is this weird sort of geometric thing. It is turquoise and has this fold over collar that hangs down in front and is sort of off to one side. It is my absolute favorite shirt because it is so cool!
The biggest thing about today is that we are in Champaign, and more of the fraternity houses are here (as opposed to Urbana). The jerks have put couches on their front lawns and drink beer and hold up score cards and make cat calls as we walk by. It is so humiliating.
Tipperary: This is a very interesting looking house – kind of like 2 houses put together. I am surprised when we go in that the inside is very attractive and comfortable. A very outgoing girl introduces herself and off we go. I liked the girl I talked to initially, but the second girl who came over knew one of the girls rushing with me and they started talking about their mutual friends and I was totally out of the loop. When we left this chapter, I overhear Pam and Joelle saying that this is one of the chapters where the really pretty, really nice girls go. It is obvious that they approve, but I am turned off since I felt excluded from the conversation during the party.
Sligo: This house seems to be pretty far away, but it is nice. When we get inside, a girl named Cathy picks me up. She tells me that she is Dave’s sister. (Dave is a friend from high school.) She is incredibly nice and tells me she has been dying to meet me since she knew a lot about me because I hung out with Dave (who is my best friend Cara’s ex-boyfriend.) She obviously has talked to someone about me because she asks a lot about the specific teachers that I had in high school, my group of friends, etc. It is a great conversation and a nice break from the usual rush questions. Cathy is a senior and I didn’t have a chance to meet anyone else here. This chapter didn’t do a big song/chant at the beginning so it was tough to get a feel for their personality. Pam remarks that they are too small to even be a consideration.
Clare: I don’t have any notes from this party, but I put a star on their page so I must have liked it!
Longford: This house seemed strange even before we entered. It was a little run down and seemed small. It was right on campus, but still, it didn’t seem like a sorority house as much as a fraternity house. One girl rushes 3 of us. She wasn’t very talkative and it was HOT in the house. The windows are open and we kept having to swat flies. There was a funny smell that was distracting as well. This was definitely my least favorite so far. I felt bad though because I have no idea what the true personality of the chapter was because my particular rusher was very shy and quiet.
Carlow: This is another very attractive house, inside and out. I don’t remember anything specific, but they got a star as well, so it must have been nice!
Kerry: I don’t care for the exterior of this house, but I am still excited to go inside. Wow again – so much energy from these girls! Their cheer is very cute and the girls are adorable. The inside of their house is gorgeous. I meet 2 girls who talk with 2 of us the entire time, I liked that because we really got somewhere with the conversation. Melissa from my rush group is sitting very near me and she is smiling a lot. I can tell she likes it here too. They aren’t my very favorite, but I really want to come back here.
Cork: This is one of the few sororities that I had heard of before coming to school. I knew that I had a rec here, whatever that meant. There is one girl in my rush group who is a legacy here and she talks abut it constantly. I have very high expectations here, but I must say that I don’t find anything remarkable, and actually don’t feel any special connection at all. I am happy for legacy girl, who obviously loved it, but I didn’t feel it here. I wrote “maybe” in my book.
Meath: Pam and Joelle have told us that this chapter only takes freshmen. I don’t know if that is good or bad, but they make it seem like that is bad, because sophomores are so much cooler than freshmen. Anyway, I am greeted by Anne-Marie – a sophomore from my high school. I didn’t know she went here either! I never really knew her well, but I thought it was nice that she rushed me.
Limerick: This house is stunning on the outside, and already has my mom’s stamp of approval since her sister had received a bid from them. (Eyes rolling at my mom’s cluelessness!) This is another high energy house. I am met by Tracy and we get to talk one on one until she introduces Dana who joins us. They both seem to be more outgoing versions of myself. I love this chapter and feel very at home.
Leitrim: Finally the last party of First Stage. It is dark and we all drudge in and sit on the beautiful wood floors. I guess I am just tired because I just don’t feel much of anything here. I would like to come back and give it a chance when I am not dead tired.
Back at the dorms, Jenn likes pretty much all of the chapters, but Shar, who is more sorority savvy starts naming off the “good” ones. Shar is a very nice person, but she is kind of materialistic, I guess you could say, so of course I am very interested in her opinions, since I was a 17 year-old idiot. I can’t remember all of her “good” sororities, but I did have a very chicken-scratch looking list in my booklet that says “Shar – good sororities..”
Missy and Erin from my floor have entirely different opinions. Erin is like me and doesn’t know anything about Greek life. She likes several chapters. Missy, on the other hand, has informed us that the only chapter to join is
Cork. When I told her that
Cork isn’t one of my favorites, she looks at me like I am insane, but then Shar tells us that
Cork is really good at other schools but less so at U of I. I am not sure how Shar knows that, or if it is even true, but it is interesting. It was the first I had heard that reputations are different at different schools.
My own favorites are
Kerry,
Limerick,
Waterford,
Kilkenny, and
Offaly.