[AOE2AlphaPhi]

Sorry it's taken me so long to update! I've been getting home from work really late and exhausted. But here goes for day 2:

I had been talking to a bunch of girls in my dorm and they almost all (except Elizabeth) were negative about Kate Spade. This definately influenced me more than it should have.

That Saturday was activity day, where we would 'do an activity' at each house. I didn't really know what that meant, and I was nervously excited.

I was happy that my first house was Francesco Biasia. I talked to 3 girls and each of my conversations were unique. I met Jen's grand-little Rachel and learned that this chapter takes the whole family really seriously, which I loved. I also talked to a girl (also named Rachel) who was from the Bay Area just like I am, and we had a lot in common. Rachel showed me posters of the activities the girls did, including the fundraiser for their philanthropy, which had been really successful, but I felt like I didn't have enough questions for her. Finally, I talked to Ella, who was in my aerobics class and I also loved. I don't even remember what we talked about, but our conversation was really easy and we kept laughing. Ella was with me when we did the activity, a Jeopardy type game with a pun in the name that related to the chapter's name. I felt pretty awkward during the game, because everyone was really loud and happy, and I'm not that comfortable being like that with girls I don't really know. I liked this house a lot, but I was worried that my lack of enthusiasm about the game would mean I would be cut the next day. (Because this was my first chapter, my notes on this one were way more detailed than for the others for activity day.)

The next house was Chloe. I loved coming to this house because I saw a lot of people from the day before, and they remembered my name as I walked in and out. My conversations were great, and my notes mostly just have a lot of happy faces and stars in them. One of the rushers showed me posters of their activities and trophies they had won, and I was as, if not more, impressed as at Francesco Biasa. A lot of the girls I talked to weren't girls I would have thought were in a sorority, and I liked that. I also liked that this chapter had a lot of activities with their philanthropy, and had won Sigma Chi's fundraiser contest (at least that's what I think my notes say.) We played Jenga in small groups at this house, and the Jenga blocks had icebreaker questions on them that we had to answer. I knocked the Jenga thing over after about a second (I was SO embarassed,) so we just read the questions and answered them. I couldn't remember her name to save my life, but I LOVED the girl who rushed me when we played Jenga. I didn't like that I was talking to another PNM and rusher though while we were playing the game. I also thought it was weird that we played that kind of Jenga, because it was a variation on a sleezy drinking game that we played a lot at one of the frats. Overall, I loved this chapter, and I felt that I had really clicked with the girls I talked to.

Cole Haan was next, and this was where the day started to take a turn for the worse. I didn't click with anyone I talked to, and there were a lot of awkward silences. All the girls seemed really similar to me, so I made the mistake of introducing myself to a girl I had met, and saying "hi again" to a girl I was meeting for the first time. I knew I was doing badly, and struggled to find things to say to the girl who showed me their activity posters. I did really like one of the sisterhoods they did every year, and I still loved the idea of this chapter. At this chapter, the activity was playing family feud with a pun in the name to relate to the chapter. I tried really hard to fit in while we played this game, but I knew I was just coming across as desperate and obnoxious. I thought this was the chapter with the best reputation though, and that I was just failing at fitting in in the place that should rightfully be my home, so I was confused and stressed out. I'm sure I didn't smile nearly as much as at Chloe or Francesco Biasia. I was trying really hard to like this chapter, so my notes focused a lot on things like lettered pillows in the common area that the bigs made for the littles.

Even with the bad time I had at Cole Haan, I was planning to cut Kate Spade when I visited on Saturday. Saturday though, I talked to girls I had much more in common with, and I wound up having a nice time. This house had groups of rushers and rushees talk, which I didn't like, but I did have a better impression that day than the day before. I don't remember this house having posters, although it must have. I wasn't paying very much attention at this house at this point, because I planned to cut them, but I remember thinking to myself "I should still be friends with some of these girls." I also talked to one girl again who I had liked the day before, and she rushed me while we played their game. In their game, we broke into groups, and one of the actives would say a word, and each group would sing a song with that word in it. I felt the most comfortable playing the game at this chapter, but of course, it didn't occur to me that that might mean something.

I talked to Sally before I ranked the chapters, and she told me that she had absolutely loved Chloe and Cole Haan, so I didn't mention my bad experience. I took about 10 minutes ranking the chapters and because I knew what my friends were doing, I decided to cut Kate Spade. I had loved Chloe so much that day that it went up to first on my list.

My final list for that day looked like this:

Chloe
Francesco Biasia
Cole Haan
Kate Spade

In retrospect, focusing this much on reputation was STUPID STUPID STUPID, but it's what I did. I turned out happy in the end, but it might not have happened that much, so I would caution any other pnms on doing what I did this ranking.

Sally's looked like this:
Cole Haan
Chloe
Francesco Biasia
Kate Spade

Jill's listed:
Francesco Biasia
Chloe
Cole Haan
Kate Spade

Elizabeth's was:
Chloe
Kate Spade
Cole Haan
Francesco Biasia.