[olderPNM]

The first house we visited was Ariel - I walked in and thought "wow all these girls are blonde". (That was definitely a true part of their reputation.) But once I started talking to a few of the girls I thought they were really sweet. Of course, Sara was in hog heaven. She was still dying to be an Ariel and thought she fit in perfectly. She talked incessantly about her future career plans, which I think she expected to impress the Ariel girls she spoke with. I thought she sounded arrogant and full of herself, but didn't know if that's what these girls wanted. I didn't really feel much of a connection at Ariel overall and was looking forward to the other houses.

I should mention that during this time I had become aquainted with an Ariel alumni through an activity on campus (I'll call her "Jane"). I thought she was really nice but wasn't sure what to make of her since she was pushing Ariel so strongly.

Next we went to Huey. Huey was a pretty popular chapter on campus, but I had no idea at the time. I don't remember much from this house except that one girl was extremely rude (looking back on it, she was probably just nervous) and was pretty much ignoring another rushee who seemed really interested in Huey. I didn't get a great impression and mentally crossed Huey off my list. Sara wasn't a fan of Huey either so we left the party pretty quickly.

We then tried to make it to Minnie before we went to Pluto. Now Minnie was also another popular chapter on campus, but I was blissfully unaware of this fact. A boy in our dorms had a friend who went to a nearby university where Minnie was, apparently, not a very strong chapter. His fraternity had made up a song about Minnies that was really awful. When we told him we were interested in Minnie he responded with a "no!!!! You can be a Minnie! They are all ____ and _____!!!" (Ridiculous sterotypes that don't need to be repeated.) We were surprised to see that the Minnies at our school were actually pretty and talkative! I had a great conversation with a Minnie from a town near where I grew up. We knew a few of the same people and got along great. I left with a really great impression of Minnie. Sara, on the other hand, got the impression that Minnies were all snobby. Of course, in my young mind I believed what Sara told me since she was the resident sorority expert, so I eventually decided that Sara was right, Minnies were snobby.

Sara and I then ran over to make an appearance at the Pluto party. The Pluto girls were nice (as usual) but I wasn't loving Pluto. They just didn't seem like girls I would be friends with outside of a sorority. But (as impressionable as I was) I went along with Sara's opinion of Pluto, that they were the only other chapter to consider other than Ariel.

The houses were supposed to call if you were invited to their preference ceremony. I received invitations from Pluto, Ariel and Minnie. Sara only received invites from Ariel and Pluto. I told Sara I was invited to the preference at Minnie and she said "well you're not going are you, those girls were so snobby!" I agreed and called the Minnies back and told them I wouldn't be attending. (I still cringe when I think of this.) So Sara and I both attended pref at Pluto and Ariel.