[sweetmagnolia]

Since I go to a small school with only 6 groups, we visited all of them in one night. We walked over, had dinner with our Pi Chi groups, and then proceeded to visit our groups.

NYC This was the last chapter my Pi Chi group visited, and we were all tired- the PNMs and the actives. I had a fun time talking to all of them though- I talked to three girls total and they all said very different but great things about their chapter. This chapter, for whatever reason, had the biggest room but some of the sparsest decorations. They couldn't tell me much about the fundraisers they do for their philanthropy, but they seemed very committed to it. I really enjoyed myself, but I felt bad because I yawned a couple times.
Chicago I. Loved. This chapter. It was the first chapter I visited and when I left I couldn't stop smiling- my cheeks hurt! I talked to four different actives and we had a lot of fun. I regret not talking more about their chapter and their events and philanthropy, but I felt like I was just talking with a group of old friends about who-knows-what. Also, all the girls from my HS that go to this school are in this sorority, and it was nice to see them!
Los Angeles I felt very hot and cold with this group. I loved the first two girls I talked to, but the third one just left me feeling kinda meh. She would say something was really cool, but then be like 'well, it's kinda silly' or 'it shouldn't be that big of a deal'. She also said her favorite thing about being in the chapter were the parties with the different campus fraternities- that was a huge turn off. I did, however, talk to an active who is in charge of programming and she was much more eloquent and passionate about what their group does. After that, the actives all sang and did a ceremonial candle pass, which was great. One active commented about how their chapter usually does it for things like getting into grad school and not getting engaged 'like a lot of other chapters'. I wasn't sure how to react to that. Overall, I did enjoy my time visiting with these women.
Denver This was the only other group that I left with a smile on my face. Their philanthropy is something very near and dear to me and I had been quivering with excitement to get to talk to them. All the women I talked to were smart, funny, and seemed very knowledgeable. This was also the only chapter where I noticed actives from my own ethnic group- they were no where to be found in the other chapters. The decorations here were probably my favorite, and I really enjoyed how they set up the room- if you walked around, they had a little booth dedicated to each aspect of their group- their sisterhood, their philanthropy, etc. I would love to return to this chapter.
Miami Visiting this chapter was like getting teeth pulled. I know that I'm being a little dramatic, but talking to these girls was painful. It was two PNMs to each active and I found the conversation to be very awkward- I think it may have been more the other PNM than the woman we were talking to, but still. Then, when another member came over, the conversation got worse. I tried to talk about what her favorite thing about Greek Life was or what she enjoys about their philanthropy but she just kept saying things like 'your shoes are really cute' or asking about the movies we saw over the summer. I thought I was going to love this chapter but I was unimpressed.
Boston I really really liked visiting this chapter. You could tell the second you walked in the kind of effort these women put into the night. My conversations here were nothing out of the ordinary- we didn't spend much time talking about their philanthropy, but I did hear about other things they do around the school and within the chapter- how they maintain their GPAs, etc. A girl I knew came over and we talked for a while and that was really nice because seeing her there eased my jitters. I was so impressed that all the women were still wearing their heels- they had been standing around in them for at least 4 hours at this point! I can't even imagine. This was my second to last group and I started yawning here and felt so bad. I don't think anyone took it personally, but I was embarrassed.

At the night, we had to do our rankings for tomorrow's Philanthropy Night. I didn't find the process particularly hard. Here's what I put:

1.NYC
1.Chicago
1.Los Angeles
1.Denver
1.Boston
2.Miami