[leilanimoon]

ok...this may take a long time!!! Today was a very fun-filled though exhausting day! I'll go through the details with the houses in alphabetical order, although we did not go through the houses alphabetically(just to maintain some sense of anonymity until it's over!) We were given little booklets to keep our notes in and it gave a bit of info about each house. It's so hard because we had to rank the houses 1-10* after we visited them. I totally just had to go on conversations and first impressions, so I hope I made the right choices! Tomorrow, we go to up to 8 houses, depending on which houses asked us back. EK was actually the first *house* we went to, but they were just introduced to us all and will not be going through formal recruitment but will instead hold an informal after rush has finished. Ok, so, on with the show.

AXO-
Prior to rush, I had heard good things about this house. The first girl I met struck me as very athletic, which was cool, and she seemed very down to earth and peppy. The second girl I talked to was awesome and we talked about Europe and the different mixers and theme parties they have. I learned that she also joined as a transfer and lives in the house. She was a very sweet girl and I didn't have to carry along the conversation. The last girl was probably one of the most unique girls I met. If I saw her on the street, I would never guess that she'd go greek. She was very sweet and seemed very energetic, so it was cool. Overall, I got the feeling that this house is very athletic and peppy. The conversations were great, however, as far as it feeling like home..no...not yet, but I am still waiting to see how things will progress if they invite me back for tomorrow! Out of 1-10, with 1 being the highest, I ranked AXO at 7. This could change, we'll see!

Alpha Delta Pi-
These girls seemed very fun and very cute. Everyone I met was laidback, cool, and funny. It was really perhaps a faux-pas on the girl's part, but at one point me and one of the girls were talkign about something and she slipped and cursed, but we were both so into the conversation that it actually made me chuckle in a good way. I know we are all supposed to maintain a level of decorum, but it was her at her most natural and it was so funny because it actually put me at ease. Their sisterhood sounded really cool. they take a lot of roadtrips together and travel together, which is cool, because I LOVE to travel. As a matter of fact, in most houses, when I brought up European travel, a lot of the rest of the conversation was about where we'd been and what we wanted to do because a lot of people were in majors that had to do with international relations, political scoence, languages, or global studies, which was right up my alley!! I ranked them 5th.

AEPhi-
A lot of the girls here seemed in general really nice, but a few seemed kind of disinterested. Their house is kind of small and they had to rush us 3 and 2 at a time because there aren't a lot of girls in their house. I knew I didnt and wouldn't fit in there because I'm a bit on the girly side and they seemed to be pretty no-frills. I'm looking for girls I can be silly with and talk about fashion and celebrities, yet also about law school, politics, my fears, and my dreams and I knew it wouldn't be with these girls that I'd find that. Trhoughout rush, I gravitated towards the houses with enthusiastic girls, because I always tried to make an effort in every house to find some topic we both loved to talk about and keep the convo going rather than a question-answer type thing. This house kind of felt like that, more like an interview than a getting to know you. I ranked them 10th.

Alpha Phi-
The girls here were all very cute and sweet, and the conversations were cool, but compared to the other houses, it didn't flow as much. There's just a certain spark I look for in the rusher's eyes, to see if they are genuinely interested in what I'm saying or if they are just waiting for their turn to speak or trying to surf their mind for a new question to ask. This wasn't soo much the case here, but sort of, compared to other houses. I ranked them 6th.

Tri-Delt
I really wanted to like this house. Their philanthropy seemed so awesome! They have a penpal who is a cancer patient and they have a march for the child and raise money for them. this was the most impressive philanthropic activity I'd heard of at that point. The house itself was really pretty, it smelled pleasantly of strawberries andhad apleasant feel, but the girls seemed to be bored with me and there were too many lulls in the conversation. They could've just been tired, but, hey, we were all tired, and houses I went to AFTER them were still in the spirit. I ranked them 9th.

Delta Gamma
Still totally love this house! They are sooo cute! Every girl was cheerful, had smiles on their faces and knew how to keep the conversation lively. I totally lost myself in the moment while I was there and loved how they seemed genuinely interested in me. I guess I'll know tomorrow if they REALLY were,lol...but I like to be made to feel good about myself, just like anybody and I felt something pretty special there. What will surprise you is that I ranked them 4th insteadof 1st, but that is because my 1-4 is really all #1 at this point and I felt like they might ask me back no matter what (I REALLY hope so, at least) so it didn't matter too much where I ranked them because they are supposedly not privy to how they were ranked by each girl, only if they were in the top 8 or not for each girl.

Gamma Phi Beta-
One really cool note. They have a phat pool and a house with apartment-style living. These girls seemed really sweet but because I'm older than most of the girls I talked to, they seemed at a lost as to what to ask, because they had dealt with so many freshman that day and were used to asking questions geared more towards them like what dorm they were in, if they were familiar with Isla Vista(the student community). There were lulls in the conversation where it was just like, ummm..so..yeah..and when they asked me about my summer vacation, I started into my oft-told story about my whole eurail vacation and they seemed a bit too overwhelmed by it. Even though they had never heard the story before, I had told it at every house and we were getting near the end so I was kind of just relaying it without as much enthusiasm and I think they might have taken that as a sign that I was being cocky or something because theyd ask, "So, whered you go?" and I kind of just sighed and said, All over!" so it was maybe bad on my part, but I started to pep up again at this house towards the end because I kept telling myself I wanted to try and maintain the same level of enthusiasm at each house and give everything a chance. Perception, or pretty much the way u choose to react to a situation can kind of change how you respond to things and just basically change your way of thinking so by the time I talked to the last girl, I was back to being bubbly old me! I ranked them 8th. I hope if I'm invited back I can learn more about these girls!

Theta-
OMG! Why was everyone so gorgeous!?!? lol..I guess they are pretty top on our campus! Every girl seemed genuinely nice, though, so it was fun chatting with them! I felt like I really was just meeting someone for the first time. I forgot where I was, I was totally in the moment, and I was totally being myself. I was genuinely interested in the topics we covered and the girls seemed to really listen. I was so impressed by this house..they were awesome. I ranked them 2nd. One girl was so funny because we ended up having a lot of htings in common and she's say something like,"omg, are you serious?!? shut up!" i know it sounds bizarre, but it was just hysterical...you would think that's a big no-no but she just reminded me of friends I have back home. I felt very comfortable in this house.

KKG-
I had a wonderful conversation with the 1st girl I talked to and we talked or a loooong time! The 2nd girl was just as sweet and the 3rd was cool, too, but a little shy so I don't know exactly how I stack up to them, but I loved the 1st 2. I ended up ranking them 3rd.

Pi Beta Phi-
Ok, this is the group I ranked number 1. My reason being is mainly based on a few factors. One, I discovered that a really cool girl from a few classes of mine was in it. She came over and said hello to me while I was chatting with another rusher and totally put in a good word for me. She is the sweetest girl ever and exemplifies to me what a sorority girl should be. Smart, funny, confident, and dedicated. The other reasons were the conversations I had with the girls in the house and the overall poised demeanor most of the girls displayed. Everyone seemed really mature and classy. The 1st girl who rushed me joined as a junior transfer which put me at ease because so am I. I liked the fact that she was honest. When she asked me what I did for summer and I told her I travelled throughout Europe she said, Wow, every girl I've talked to today has been talking baout their trips to Europe and I've never left the States. Rather than harp on it just to keep conversation going, the conversation just veered towards other topics and it was a lot more laidback. then the other girl came over to start rushing me and the 1st girl told her about Europe and this girl and I started talking about itagain and had so many similar experiences. The conversation was so hyper and fun, it was just what I needed because this was near the end of the day and I was so exhausted but this totally pepped me up again!

All in all, today was a great day. I met some girls in my Rho Chi group that were friendly and we as a a group had lunch together. I had a chance to flex my conversation muscles(ok, that sounds silly,huh?) and just have a good time. I am praying for the best tomorrow. As a junior, it's very possible that I will be cut heavily, but I'm overall pleased with the experience nonetheless and I know I at least got a taste for what sorority life is like at UCSB. So many girls were involved in study abroad, loved to travel, loved to play sports and just overall do things that I like to do. That was great to have that commonality because since I've been here (snce Winter quarter), I haven't really had an opportunity like this to meet a lot of girls, I'm still relatively new to campus and only knew ppl from my high school.

*Sigh* I'm so pooped, I better get some shut-eye! I'll let you all know tomorrow what's up with me!

oh wait, sigma kappa is in the process of rebuilding and they had their nat'l come out and speaK and a few words from the president. I'll write more about that later. I'm gonna collapse!