Hello for South Carolina!

Hi friends!

Currently, I am visiting Wofford College in Spartanberg, SC! After a much needed vacation home in which I got to visit Grand forks(!), I have once again hit the road on the longest stretch of visits that I have so far. Let me tell you what I have been up to lately...

Home was great! My mom picked me up from the airport in Bismarck late Friday night (Sept 5) and we stayed at Laura & Geralds. On Saturday we woke up early and drove to Portland to visit family and friends. There was a whole crew of family members visiting my aunt Shari and uncle Dennis' house in Portland! The following family members were in attendance at our festivities: my cousin April and her gorgeous baby Noah, my aunt Molly and uncle Glen, their daughter Angie, her daughter Lizzie, my cousin Kelsey, my cousin Sara and her daughter Colby, my cousins Jason, Samuel, and Wyatt, and of course Molly and Glen's kids a.k.a dogs Maddy and Rudy. We had so much fun having a mini family reunion! Noah is an absolute doll and it was great to hold him and give him big kisses! It has been so much fun watching him grow up!

Not only did I get to see my family, but I also traveled to Grand Forks and got to see my UND family! It was so so so much fun to see all of my friends and the renovations of Theta! The living room looks amazing and I know that the girls are going to rock recruitment! After GF and Portland, mom and I came home (on Monday Sept 8) and the sleep deprivation finally caught up with me as I got sick :( If my body could have planned a perfect time to get sick it was definitely then! I slept pretty much the rest of my vacation, so needless to say, I did not get much work done, but I did feel a lot better! On Wednesday night I drove back to Bismarck and Laura dropped me off at the airport bright and early Thursday (Sept. 10) morning so I could travel to Virginia.

I got to Williamsburg at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday night and started meetings right away! W & M was absolutely beautiful! It was so cool to literally be a stones through away from Colonial Williamsburg! The Theta house was a beautiful old colonial home (I know, weird huh?!) that had a lot of character. I assisted the women with recruitment and am proud to say that the Beta Lambda chapter has 28 new members! I had a great time and found an amazing coffee shop called Aromas that served the best vanilla lattes that I have ever had! Being Norwegian, it is my duty to find a coffee shop wherever I go. My UND Theta sister, Samantha Haz drove down to Williamsburg (her hometown of Richmond is only one hour away) on Saturday to visit me. It was so great to see her and to catch up! She is training for a triathlon and is looking so buff! It's always great to see someone from home!

I left Williamsberg on Tuesday (Sept 15) and traveled to South Carolina, where I am now. Everything has been going well here and all of the members are welcoming and nice. Southern hospitality is not just a saying. I am staying in the dorms with a couple of the Thetas because the chapter doesn't have a house. I can honestly say that I never thought I would be staying in the dorms at the age of 23, but it's been good!

I will be in Spartanberg until Sunday morning (September 20th) then I head back to the Midwest and visit Lawrence College in Appleton Wisconsin (September 20-24)! After Lawrence, I visit Hanover College in Hanover, IN (September 24-28). Then, I finally get a break and head to Minneapolis to chill with my favorite dental student Amy (September 28 - October6)! I can't wait to sleep in, work on reports, and literally do nothing! Amy and I are going to drive from the cities to Grand Forks for homecoming the first weekend of October! I'm excited to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of Greek Life and catch a football game and the homecoming festivities! I cannot wait to see all of my Union friends and college peeps! Until then I better catch up on reports! I'm so far behind, I'm almost ahead! Hope things are going well wherever you may be!

Thanks for following me! :)

Heading Home

So, I"m sitting here in the Seattle airport getting ready to board a plane to fly to Denver then to Bismarck! I just finished up my 12 day visit at the University of Montana. The visit was great! Missoula is a beautiful city with its own unique flair. I highly suggest taking a vacation to Missoula if you haven't yet. There is so much to do in one little city; hiking, biking, skiing, kayaking, shopping in the adorable shops downtown, and so much more! This is a place I could definetily see myself living someday!

I thought being in one spot for almost two weeks would be really difficult, but I found that it was actually more difficult for me to leave today. The women of Alpha Nu were so unbelievably welcoming and fun! They are a very driven group of women who really have come a long way this year. They took me around campus, hiked a mountain with me, took me to "out to lunch" at the park and made me feel at home. They reminded me so much of my own chapter! There was actually a girl named Anna who completely reminded me of my friend Jessie! It was uncanny! They are both so spunky, fun, and friendly!

While on my visit I helped the chapter with their pre-recruitment workshop last week then with recruitmen this week. The chapter did so well! They made quota plus one and will be COBing some amazing women who suicide bid Theta! (Pretty much they rocked at recruitment!) The chapter did the best out of the four chapters on campus...everyone wanted Theta!!! It was an amazing accomplishment for a chapter that really struggled with recruitment in years past.

While at Missoula, I got to catch up with my friend Shannon Burthold, who is from Bismarck. Shannon and I were in the same dorm my first year at UND. She transferred to the University of Montana last year. It was so great to see a friendly face from home and to walk around downtown Missoula on a Saturday morning checking out craft fairs, street fairs, live music, and open markets. It was a great time.

Another awesome thing that I got to do in Missoula is climb the 'M' Moutain. This is a very steep hill that has a great big M on it for the Univ. of Montana. It was a difficult hike that reminded me that I need to continue to run everyday, but was an amazing view of the campus and the city.

Today I am meeting my mom in Bismarck and tomorrow we are going to Portland to see my family which I am very excited about. I am also going to Grand Forks to see my family of friends and to reminisce about our college days :) I am so excited to see the renovations to Theta!!! I can't wait!

Well, I better go board my flight! See you all in ND!

Lyss ;)

Recent Travels

Hello my Blog Friends!

I have been informed by my very blunt friend Amy that it has been a while since I have blogged and she's right, it has been a while! I got caught up in all of my exciting adventures that I forgot to document them! Currently, I am at a visit at the University of Montana in Missoula. It has been an amazing two weeks and I am so so so glad that I have had the opportunity to visit this gorgeous part of the country. I have decided that Missoula is going on my list of places that I could live. I will fill you in about Missoula hopefully tomorrow, but for now, let me tell you about my last two visits.

My very first visit was to Clemson University in Clemson, SC. Justine, another ELC, and myself flew into Clemson on August 11th and stayed until the 16th. It was a really great first visit. The women of Delta Phi showed us hospitality at its finest.*

*Quick side-note for those of you who are not Thetas... each one of our Kappa Alpha Theta chapters are named by the Greek alphabet to differentiate one from another since we are all Kappa Alpha Theta. For example the first chapter of Theta established is known as the Alpha chapter. As chapters were added they continued down the Greek alphabet. Once they got to the end of the alphabet they started doubling letters, for example Alpha Pi chapter (UND). I hope this makes sense.

So anyway, we started our ELC adventures staying at the advisory board chairman's home. The ABC, Lynne, was an amazing woman who lived in a gorgeous house by the lake. Too bad we didn't have time to enjoy the view from the double decker dock! Instead, the next morning we jumped in a car with the Thetas and traveled to a retreat center in the woods of North Carolina for a recruitment retreat. The drive was absolutely beautiful, as we drove through the Appalachians the entire way.

The chapter hosted their recruitment retreat at this neat camp center in the middle of the woods (we were warned that their have been bear sightings and to ensure that we walk outside with a partner Eeeek!). It was 3 fun-filled days of learning all about recruitment, teaching songs, facilitating workshops, and much more. After the retreat, our visit continued on campus in Clemson. We met with the rest of the chapter officers and got to see the adorable parts of Clemson. The town is so cute! There are cobble-stone streets lining the "main drag" and the entire town is decorated in orange, as orange and purple are the school colors.

Football is to Clemson as Hockey is to UND... the entire town and the surrounding area goes absolutely crazy for Clemson football! In fact, it is almost impossible to get a game-day ticket as they are sold-out so far in advance! If students park their cars in any parking lot on campus they must be moved for gamedays (even students living on-campus) because fans rent out all of the parking spaces on campus for tailgaiting. It's insane! I really want to come back for a football game!

After Clemson, Justine and I had to part ways :( We had a great first visit together and we had so much fun trying to figure out what the heck we were doing! I wish we could travel together the entire year. Justine can easily go with the flow and she has a great sense of humor! Anyway, after Clemson I took a cross-country trip to Fresno, CA and the Gamma Chi chapter at Fresno State University.

Fresno was a completely different animal then Clemson. First of all it was sooooooo hot! Being a sweaty kid anyway, I did not fair well in the scorching heat, and do not see myself moving to CA anytime soon. I arrived at Gamma Chi on August 16 and stayed until the 20th. I had a challenging visit, but I learned a lot. It's crazy how different various Thetas are throughout the country. The women of Gamma Chi were great and even showed me their campus' vineyard and new bookstore! They were very welcoming and have been working hard to make their chapter better. I can't wait to find out how they did during recruitment!

One thing that surprised this little North Dakota gal was the rampant crime in California. It was insane to me that the chapter had to put up a fence around their parking lot to ensure that their cars wouldn't get broken into, as this is a daily occurrence! Also, there is gang activity in the city and the girls definitely informed me that you never walk alone by yourself at night. There was graffiti on some of the fraternitie's facilities and I felt like I was in a completely different world. This surely solidified my decision to never live in California. Anyway, it was a really great learning and growing experience!

After Fresno, I got to go home and spend a couple of days with my family! I pretty much washed clothes, caught up on the "What Not to Wear" that I had DVR'ed, wrote reports, ate my mom's delicious food, and slept! It was an eventful couple of days. A big thank you goes out to my aunt and uncle and cousin Emily for picking me up and dropping me off at the airport in Bismarck! You are so wonderful and I'm thankful for such an amazing family! :)

I will update you (hopefully tomorrow) about the Unversity of Montana (Woot!) but in the meantime, keep on keepin' on...

Love,
Alyssa

Delta Phi's Facility at Clemson University

It's on Clemson's campus and is very similar to a residence hall. None of the fraternities or sororities have houses instead they have halls. Theta has its own hall, the other sororities (excepte DZ) have one floor of a hall. All of the fraternity and sorority halls are in a semi-circle and in the middle is a lawn called the "Quad". On football game day all of the fraternities tailgate on the "Quad."

Gamma Chi's Facility at Calif. State Univ. Fresno

(also known as Fresno State)

The sororities at Gamma Chi also form a semi-circle and in the middle of all of the facilities is the Greek lawn. It's pretty neat! The women said that when it gets really hot (which for me would be 99.9% of the time) they pull out a slip-n-slide and all of the fraternities and sororities play in the water. Also, the facility's first floor was recently renovated and it looks so cool!