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!