Homecoming

This past weekend was Homecoming here at SMU.  This year I was the Homecoming Chair for my sorority. Before last week, I had no idea all of the things Homecoming consisted of. For instance, community service day, Peruna and window painting, field day, all night float building and the quiz bowl. I really thought it was great how the King and Queen are not only based on peer votes but also how your organization does throughout the entire week, that way it is not solely a popularity contest. All in all, my sorority did not place in the Queen competition but... we did place first in float building and in the Peruna painting but it did not come easy. We could not catch a break--first, our Peruna got stolen. Girls spent 24 hours making that only for it to go M.I.A. three hours later. Before we could hang our reward signs (which we immediately ran to Kinkos to make upon hearing of the kidnapping), Peruna was saved by an RA in McElvaney. Apparently some intelligent freshman boy thought it would be hilarious to steal it and then clearly did not know what to do with it so he left it in an elevator. After the Peruna incident, the fraternity we were paired with for the week got into a little trouble and by orders of their Nationals, were not allowed to participate in the rest of the week with us. This was especially unfortunate because we mainly needed them to help us with building the float, which had not started yet.  Luckily, a couple of the guys still helped out a lot with the float, even though they could not participate in the other events anymore and it all worked out. My "Everest" that week was definitely the giant Stay Puft Marshmallow Man which I constructed from chicken wire and pomp, he must of been at least 8 feet tall, and I was very proud to see him on the Boulevard on game day.  Homecoming was a lot of fun and a tradition of SMU that I love!

Sorority Life

As I was sitting in Chapter last monday, I thought to myself, why do we (Greeks) do this stuff? Who thought of it? I love my sorority and am truly proud of being a part of my house. I just sometimes wonder who initially thought of all the things that we do... For instance, RECRUITMENT. Sometimes when I go out at night I feel like I am so eager to meet freshman girls who I want to be a part of my house after recruitment, that I do not even pay attention to my friends. My friends and I sometimes refer to the recruitment process as flirting with girls. Because, when you go out you want to talk to as many younger girls as possible, you want them to like you and if all goes well hopefully you can get their digits and ask them to lunch! It sounds really funny and ridiculous but all Sorority Women do it in order to get girls they like in their new pledge class. Guys do it to! Since  SMU Greek life is so popular it seems that first semester all Greek Men are doing is buying younger boys drinks, cab rides, and trying to show them a good time, while Greek Women are also trying to win over the younger girls. Sometimes it seems a little bizarre to me to think about, especially when I think back to when I was a Freshman and I would get so excited when an older girl in a sorority would come to talk to me. The process of formal recruitment for sororities also makes me think sometimes, whose idea was it to sing for other girls to entice them to join your organization??? The whole door chant thing (the way a sorority greet the potential new members during formal recruitment) is just a little creepy and intimidating. Then there are the different days of rush... maybe I am being cynical but I have always thought that skit day is a particular strange part of recruitment. In normal life, I do not make people or watch people perform skits before I decide if I want to be like them and join their group. Bottom line, the Sorority World is not the real world... from an outsider's view, they probably think we are all HUGE weirdos who do weird stuff. While I will admit that I too find what we do a little weird sometimes, it works, and it is something you would have to be a part of to understand.

SMU Wildlife

Ever since my freshman year here at SMU, I have always found one thing very strange about our campus--the unusual animals. 

1. The SQUIRRELS!!!--> What is up with the squirrels in Dallas? They are not afraid of people in the slightest and will come within a couple inches of someone before either slowly

 hopping away or sometimes having the AUDACITY to not even move! I do not know if I stand alone in this opinion, BUT, these little rodents scare the s#@! out of me. Last week, I was napping in my bed (which has a window right next to it), I woke up from a fabulous nap... only to turn to my side (the window side) and be FACE-TO-FACE WITH A SQUIRREL! The PSYCHO SQUIRREL was like watching me sleep! I thought they were supposed to be afraid of eye-contact and humans!

2. The Cats--> How are there so many stray cats on our campus? Most of them can be found on the northernly parts of campus (i.e. Cox, and sorority row). I have probably seen over a dozen who hang around SMU regularly. One cat in particular (an all black one), loves the sorority houses. In the mornings, I usually see him right outside the door of the Panhellenic House, and other DGs have told me he sometimes frequents their bedrooms at the Delta Gamma House ( I'm sure it has nothing to do with them leaving saucers of milk outside to lure him in). Do these felines belong to someone? Is there a small Highland Park child who is missing their pet? Who is that lady who feeds them around Cox? These are all questions I have always wondered about the stray cats roaming campus.

3. The Opossums?? --> Hands down, the most shocking, scary and repulsive of all SMU wildlife, I have seen opossums cruisin' the streets of SMU on numerous occasions, IN THE BROAD DAY LIGHT. I strongly dislike these creatures and even contemplated not posting a picture of one based on their sheer creepiness, however, I wanted all of 

you to experience just how frightening looking they are if you have not already witnessed one at SMU yet. I do not know why they are here, but I think they are probably the most dangerous of all SMU wildlife, so be careful out there!!!