Last week was recruitment for all the sororities on campus. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Greek recruitment, let me explain it to you. This year was a little bit different from previous years. It started on Tuesday night with open houses. Girls that were interested in joining a house could stop by any of the houses and hang out with the girls in the house. Wednesday night we had an ice cream social where we all just hung out and ate ice cream. Thursday was another open house. These days were just to let the potential new girls get to know some of the girls in the houses and what the houses were like.

Friday night was Philanthropy Night, which means all the sororities come up with a craft of some kind to help one of their philanthropies. For example, one of Sigma Kappa's philanthropies is Gerontology/Alzheimer's Disease Research. So for our craft, we painted suncatchers for the residents of the local nursing home. The suncatchers are going to be part of our "Adopt a Grandparent" program that we will be setting up soon. Anyways, the new girls were split up into 3 different groups that rotated between the houses. Each group had 45 minutes at each house. Then Saturday night was Preference Night. This night is, for many of us, the most special. We get very dressed up and certain girls are selected to tell their stories of why they joined the house. There are also several small traditions that we do, such as a special poem written by one of our alumnae, and a song that is very near and dear to our hearts. Saturday night was the last night of recruitment, so it really was the last chance for the girls to see who we are. Sunday was Bid Day. This is the day when the girls decide which house they want to join, if they want to join. This is also the day when we find out which girls chose us. So...after a very long week of anticipation and excitement, we proudly welcomed 7 new girls into the Beta Mu Chapter of Sigma Kappa!! It was an exciting day, to be sure. :)

To celebrate and bond a bit, we went to Quincy to a place called "Going Bonkers". It is basically a big play area, kind of like the play places in McDonald's, except bigger. It was similar to the Playstation in Cedar Rapids...but the Playstation is better. :) But it was still fun!!

Well, as far as classes go, they are good. My first test is Friday and my next test is Monday. Yippee...NOT. :)