I’ve had an awesomely busy couple of weeks! Since I last posted I have been to Clarksville, Tennessee, Chicago, Illinois, back to Natchitoches, Louisiana, and currently I’m in Livingston, Alabama counting down the days until I’m in Arkansas for my week of vacation.
I had a good time while I was at Austin Peay (said Pee). One of my favorite things about the school is that their chant is “Let’s go Peay!”… say it how I wrote above and imagine an entire football stadium essentially shouting ‘let’s go pee!’. Good stuff. I had great accommodations at Austin Peay and met some really fabulous women. I meet so many women every visit I make and I love bonding with the ones that I can tell I’d be good friends with if we’d gone to college together. I also meet some challenging personalities. This was the first stop I’d truly realized what they meant when HQ staff told me this one year job was really the experience of working three years. The diverse situations I find myself in and the many different types of people I work with are giving me so much more experience than I’d imagined. I don’t know why in college I thought I’d run into just about every type of personality that existed out there.
I did get to stay a weekend in Nashville with my good friend Beth, whose mom and sister were in town visiting her. The four of us went to lunch together and they drove me around to sightsee. We also took a walk around the Vanderbilt campus and it is really beautiful! My chapter sister Becca drove in late afternoon and we took off to a taco restaurant down the street and washed it down with Ben and Jerry’s. It was really nice to catch up and even nicer to see a familiar face. It was a much needed and comforting weekend to see friends who remind me of home.
I returned to Clarksville to continue working on formal recruitment and worked my butt off that week. It paid off with 16 new members for the chapter and some very renewed and excited old members. I was by that time, however, looking forward to my next visit that did not include helping with formal recruitment. I’m formal recruitment-ed out. In fact, the r-word is kind of a bad word right now.
The night before flying to Chicago I learned that a chapter member would be flying in around the same time I would so she was going to get me to where I was staying. Turns out, she was on the same flight as me so I actually met her in Detroit! It was nice to have someone to ride to the condo with… yes, condo. I stayed the week on the 23rd floor of a downtown condo with waterfront views and a balcony. It was incredible! Driving into the city I passed the Bears stadium, Oprah’s residence, and a great lake so big you’d swear you were looking out over an ocean. I was giddy. And for some reason I absolutely fell in love with Chicago. I knew I loved cities, but I just really enjoyed everything about Chicago. I enjoyed our doorman who greeted me every morning and the city traffic noise. I enjoyed seeing a Starbucks on every corner, because I haven’t had nearly enough Starbucks in my travels. I enjoyed using the metro and public bus system, and I even enjoyed walking and getting lost, with the exception that it poured rain on me in the process. I loved doing it all alone too. There was something peaceful and empowering about taking on the city by myself. I’ll return to Chicago someday- I’m sure of it.
The Chicago chapter was great too. They were similar to my own chapter so that familiar dynamic was nice. So far they have been the most welcoming women- not that the others have not been, but many women in this chapter were excited to hang out with me and wanted to talk and get together. Sometimes I think people worry I’m there to get on to them so they’re not very open or warm at first, but I never got that from the Chicago chapter. I also got to spend some time with their advisor and a member from national council who lives in Chicago. I really enjoy my ‘adult’ time away from collegians when I get to, though it doesn’t happen often.
I ate the best food all week long! I had Mediterranean food, Indian food, Italian food, Thai noodles, a great burger, cheese deep dish pizza, upscale deli sandwiches and soups, butternut squash ravioli with asparagus in a balsamic reduction, Ghirardelli… and a lot more I can’t think of right now. There are so many ethnic neighborhoods of Chicago I would have visited in a heartbeat if I’d had more time! I was told bacon chocolate is a big thing there. Sometimes you can find a strip of bacon in alcoholic beverages is another one I was told. I never would have pegged Chicago for being bacon obsessed.
One afternoon I did some personal sightseeing. I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art, which was cool. It had some pretty crazy and creative stuff. I enjoyed the mobiles, but I couldn’t take pictures of those. I stayed for about an hour, then went to the farmer’s market and purchased apples and zucchini bread. After that I took off on my big adventure to the Willis Tower, formerly known as the Sears Tower. It had a pretty neat set up inside- there were lots of pictures and videos showing city history and a short film about the building itself. On really windy days the building actually sways! After the tour of city history you get on a large elevator with a TV screen showing your height as compared to something else. For example, it showed when we were at the height of the Great Pyramid (ha- I’ve been there). It showed things all the way up to the top so you always had some other structure to compare it to. My ears actually popped going up. Then the doors open and you’ve got clear views all the way around; you can see four states on a clear day! I spent a while taking pictures and taking it in. I had to ask people to take photos of me since I was alone. I poked around the gift shops and headed back. The other thing I really wanted to do was shop in Chicago. They have amazing shopping and time just didn’t allow.
The one thing I can’t handle about the Windy City is well, the wind… and cold weather. I don’t do cold very well and apparently if you’re in Chicago in the winter you might as well be in the arctic. No one told me they enjoyed winters there, but the city made up for it and most don’t ever want to leave. That says a lot.
I enjoyed getting back to the warmth of Louisiana, but remembered I have to watch out for alligators. It was a good week. One night I was recognized at a restaurant by another sorority’s chapter advisor- I take it that means I’ve been around too long. I’m practically becoming a Natchitochian. I could give city tours.
And now I’m in small town Alabama. I do mean small. The university has about 2,000 students. It began eventful since Delta lost my luggage. My bags actually took two extra plane rides. But they did make it to me, makeup broken and clothes wet from being left in the rain. All I can say is I hope that Southwest merger goes through so they have more of a presence in the areas I’m traveling. I go home Saturday and I could not be more ready! I’m still enjoying my job, but it is very very tiring and I’m looking forward to good friends and family.
The pictures are of the Tennessee chapter after skit night of recruitment, the water and city view from my Chicago condo, views from the Willis Tower and the skydeck, and the color coded Chicago chapter after one night of recruitment.
