Step Show and Food Fest

On Wednesday was the Step Show held by the Office of Multicultural Affairs for Flava Wave Week here at Tulane. Basically, this was a week for all multicultural organizations to step forward and make known their presence on campus through events like food fests, poetry readings, and STEP SHOWS.

My wonderful sorority, Delta Xi Nu, does in fact have a step team, and we stepped and strutted at this year’s step show. Our girls were joined by the boys of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity, or “dorks til death,” as they call themselves. The combination of the talented girls on our team and the comical boys on theirs made for a VERY entertaining show. They were followed by a step team made of Office of Multicultural Affairs Ambassadors, or people assigned to have little sisters and brothers in incoming freshman classes. It was a very fun event for everybody involved!

And we fly Xi Honeys sure can step!!!

Also this week in Flava Wave Week, we had a food fest courtesy of the Asian American Student Union. It was free for members and $5 for all non members. This particular Food Fest was exciting for me because not only did I run into my usual group of Asian friends, but into a guy named Hameed.

Hameed used to be the graduate hall director for Wall Residential College last year, when I was its president. He taught me a lot about leadership, and I’m still grateful for all the lessons I learned. We had a very strange relationship, as we had a professional relationship because of Wall Residential Hall Government but an odd friendship as well. He moved to Miami after he graduated as a BME during Lagniappe, and now is working full time. It’s always a shocker to those of us still in college that the world beyond these borders exists, that people do get up at 9 and work til 5, and that being an adult is NOT all its cracked up to be.

But it was a great treat seeing him, even if we were reminded of all that! Here’s to you, Hameed!

Habitats for Humanity

This Saturday I participated in Habitats for Humanity. We woke up at 7 am, drove more than half an hour to Musicians’ Village off N. Claiborne and stood outside freezing in the crisp early morning air.

And all for what?

Musicians’ Village is a place where Habitats has built a large group of homes so New Orleans musicians can come back and live together. If you ask me, its the best idea for the space, as it propagates the human imagination and spirit in terms of music. We were honored to be contributing to the project . . .and contribute we certainly did try to do!

We were put in charge of making sawhorses. At first, we were so excited that 5 seemed too small of a number, but then we started hammering and nailing. I sawed the wood with a circular saw while someone held the 2 by 4s for me, another team nailed, and another team measured out the wood. We thought we had a very efficient system going until we stood up our first sawhorse and discovered that it wasn’t quite aligned. See, the concept of simply cutting pieces and putting them together had led to us actually nailing them on in different places . . . and also created very unsturdy projects.

<<(At work on the sawhorses- me and my sister Jennifer)

And so we had to correct all of them . . . and you could tell which ones were ours. In our defense, everything turned out fine, and people ended up using our sawhorses that day. We also participated in painting and cleaning up and organizing when the frustration of the sawhorses got to us. We wanted so badly to get in the mix of building things but we quickly discovered that things don’t fit together in reality like they do in theory!!!

<<(My sister Amy working with one of the future homeowners)

But we had a great time, us Delta Xi Nu girls and the Sig Ep boys. Our very own admissions counselor Jeff was there too, working (or at least pretending to!)

I’m proud to say I got this amazing opportunity. I think it’s one truly unique to Tulane and New Orleans, and I hope that my little bit was just another piece in the giant puzzle that is rebuilding this city.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Today, like all MWF, I had my Robert Frost class, which I genuinely enjoyed. We studied a poem called “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, and I found it to be very inspiring, so I’ll share it with y’all.

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

We had a discussion in this class about this poem. It’s a 450 level class, but it’s the most fun I’ve had lately. Some people thought the poem was about how everything that is perfect is ephemeral, and quickly falls away to reality. Others thought this poem was about the cyclical patterns of nature, and about how things start out fresh and anew but then resume the cycle, ie the novelty soon wears off. It’s evident that the colors green and cold are valued here in this poem, so just because the leaves are no longer gold doesn’t make them any less valuable. I think the poem speaks to all of us about how we should cherish those moments when things are “golden,” those little perfect rays of sunshine that make our lives worth living.

And this class happens to be one of mine!

If you like what you’ve just read, get involved in English here . . the department is great. I truly have enjoyed every class I’ve taken and I cannot wait to take more!

Sisterhood

The dictionary definition of sisterhood is : A society of sisters; a society of women united in one faith or order; sisters, collectively.

In my world, sisterhood is a bond that ties in any and all situations. It’s a bond of more than just faith, its a bond of humanity. Sisters are there for each other no matter what, and their love is unconditional. Sisterhood is a bond that exists forever, no matter where you go and how far away.

. . . . And as prolific as all these statements are, what does it really mean? When I was asked at interviews what sisterhood meant to me, I would mechanically respond with any combination of the above statements. And now that I AM a sister, the word has taken on a completely different meaning.

Lately, my sorority has become more than just another activity that takes up my time, something else to add to the resume. My sisters and I more than just do sorority things together, we have fun together, we study together, and more than anything else, we support each other. Lately, we’ve been hanging out more than usual and I’m starting to see what it really means to have sisters. It’s like they’re more than friends because we already have this unbreakable bond between us. I don’t have to worry if I’m spending too much or too little time with them, I don’t have to worry about which of them is my “best” friend, and I certainly don’t have to be afraid of being completely different from them.

So what does sisterhood mean?

It means I go out of my way to befriend my sister’s boyfriend just so we can all hang out together.

It means my sister comes out with me on my birthday night with all my friends, even if she doesn’t know any of them and she’s the odd one out, just because it’s my birthday and I want her there.

It means we plan a night together despite our different busy agendas just because one of our sisters has a night off and she doesn’t have very many like that.

It means we plan a night in, watching movies and eating good food because we know we all have to get up for community service the next day when all our friends are out partying.

It means sharing responsibilities we have in the sorority, sharing our duties and getting each other’s opinions even if it means spending more time than we normally would doing a certain task.

It means . . . people with whom you share more than title–you share your life, and you’re honestly lucky if you find out the true meaning of sisterhood somewhere along the way.
So this one goes out to all the girls and guys in sororities and fraternities here at Tulane (and there’s plenty!), because they understand more than anyone exactly what I’m talking about. Here’s to being a part of something truly universal!

Me and my sister Amy












Xi Honeys for life!









My sisters Amy and Iris









Me and Iris blowing kisses!

Beautify Broadway

Anthony D’Angelo once said, “Without a sense of caring, there can be no sense of community.” Community was certainly the theme of today’s event: Beautify Broadway. About a hundred students of various backgrounds from various Greek organizations came out to support and clean up the street and surrounding areas. I mean, we all party there all the time, so we might as well clean it up, right?

It was a great day for being outside– not too sunny and just a little windy. The areas around Broadway were sectioned off per sorority/fraternity. It’s the first project in which I’ve participated as a Greek, and not specifically as a sister of Delta Xi Nu. My sorority was really outstanding today though. We don’t even have a house, as we’re a very small organization, yet we had a group out there cleaning up. We were out there with our fellow Greeks, scouring the streets for trash and debris. It was a new experience for me, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s not often that you see people cleaning up their mess and other peoples’ too. Today we were cleaning up for all the Greeks and non Greeks that tread Broadway every weekend.

I guess Anthony D’Angelo was right. Caring is community . . . . and we Greeks do care!

Here we are, repping DXN! From L to R: Me, Jennifer, Zoe, Jackie, LG, Sabine, and Amy













Jackie, Jennifer, and Zoe enjoying pizza!














Me and Amy also enjoying the free pizza aka the college way of life.

Mardi Gras Madness

And the madness HAS officially begun. Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, to the amazing and spectacular show you are about to see here in the city of New Orleans. No hurricane can knock this out of us– the party spirit lives on forever!

Here are a few shots to commemorate the parade experience- this parade is called Endymion, and it’s one of the biggest during Mardi Gras.






This parade for some reason went by VERY slowly, and we had plenty of time to goof off and act silly in between the floats. They had high school bands playing in it, as well as a few jazz bands, and when they played our Saints song, we went crazy dancing, as you can see!

One Year Later

It’s officially been one year since I started blogging. I remember my first entry last year was about Valentine’s Day, and about noticing my Valentine blissfully snoring on my floor. I was so excited then, so enthused about the day and everything about it. It was the only year that I’ve really celebrated Valentine’s Day with someone else.

Well let me tell you how that story ended . . . . my Valentine and I decided to part ways a few days after that. Though initially we were excited, it turned out that our personalities just didn’t mesh the way we thought they would, and we had VERY different standards when it came to what was and was not appropriate for that stage in our friendship/relationship. It was a strange way to end something that held so much promise but I can more than confidently say it was a good end for both of us!

I saw him today, in organic chemistry lab, and laughed to myself. How much life has changed in the past year . . . it made me think . . .

In the last year, what have I learned?

I learned that life at Tulane is not a piece of cake, I learned that working hard does earn rewards, and I learned that there is certainly a balance between having too much fun and not enough. It’s crucial to find that balance to survive in this college environment, and when you do, life is absolutely amazing!

And specifically, in regards to Valentine’s Day, I learned that the real Valentines are not the ones that show up at your door with roses, or serenade you with their violin, or take you someplace fancy. The real Valentines are the people that are there to wish you, hug you, and tell you they love you . . . . year after year. So here’s to all my real Valentines out there: My family, especially my mother, who called just to wish me, and my high school friends who are still with me even though they’re all far away. At Tulane, I just have one person that meets that definition.

This year, at Tulane, I just have one Valentine: my friend Iris. We celebrated last year as we will this year. Since then, we’ve become inducted into the same sorority, picked our majors, been through good times and bad, and earned the nickname “Yin and Yang” for how different we are but how we still seem to click anyways.

I’m lucky because at this school I get to expand my horizons with people like her that I’d never expect to meet but do and fall in love with along the way!

Me, Iris, and our dear friend Caroline at Bruff last year









Me and Iris now– how we’ve changed!

Happy Valentine’s Day!