So I did warn you that my blogs would probably get more
spaced out but I do feel it’s time to fill you all in on the past week or so. Classes
have begun, which means that the massive mound of reading has also begun which
makes writing blogs more difficult not least because I’m not doing as many
exciting things worthy of posting on the internet. But enough of the excuses...
Having met a lovely national exchange student (i.e.
American, from another state) who is part of a sorority, Emily and I decided
that it might be quite fun to join a sorority or at least find out a bit more
about it in order to meet some new people. Next thing we know there’s an email
for a ‘Greek BBQ’, how ideal. Now as you may be aware from programmes like,
well, ‘Greek’, Greek refers to all the sororities and fraternities named after
the Greek alphabet, such as Alpha Phi and Delta Zeta and, my personal favourite,
Kappa Kappa Gamma: Just say it, go on say it again, fun isn’t it! Anyways, on Wednesday
evening we headed up to North Quad towards the blaring music and the billowing
smoke and the massive crowds of people where we found the equivalent of Warwick
Freshers Fair; there were 10 or so tables of Sororities all glittered up and
covered with smiley photos and scrapbooks filled with ‘slumber parties’ and ‘apple
picking’ and describing the various charity work that each sorority takes part
in. It didn’t at all seem like it
appears in the films, yes they were all beautiful and made up and perfectly
tanned but they all seemed very excited and enthusiastic about all the good
that the Sororities achieve and the ‘four pillars’; scholarship, leadership,
service and sisterhood. One girl was telling us how they all stood up for 18
hours and raised thousands of dollars for Breast Cancer support.
Then some interesting facts came out; how you join a
sorority. The process is called ‘rushing’ and in order to apply you have to
have a GPA (grade point average) of about 3.2 which is about a B I think, so
first of all you have to be smart enough. You then have to take part in the
recruitment process; I’m not exactly sure what it entails but it results in the
various sororities voting for whether or not they want you. Now I don’t mean to
cause any offence to my American readers as I understand this is a long and
established part of your College life and history but to me, there just seems
to be so many things morally wrong with this. People vote for you? You are
effectively being judged on whether or not you are pretty or cool enough to be
part of their ‘club’. Surely this isn’t the way to instil a great amount of
confidence into those new College Freshman?
To add insult to injury none of the sorority members I spoke
to could understand me when I told them my name and I would have to repeat it
with an American accent; “No my name’s Maoolly”, “Ohh Maoollyy, why didn’t you
just say so?!” infuriating I know! Anyways, it was an interesting experience
but needless to say we didn’t rush and we didn’t join a sorority. Sorry!
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