Finals are such a DRAG!

4 down, 1 to go. I've been filling out and studying psychology study guides all freakin' day. Gross. Today I woke up at 7:50am for my 8am final across campus. I mean, that's just awesome. I flew off of my bunk bed, in the dark, probably put some god-awful outfit on (I don't even remember), and ran to class. I got there just in time, completed the shortest final of my life, returned to the dorm, and crawled back in bed. I then woke up at noon and met Liz for lunch. Ever since lunch I've been in psychology land learning out mentality, emotions and sex drives. Yeah, quite the combo, I know. Liz and I took a break, looking like complete bums, and ventured to the C-Store across the street to grocery shop with her ridiculous amount of leftover meal points. It's safe to say we're stocked up for rush week when we come back early and all of the cafeterias are closed. We could survive for a few weeks, actually.

I can't believe I'll be on my way home tomorrow night, officially ending my first semester of college. Where did the time go?
I remember showing up here back in August, moving in when only the RAs were in the building, and knowing absolutely no one. Now I have an entire group and family I'll miss while back at home. I wish I had another "free week" like I did when I first moved in; the time would be so much better spent now than what it was then. Tonight is my last night in my room during 2010...pretty epic, I know. What will I be doing? Studying psychology and eating Mother Bear's with the floor...maybe even coloring a few "signs" for the girls, since apparently that's my god-given talent now :P

But now it's back to psychology land; maybe I'll pack later tonight. Robin's coming to pick me up tomorrow after my final and I am completely stoked. Should be an epic drive home. :D

Harper 9, Rush, and Finals...OH MY.

Finals week has officially started and I'm quickly realizing my High School did NOT prepare me for this.

At the time, I thought I was soooo lucky I didn't have those big, scary, difficult finals other schools talked about, but now I'm wishing I did. Walking into this week with no prior experience is definitely a disadvantage; my stress level can gladly tell ya a thing about that. Today I took my very first final and I'm happy to say that it will be my LAST MATH EXAM EVER. I went to eight hours of tutoring this weekend along with 5 additional hours of practice exams. Finite is my definition of death. I'm glad that it was my first final though, because now it is out of the way completely. I have two finals tomorrow, one Wednesday, and my last final on Thursday. Phew!

Right now, I'm on study break from business and health. I figured it'd be a great time to update the blog on my ever-so-busy college life. Since I last updated about IUDM, I have finished (nearly) my first semester of college classes, completed the first round of rush (sorority recruitment), been home briefly for Thanksgiving Break, met a great new friend, and had some amazing nights with my Harper 9 girls. Now for the details...

Rush. Where do I even begin? If you aren't familiar with Indiana University, let alone the greek life here on campus, I don't know how I could ever explain it. While only 18% of our campus is "greek," it's definitely a large portion of campus involvement. Sorority rush here is said to be one of the more difficult recruitments in the nation. With over 40,000 undergrads on campus, nearly 2,000 girls each year go through recruitment in hopes of finding and joining their perfect sorority. The way that recruitment works here, as I can't speak for other campuses, is through a mutual selection process. This means that not only do the sororities narrow down girls at each "level," but the girls also narrow down sororities. This assures the girls select the right house for them. (I sound so knowledgeable so far; I'm slightly impressed.) Anyways, because we have 19 sorority houses here on campus, there are multiple rounds in recruitment. The first round is called 19 party, where all the girls going through recruitment are split up in large groups and tour house to house over the course of two days. 19 houses, 30 minutes inside each house...20 minutes outside waiting for each house. Yeah, it was extremely tiring. Not only was it a LONG two days, but Indiana decided to hit campus with full on winter that weekend for the first time all year. Awesome. I had nearly 10 layers on at any given moment and still felt like a human ice cube. The frat boys certainly got a kick out of the groups of girls parading around like frozen idiots. Some gave hot chocolate (which we were advised not to take based on previous year's experience of adding laxatives,) others gave hand warmers, and some simply provided pure entertainment. Once we finished 19 party, we had to choose 14 we wish to return to for the next round, and then we ranked our bottom 5 from "best to worst" or "liked-the-most to not-so-much." This assures that if we don't get all of our top 14 back, which is extremely rare to in the first place, our ranked 5 will be bumped up to fill positions in the first place.

Now we are completely done with recruitment until January, when the real games begin. While we are all gone on break, our final grades are sent to the Panhellenic council, where we will be cut from houses based on their specific GPA requirements. Oh, boy. I don't feel that I did poorly first semester, but you would be surprised by some of the requirements. Whoever decided to start the "dumb sorority girl" cliche obviously didn't make the GPA requirements in the first place! :P Anyways, those who make it through move back into the dorms a week before classes start in order to finish one of the craziest weeks of their lives. The next round is 14 party. This round is a little longer, each house does a skit to show off their house "personality," and we all get to dress up a little bit more...like business casual. I think that's my favorite part about it all, the dress code. It's so much fun to have functions like this where we have to be dressed up a certain amount :] After 14 party, which is two days, comes 8 party...also two days. This round works the same way, where we eliminate houses just as they do to us, and we get to spend an even longer amount of time in each house. I'm extremely excited for this round, as I'll get to wear a cute new skirt I have. After 8 party is 3 party, the last round of them all. This round is the longest, spending nearly an hour and a half in each house, dressed up to the max in adorable cocktail dress fashion. After this round we rank our top three houses in order and wait impatiently for Monday night to come. That is when our RhoGamma, or "greek advisor/counselor/solve-all" will deliver either a bid card or upsetting news. Here's hoping I even make it that far! I don't know what will happen, or where this whole adventure will take me, but all I know is it has been a blast so far.

The first round was worth it, even if that's all I get to complete, just because I got to see the insides of all of the beautiful greek houses. There are no words to explain some of them, which makes it completely unbelievable that the girls get to LIVE there! Aside from that, I met a truly great new friend, Liz...who, embarrassingly enough, has lived on my floor all year. Crazy right? She lives on the short side of my hall and is actually not too far from my hometown. Because our last names are so close alphabetically, we ended up in the same group as we toured the 19 houses. We struck up a conversation and then I embarrassed myself when she told me we lived on the same floor. Woops! We've been hanging out as close to nonstop as possible lately. If I had chosen not to rush, who knows if we ever really would have crossed paths. Crazy how that happens, right?

While it's been extremely crazy being away from home these past few months, and while it seems like I've been living on my own forever, Thanksgiving break was a quick reminder of where I was before college. Living back at home for just a few days made me miss Bloomington immensely. It's not that I don't enjoy being with family, or back home...I just love my life here. Along with seeing my sisters and family, I also got to hang out with my amazing "extended family clan." Being glued to Robin's hip all of break was absolutely amazing, but made the following week extremely hard without her. It's crazy how we've been so close since 6th grade and now I'm a freshman in college and she's nearing graduation from her University. Ahhh, how time flies! Her siblings have taken me in with open arms, and over Thanksgiving break, I was definitely thankful. Just writing about them now is making me excited for Christmas/Winter break!

Hmmm...what's left on my list? Harper 9 adventures, I suppose. As I've mentioned in a few previous posts, these Harper 9 girls have become my family. Now that we are in our last week of the first semester, I'm starting to realize that we're halfway through, halfway finished, and in one more semester we'll be moving out and onto another great chapter here at IU. Some (probably most) will move into sorority houses, others will move across campus into apartments and houses, and above all, we will no longer be the babies on campus. That is absolutely crazy. While all the Harper 9 girls are amazing, my little, direct niche of girls go without words. I have the best neighbors around, to be quite honest. So many of the other floors here, just in our building alone, keep their doors shut and are completely unsocial. If I even tried to say that about our floor, I would laugh...definitely not the case. Since day one, we've all seemed to hit it off with at least one other room really well. I'll have to just devote an entire blog to my girls...and one probably here soon, too. Until then, I'll just leave it at this: these girls have been an absolute blast.

Well, there you go. I've officially avoided studying health for an hour, and now you (if anyone even reads this), are updated. As I finish finals week, I'll attempt to come up with things to write about while I'm at home on break. Any ideas?

Much love always and until next time,
Sophie

I survived!

Just a quick update until I'm fully functioning and back on a normal schedule...

We raised $1,602,713.20 FTK. (for the kids, just in case you didn't know) That number is truly amaaaaazing...the most ever raised by IUDM, let alone the most raised among the nation. I can't even begin to express how proud I am for being a part of that. I not only helped raise over $500 of that, but I was a dancer, a true participant, and stayed awake a loooong 36 hours straight. Unlike most of the people there, I made it to the 28th hour before sitting down. Yepp, 28 straight hours standing before I reached my breaking point. By that time, they were "allowing" people to lay down for alloted periods of time upstairs for massages or just to put feet up against the wall. I have never laid on a hard gym floor with my feet up against a cement wall and felt SO great.

I'll post more later, but that's all for now :]

IUDM Live Webcast

IUDM is a little less than 7 hours away but I'll be leaving in about 5.5 hours. Ahhhhh! Insane. Sadly, my body chose to sleep through both classes today. It must know that I need as much sleep as possible :P Anyways, be sure to stay posted and check out the live webcast on the IUDM.org website.

Here's a timeline of important events you shouldn't miss :]
Friday:
8pm - Opening Ceremonies
9:30pm - Introduction of Hoosier Theme Hour with IU Athletes

Saturday:
11:30am - CEO of the Riley Children's Foundation speaks
12:55pm - Ryan White's mother (Jeanne White Ginder), doctor (Martin Kleiman), and High School Principal (Tony Cook) speak
2:50pm - IUDM Alumni Board President (Matt Sowder) and IUDM founder Jill Waibel speak
4:30pm - Riley kid talent show - highlight of the Marathon for many!

Sunday:
6:30am - Closing Ceremonies - final Riley families speak, awards presentation, and Presidential Address
8am - 2010 IUDM fundraising total is raised!!

Uhm, if you don't tune in at 12:55 on Saturday, you're insane. I'm beyond excited for that part...and just found out today it was an actual confirmed event. Ahhh! So this will probably be the last post before I leave...keep me in mind for the next 36 hours. I'll be sure to update as soon as I finish recuperating.

Preparation for IUDM

"Tonight marks what many consider the beginning of IUDM. Every committee will be meeting tonight at 8pm to start preparing the HPER for the best IUDM to ever grace IU. Prepare yourselves my friends. We have a long few days in front of us but together we will culminate 20 years of work, sweat, tears, and happiness into something beyond what anyone thought was possible. Ryan, Ashley, and all the others who unfortunately passed will be watching down on us and keeping us full of their passion and guidance as we venture together through the hours. Believe in yourself and believe in one another. We owe every ounce of our energy to the children at Riley and we will not stop. Cheer on the dancers and each other to keep their heads up. There is no reason to stop. If you ever get to a point where it seems like too much, visit a committee member for guidance, or look to one of the many Riley kids that will be there. I promise you the feeling will disappear. Our time has come DMers. It is time to dance and time to believe. We will make this the best IUDM ever, and we will do it with pride. Don’t hesitate to say thank you to anyone participating, because just one small word of appreciation can make someone turn around and start giving 110%. Eric Davis, our president, has a mission, and that is to have every person step out of that old building this weekend with nothing but the positive feelings about their experience — to want to be involved with IUDM as they continue through their college career. Do you part everyone, and together we will achieve the impossible. Thank you for your time, work, and effort ladies and gentlemen, you all are the definition of inspiration."

That blog post gave me the biggest smile today; I cannot wait. In case you're absolutely clueless, (I feel as though I use that phrase a lot in this blog. I promise I'm not insulting your intelligence.) I will be participating in one of the greatest events IU has to offer, the Indiana University Dance Marathon. This organization directly supports Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis, which really hits close to home since I was a Riley kid due to being a premie baby. I'm not going to type up a big long spiel about the organization because it would be an absolute waste of space, breath, and time. Their website, IUDM.org, sums it all up and then some, explaining just how amazing this group is. IUDM is the largest organization here on campus, let alone one of the largest of its kind in the nation, So make sure you check the site out; read up!

Anyways, IUDM itself is a 36 hour long marathon. Yes, you read that right, THIRTY SIX STRAIGHT HOURS. Are you staring at the screen thinking I'm crazy yet? That I've completely lost my mind in college? Well, you may be right, but I think it will be a remarkable, life-changing 36 hours. I couldn't be more excited! In order to participate as a dancer, I had to fundraise $500. With a busy college schedule, and only having a month or so to do so, it was a challenge. I received some VERY generous donations luckily, and was able to raise just enough. The organization doesn't reveal the total amount raised until the actual marathon. Ahh, just typing this I'm getting excited. I figured it'd be a good idea to get this part out of the way so my update will be a lot quicker.

The event starts tomorrow night at 8pm and ends Sunday morning at 8am. Intense right? We have a packing list and everything. When I received it in the email I was blown away; I'm so thankful they sent that otherwise I would have definitely been ill-prepared. The packing list is as follows:

Things to know for the marathon:
PUT YOUR NAME ON EVERYTHING: IN PLAIN SIGHT

To bring in a large duffel bag (size of a Vera Bradley duffel or Nike duffel)
o 3-5 different types of shoes (tennis shoes, flip flops, crocs, slippers, Uggs, etc.)
o 4-5 T-shirts/Comfy shirts
o 3-4 Bottoms (athletic shorts, sweatpants, yoga pants, maybe 1 pair of jeans)
o Socks, Underwear (5-6 pairs), bras
o Toothbrush, toothpaste, DEODORANT, maybe perfume or cologne
o Bring eye drops/contact solution
o Female products if needed, Advil/Tylenol in case, IcyHot is awesome
o Bring your phone and camera chargers
o For men: being gold baun (ew)

To bring in a medium sized bag (size of Vera Bradley tote) to be kept with “checked” bags (I would suggest having a way to attach it to your bigger one somehow)
You will only be able to bring this bag down to the bathrooms, the bigger one stays
o Shampoo, Conditioner, Body wash/louffa (sp?), shower shoes
o Towel (not a huge one to take up space)
o Blow drier/straightener
o Make up bag

To bring in a backpack or other medium bag:
o Bring tennis balls or golf balls to roll your feet
o Bring a few little snack in your bag
o Bring mad libs, apples to apples, board game, catch phrase
o Bring matching funny stuff, preferably yellow (CAUTION TAPE)
o Bring Gatorade, Powerade, Crystal light
o Bring singles for the vending machines
o Game face and face paint
o Bring a water bottle (with your name on it)

Things NOT TO BRING
o Computer, iPod (there will always be music), anything you would die without
o Adderall, energy drinks/five hour energy, caffeine of any sort
o Weapons…haha I mean don’t, but…I didn’t think you would

Things to do before:
o Ease off of caffeine
o Schedule friends/family to visit you every few hours
o Start collecting color war outfits
o Keep fundraising like it’s your job
o Talk to your donors about the online webcast during the marathon on iudm.org
o Exercise, eat right, get plenty of vitamin C, get GOOD SLEEP, don’t go out the whole week before (mon-fri)…
o GET EXCITED FOR THE MOST AMAZING TIME OF YOUR LIFE

Intense right?! Well, I'm going to go get some sleep and prepare for tomorrow. I'll try to post as soon after the marathon as possible...probably Monday or Tuesday. Sunday I plan on coming back and PASSING OUT. Say a short prayer for the person who attempts to wake me up; if they succeed, they might just die. I'm just saying.

But on a brighter note, be sure to tune in to the live broadcast of the marathon this weekend! I'll be on the yellow team (mostly consisting of freshmen/newbies) in case that's any indication to finding me. The broadcast will be on the IUDM website :]

I should be...

...at the tailgates and homecoming game, but I'm not. I just got back from my first college midterm. I'm currently running on 4 hours of sleep thanks to the amount of stress I was feeling last night. Woops! So I've decided that I'm going to catch up on sleep while it's quiet on Harper 9, shower and eat lunch, then celebrate tonight :] I feel pretty confident about the midterm, here's hoping my confidence is accurate! I just need to keep this class in perspective. Nearly everyone has to take it, it's just a small requirement, and I won't be doing this for the rest of my life. I'm going to just do my job, pass it with a decent grade, and move on. I'm thankful for my prof, who is a complete hippie...curly grey ponytail, solid color tee with jeans or jean shorts, suspenders occasionally, and chalk covered hands. He has a relaxed way of teaching and explaining things. Everyone else seems to be having problems with their professors, I'm glad that's one thing I don't have to worry about. Ugh, I need sleep. I'm now rambling on about my hippie prof? Awesome. Main point to the blog: I merked that Finite midterm like a champ...meaning I feel great.

Goodniiiiight!

It's Official!

Today I declared my major in Tourism Management along with minors in Ecotourism, Recreation and Park Administration, and Fundraising and Resource Management. PHEW!! I cannot even begin to explain how exciting this is. Most of you are probably staring at the screen wondering what the heck Tourism Management is...haha, that's quite alright.

Tourism and commercial recreation is over an 800 billion industry in the United States. It is estimated that by the year 2020, more than half of all employed people in the world will be involved directly or indirectly with the tourism industry. In the United States, travel-related tourism is the first, second or third largest employer in 32 states. The Department of Recreation and Park Administration at IU is one of the largest in the country.

Help any? I'll post more as I begin to take introductory classes and whatnot. I could go on and on about my ideas of what I want to do or where I want to intern. I'm excited that I've finally taken this first step. It only gets better from here! It also helps that one of my newfound friends is an RA in the building I live and majors in Tourism Management as well. A huuuge help for sure. I love Franquie :]

Welp, off to psychology. Just thought I'd update the world for a bit.