Springpear

Apr 12, 2015

Parties

9:17 PM bar, college life, friends, fun, gapyear, highlighter, neon, parties, party, sprite, us, usa, valentine 1 comment

Every weekend there are parties at Wittenberg, Most of them are closed, some of them are open. I try to make it to all the parties that I get invited to, because it's a great place to catch up with people, to have fun and to make new friends. Often, after a house party, people go to the bar to hang out and dance some more, and sometimes people go the bar simply to get a pizza. While most parties don't have a theme and are just relaxed, playing sprite-pong and getting on a sugar high of sprite, a lot of parties do have a theme and I love it.

Some of my favourite parties here at Wittenberg were "highlighter parties". The theme is simple: wear a white t-shirt that may be ruined. At the parties, there are highlighters everywhere for everyone to use. You write on people their shirts and they write on yours. Because of the backlights that they use at these parties, everyone can see what people wrote on you. It's lots of fun and the t-shirts are great souvenirs from a fun time.

One of the more recent parties I was at had four themes - one of them being Mexican. I personally didn't really have any Mexican clothes, or colourful clothes in general for that matter, and borrowed an Aztec dress from Neo. Martin invited me to this party and it was lots of fun to see everyone dressed up differently. Once again I had a great time drinking sprite, dancing and playing sprite-pong.

On Valentine's Day I had two fun parties to go to, both with the same theme: while they weren't formals, the theme was. I dressed in a red dress and started the night pre-gaming and getting my ticket into the bar at the blue house. After hanging out there for a while, me and my friend Akbar went to the first party. There were lots of snakes here and it was fun to hang out with them again. After a while, Akbar, Tom, Francesca, Anna and I went to the next party by car because there was snow and ice everywhere (don’t worry we were all completely sober). The party was held on the second floor of the bar, and the sprite was taken care of. Anna, Francesca and I were the only snakes in a sea of DG's, but we had lots of fun. The party ended at 12, after which everyone moved downstairs to continue their night at the bar.

Parties are lots of fun and once again a great place to have fun, hang out with friends and to meet people and make new friends. If you are a prospective student reading this: please go to lots of the open parties in the beginning of the year! This is the way to not only get invites to closed parties, but also to meet people that you would have never met if it wasn't for those parties. Some of my best friends now I met during those parties, in the beginning of the year. Also, know that there is no pressure to drink sprite (or alcohol for that matter): no one cares about whether you are sober, on a sugar high or drunk: they only care about getting to know you and about (you) having fun.

Highlighter party - Everyone had neon paint on their face

The highlighter party

Party with Josh, Alex and Jenny

Dumb & Dumber

Selty, Kiersten and I

Valentine's with Bebeto

Valentine's with Micky and Martin

Valentine's with Mac and Elizabeth

Valentine's with Amanda

Snakepit at the bar! With Anna and Francesca

Rave/ Highlighter party with Akbar

Friends! Meghan, Sabrina and Nicole

Twins!

Victoria & Maria at the rave

Rave

Rush & Bid Day 2015

2:59 PM 2015, frat life, greek, greek life, recruitment, rush, sigma kappa, sk, sorority, usa, wittenberg No comments

Every spring semester, sororities and fraternities have their official recruitment during "Rush-week". While fraternity recruitment is pretty laid-back, sorority recruitment was a big deal. The first and most laid-back day of recruitment was Saturday. Because there was no dress code I just went in a sweater, ripped jeans and boots, while many girls were wearing something nice with HEELS. I was glad with my choice of clothing, because it was cold and we were walking all over campus to get from one house to another.

At every house, we got something to drink and snack while we were thought about what the sorority their philanthropy was, what their sisterhood was like, what their house was like, etcetera. Tori, who I later got to know as BLT, was the girl who introduced me what life as a "snake" was like.

On Thursday, Rush officially began. I made sure to dress a little nicer this day. We got another house tour and got some more in depth information about what the sororities were like. At the end of the night we had to make a top 4 choice of sororities, just like the sororities had to make their preference list.

Friday was Philanthropy night. While not every girl was invited back to a sorority because of the huge amount of girls going through recruitment, most girls were invited back to a maximum of 4 sororities. I was asked back to KD (Kappa Delta) and SK (Sigma Kappa). This night was all about getting to know more about the philanthropies of the sororities, and in most houses you helped make something for a charity. It is amazing how involved sororities are in philanthropies and in community service in general. I have to admit that I was positively surprised. At the end of the day we once again had to make a list with our preferences, this time making a top 2.

Saturday was the most formal day of recruitment: it was preference night and this time everyone was dressed in dresses and heels. This was the night that the sororities tried even more to impress you: after all, if you made it this far, the sorority was beyond just interested in having you become one of their new pledges. They told you about their sisterhood, their community, the life as one of their sisters. It was also the night that made me decide that I for sure wanted to join a sorority. At the end of the night we had to decide whether we wanted to get a bid or not, and we had to decide which sorority was our number one choice.

Sunday was Bid Day, the day that we had all been waiting for. Between 2 and 3 PM the girls that had helped you through recruitment visited your room to let you know if you got a bid, and if you did, who it was from (you can only get one bid on bid day). I accepted my bid and got to know that the dress code was the seventies. At 4 PM we all had to be in the Chapel to start with this new chapter in our lives. We got to meet the girls, take pictures, eat pizza and just hang out. I was beyond excited to be able to meet my new sisters and with finishing the first step to becoming a Sigma Kappa.

Just received my bid!

All the sororities, cheering their new pledges on

Senior snakes and pledge class!

Me, Kiersten and Carlijn

Eating pizza, drinking soda, watching Friends and getting to know each other!

I got a basket full of love from my heart sister!

All the Field Hockey Snakes - Mac, Jones, Emma, Riley, Car and I

The new sisters!

Field Hockey Formal

2:37 PM dresses, field hockey, fiji, formal, fun, party, suits, team, wittenberg No comments

Like most teams on campus, the field hockey team has a formal once a year. Ours was the first weekend after classes started again. Like most formals, it was a closed party, meaning that only those who were on the guest list were allowed to come in, and like most formals the dress code was suits & dresses.

Every freshman was allowed to bring one date, every sophomore was allowed to bring two, every junior was allowed to bring three and seniors could bring as many dates as they wanted to. I brought Akbar, a friend of mine from Pakistan.

At the party, everyone looked gorgeous. Guys looked neat in their suits and girls looked hot in their dresses. Considering how close the field hockey team is, everyone knew almost all of the other guests. We had a fun time hanging out, dancing, and of course drinking sprite.

After spending a couple of hours at the field hockey formal we decided to go to the Fiji formal that he had invited me to. It was a fun night and it was great to see everyone again after a break of over a month.

Preparing in Meyers

On our way to the formal - everyone looked so pretty!

With Kayla and Zara

With Akbar

With Michaela

Team picture!

Winterbreak - Home, Paris, Terschelling and Seattle

2:32 PM break, christmas, eiffel tower, france, movie, museum, museum of art, paris, seattle, terschelling, the imitation game, usa, winter break No comments

During winter break I decided to go home, mostly because I was missing my family. Being home was great - I got to see my family and best friends, I got to celebrate Christmas with family and friends, and I got to eat Dutch food again.

The first week of break was hectic. I met up with lots of friends, hang out with my family, celebrated Christmas about three times and went to parties. It was great to see how everyone was doing, but I have to admit that it freaked me out a little bit that my little brother and sister were growing up so fast. I still can't really believe how fast time goes, and how fast the people around you change. Most of my friends had moved out of their family's houses and were busy with their own studies and their new student life.

The beginning of the second week of break, my family, Marise (Julie her best friend) and I spent in Paris. We had a great time visiting the Eiffel tower, Musee D'Orsay, the Grand Palais and more. Paris is gorgeous, and every time we visit there are new things that catch my attention. Whenever we were not in some tourist attraction, we were either driving around or enjoying the French cuisine.

After a short pitstop in Haarlem, we left for Terschelling. We spent the last day of 2014 and the beginning of 2015 with both the family and some family friends. We walked around on the beach, "raved" in our hotel room and spent most of our time eating. It was a pretty good time.

Terschelling was fun, and after we spent some more time with family and close friends back home. It was soon time to leave the Netherlands again and go back to the U.S. Luckily I didn't go straight back to school: I got to spent some time with family friends in Seattle. I made it there in time, but my luggage sadly didn't.

In Seattle, I went to the movies quite a couple of times. I watched Selma with a bunch of college kids that I met on the day itself, The Imitation Game (great great movie) with Amy and Lynn and a documentary on the maintaining of sea life in a beautiful part of the world (I have no recollection of the name of this movie, but is was in an ONIMAX theater and it was beautiful) with Amy and Eric.

I didn't spent all of my time in the movie theaters: I also got to shop a little and see more of the city. Just like when I visited Seattle with my dad, I visited the Pike Place Market and the Seattle Museum of Art (SAM). Both are amazing. The market is adorable and the SAM had some gorgeous new expositions. After a couple of days with some amazing people in an amazing city, it was really time to get back to school.