Amanda Please

In case you were wondering, as a sophomore I am not only still positive that UD is the perfect fit, but I am MORE positive than I ever was! (And that is VERY positive). Sometimes I will be walking around campus—to class, on Main St, etc., and I just become so happy looking around at the beautiful school I get to go to. The campus is perfect, and on sunny days, it looks like a movie scene—everyone is outside either tanning, eating, studying, or playing a sport. It’s perfectly green but you can also get a city-ish feel near main street and because of the large amount of people. Classes are challenging, but not impossible. Professors are always willing to help, and if you talk to them, they are likely to be more understanding than you would have imagined. I am completely in love with my sorority! Greek life, as I have said many times, is an incredible thing to be a part of, (though it is not essential). I have met soo many people—boys and girls, who I would have never met before. Greek life includes athletics, philanthropic events, mixers, even study hours, AIRBAND!!!, and other events, so I have been given so many awesome opportunities. I love my major, and I am confident it will lead me to where I want to be in the future. Sporting events are so much fun—being on the cheer team here has been really cool! Clearly, I cannot speak more highly of UD. I am confident that anyone who chooses to go here will be able to make it home.

Airband is a HUGE and intense competition within Greek life that marks the ending of Greek Week. Each fraternity and sorority makes up a 7-minute dance that has a theme and a storyline. The sororities especially go ALL OUT. My sorority, Alpha Sigma Alpha, has been practicing for nearly two months, and we have been waking up at 6:15 AM every morning this week, as well as practicing each night. We’ve practiced at off campus gyms, turfs, parks, and different rooms on campus. Girls have been spending 15 plus hours per day working on props, costumes, and scenery. Friday night we perform at the Big Bob. This is my first airband ever, and I cannot wait! I’m SO ready and excited. Even my family is coming! Here is a video of ours from last year, (I was not yet in the sorority). We won!!!! I’ll put up updated pictures and videos after Friday =)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbFJXtggIA8

I’m sure you noticed this blog’s title is in all caps. It’s because I wanted to emphasize that this was the BEST SPRING BREAK EVER! I went to Panama City Beach in Florida and had the time of my life. Every single day included the beach, the pool (although for some reason we didn’t end up going all the way in), fun restaurants, friends—new ones and old ones, and dancing. It was perfection. The water was crystal blue and perfectly clear, and the sand was perfectly white. Our hotel room had 3 bedrooms, a giant living room, a kitchen, and a long balcony overlooking the ocean/gulf. The beach had a big UD flag posted in the sand—there were TONS of Delaware kids! We spent about 6 hours on the beach every day, and even went jet skiing on our last day which was so thrilling. I can’t even tell you how sad I am to be back.

For 18 years, St. Patty’s day meant nothing to me. I came to college, and suddenly it’s the biggest holiday of the year! A celebration’s a celebration, so I’m not complaining…but I definitely find it funny that the campus goes crazy over the day! Saturday, March 17th, the whole campus woke up between 7:00 am and 10:00 am, 10:00 being late. Everyone, (literally), dressed in green and was ready to celebrate. Even bagels were green! Nearly all of the fraternities through exciting parties which we got to enjoy in absolutely stunning weather. All of the students seemed so happy. It was so nice to see everyone out and about in such fantastic moods so early in the morning. I had a ton of fun hanging out with my new sorority sisters all day. One of the fraternities got us all bagels and even a moon bounce, so by 9:45 in the morning, after we ate our bagels, we were bouncing around a castle moon bounce. Talk about the perfect morning. It was definitely an experience!

There is almost nothing in this world that will make you more anxious than waiting to hear back from you number one school. Words cannot even describe the level of anxiety I experienced waiting for Delaware’s letter to arrive. And the day that it did…the day that I saw that gigantic bright yellow envelope sitting in my mailbox, was one of the most exciting days of my life! My mom and I both burst into tears, we were so excited. Delaware was my number one choice and my dream school, so this letter represented a dream come true. I was so relieved and ecstatic, and within seconds was on facebook updating my  facebook status and my school. I had never been so nervous to check the mail, but it was the best feeling spotting that yellow envelope.

This week, all of the bloggers were asked to be food critics for food that we get on Main Street. Last night, my parents came to watch me cheer at the Women’s Basketball game, (they kicked butt!) Afterwards, we all went to Klondike Kate’s for dinner…my choice! As usual, I ordered the Pesto Basil Roasted Salmon. It is one of my favorite meals on the planet. It’s a piece of salmon with a thick pesto sauce on top, served with rice pilaf, and zucchini. Not only is it absolutely delicious, it is one of the items that has a heart symbol next to it on the menu, indicating that it is a healthy choice. I may not be doing my job as a food critic correctly, but I truly have no complaints! The salmon was crispy on the outside and soft and juicy on the inside. There was the perfect amount of pesto spread on top—not too much that it overpowered the taste of the salmon, but not too little where only some bites had the sauce.  The rice pilaf was served perfectly as well. It was not too salty, yet I did not need to add a drop. The portion size was great. It did not leave me feeling overly full. The worst feeling is leaving a restaurant doubling over with fullness, wishing you hadn’t eaten those last two, or maybe twenty bites. I was thankful that this did not happen! Of course, you could always have will power and stop eating once you are full, but that was not going to happen when my favorite meal was sitting in front of my face. I was lucky enough to have my parents pay, so I can’t tell you how much it was, but I do not recall it being expensive. I highly recommend this restaurant and this dish!

After a long and tiring and germ-infested process of sorority recruitment, I can finally say I’m a sorority girl! While the process was on the tedious side, I can truly say it was completely worth it. I am officially a proud member of the Alpha Sigma Alpha sorority. This weekend was our first weekend going out as sisters, and we had so much fun. I can already tell I’m going to be making many incredible friends in my sorority. It was so surreal to be at a party/get together with so many girls who I did not know, while also knowing they will soon be a big part of my life. Each new girl, referred to as a pearl, is paired up with a veteran, referred to as a ruby, and the ruby acts as a mentor for the pearl. My ruby and I have already gotten extremely close! We clicked right away, and we’ve really been enjoying each other’s company. She even paid for my dinner at Cucina! I’m looking forward to whatever else is in store for me and my new sisters. I know it’s going to be awesome.

So far spring semester is off to a great start! My schedule is SO good. Tuesdays and Thursdays I don’t have class until 12:30, but I’ve been getting up early to get my work out in. My favorite class so far is probably Creative Writing. I’m really looking forward to it. At the start of every class, we get a note card with a random sentence on it, and we have to make a story off of that sentence—we write whatever comes to mind for about fifteen minutes. I enjoyed it a lot! It felt so good to just write about anything in any genre with any style…for a change! Last semester I worked in admissions as a BHAM, which I really enjoyed, but I just found out that this semester I will be working with the HR Liaison there. I’m the only one who will be working with her, so that should definitely be a cool experience. It feels really great to be reunited with my roommate, friends, and teammates too! Being apart makes us all appreciate being together so much more. Everyone was so excited to be back together, especially my teammates and roommates. This semester I’m going to work hard of course, but I’m also going to try to not stress out, and take things one day at a time. I really want to enjoy my semester because time is FLYING! How am I already a SECOND SEMESTER SOPHOMORE?! 

In honor of MLK Day and the day of service, I just wanted to talk a little about community service at UD. So far, I have participated in a youth cheer day. I got to help teach little kids some UD cheers, a short routine, and just give them some very appreciated attention. It was a great experience! The kids really enjoyed it, and it was so nice to see how much they loved spending time with us.

I am rushing a sorority this spring, so I will be involved in a lot of community service being part of that. The fraternities and sororities here are big on community service, which is great. There are a lot of exciting activities to take part in when you are involved in greek life.

I also plan on being part of the Big Brothers Big Sisters Foundation. With this organization, you help children work to build great futures, you spend time with them as their friends, you teach them, etc. Volunteers become very special to the kids and vice versa. I am really looking forward to this :)