Go Padres!

 Coming from a state with ZERO professional sports teams, I have never been to a real game.  That's why I jumped at the chance to watch the Padres take on the Dodgers at Petco Park.  USD sold its students tickets for only $8!

We were seated in great seats in the all you can eat section.  What a deal!  They even had buses that took us to and from the park and campus.
And because the game the night before had to stop early due to the weather, we technically saw two games for the price of one.  It was sweet!

My friends and I had such a fun time watching the game and we're hoping to make it out there more often!

Fighting Back Together and Never Ever Giving Up Hope

Cancer NEVER sleeps.
                                  So neither did we.


For 24 hours, the USD community camped out on and walked around the Valley Field in support of the American Cancer Society through Relay for Life.  The event raised over $40,000, but more importantly, it raised awareness within the community about cancer.

 I participated on the Alpha Chi Omega team and we were able to raise $4,575 as a team!  We had the second largest team total at Relay.

Earlier in the week, I organized a fundraiser at Urbane Cafe which is down the road from campus.  A bunch of students came out to eat sandwiches and support a good cause, and through that we were able to raise $400.  


This event is really special to me, because I currently know someone who is suffering through Breast Cancer.  I walked in support for her.  Many of the other girls in my sorority, as well as all the other supporters of Relay, had incredible stories and reasons for why they were there, so it was nice to see the USD community working together and supporting each other.

Being out there was a nice change to the typical Friday night routine.  My friends and I played volleyball and soccer on the field and teamed up with some of the boys from Beta Theta Pi to literally "relay" for life around the field.  It was fun, but made me realize that I am way too out of shape to be sprinting!

 On Saturday morning, our friend Jesus, aka DJ Swish, played at the event.  He did a great job and got everyone pumped to circle the track.

The Asian Student Association also had participants make a 1,000 paper cranes that will hopefully be hung up in the Student Life Pavilion to raise awareness for the American Cancer Society and to be displayed as a sign of hope to those currently fighting the vicious illness.

Overall, the event was a huge success in not only raising money, but getting people involved. 

Although this was my first time participating in a Relay, I can't wait to walk again next year.

Greek Week 2011

Every fraternity and sorority (and even the Rugby team) went head to head to compete in Greek Week 2011 which was Disney Themed!  Each day of the week had a different excited and challenging activity for the sororities and fraternities to compete in.  Each sorority was paired up with a fraternity, and Theta was paired up with the Rugby team.

On Tuesday, we all went out to the Manchester field to play a bunch of different "Disney" themed games.  There was a tricycle race, sponge pass, and even a tug of war.  On Wednesday, we all participated in a letter writing event to fundraise for St. Judd's.  We wrote letters to our friends and families after hearing stories from a child that had just received help from St. Judd's.  It was so inspirational and everyone had a blast stuffing their envelopes while devouring pizza and soda.

 But it all came down to....SKITS!
Each pairing had to perform a skit with a disney theme.  We were paired with Lambda Chi Alpha.  Our skit was about Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber putting on a contest to see who could make the best music video using a song from a Disney Channel original movie.  We did dances from the Cheetah Girls, the Kim Possible Movie, Zenon, and LifeSize.  It was so much fun!  The best part was seeing what everyone else was creative enough to come up with.  The Kappas and SigEp won with an AWESOME skit!  They used their dancers really well and they did a great job!
But overall, we placed SECOND in all of Greek Week!  So proud of my AXO's! :)

As Greek Week came to a close, I spent Saturday morning at the beach watching the powderpuff tournament put on by Alpha Phi and Lambda Chi Alpha.  It was pretty intense!  Most of the teams had matching uniforms and came to win!
Alpha Chi also had a 4Pack with Theta, Sigma Phi Epsilon, and PhiKap.  A 4Pack is a dance with two sororities and two fraternities.  It was a lot of fun to mix it up with the different chapters on campus.  The theme was toon town and I dressed up as Hello Kitty.

 This may sound like a BUSY week, which it definitely was, but it was also a lot of fun!  And I was even able to play in my first intramural softball game!  By no means am I athletic, but I did hit the ball and made it to home plate!  It was really exciting!

Overall, as hectic as it was, I can't wait for Greek Week 2011!!  It's always great when the Greek Community comes together to work hard and play hard!

Viva Las Vegas

This past weekend, the spirit team traveled with the men's and women's basketball team to Las Vegas for the WCC Basketball Tournament.  Although the men's team lost during the first round, the women made it to the semifinals.  They were AMAZING and we were so proud of how well they played.  The Women's team played St. Mary's during the semifinals and only lost by 3 points!  It was heartbreaking, but they are such great athletes we were so proud to cheer for them!

We also had time to walk the strip.  Although I had been to Vegas tons of times before, it was the first time for a lot of the girls on the team.  So, we were able to explore Vegas and see all the pretty lights on the strip.  It was an amazing weekend and once in a lifetime opportunity to cheer in the Conference.

Shirtless David Beckham?

Campus was PACKED with soccer fans last night to watch the LA Galaxy play Club Tijuana on our very own field!  There were over 5,000 fans in the stadium all cheering on the players.  It was wild!

However, I was lucky enough to have my own sneak peak of a shirtless David Beckham and Landon Donovan.  I couldn't attend the game because I had practice for spirit team in the Jenny Craig Pavilion.  While we were practicing, we noticed soccer players walking through the gym.  They were using the area next to our practice as their locker room!  So, we ran to the doors and were able to watch as all the LA Galaxy team members walked through sweating and shirtless after the game.  

Boys, if that isn't your thing.  

We also got to see all of the Club Tijuana players as we exited from practice.  They were very nice and all greeted us kindly which of course they did since they won the game!

Take a walk on the WILD side

In a previous post, I mentioned how CRAZY the rush process can be. You're bombarded with new names and faces all the time.  During my first couple weeks, I would see people dressed in Alpha Chi clothes walking around on campus and wave even if I had NO IDEA who they were.  But as the process has gone on, I've learned many names and made so many new friends!

But there's been one person whose been there for me along this whole journey.  During recruitment, on day 3, I talked to a sophomore whose name I could NOT remember at the time.  She was crazy, silly, and we got along PERFECTLY.  On preference night, the last night of the recruitment process, she pref'ed me, meaning she was the only person to talk to me that night for an entire hour.  Rather than feel nervous, I felt completely normal around her and knew that I had just met my new big sister.  That night, I signed my preference card and chose Alpha Chi Omega because of this one girl who had made a lasting impact on my whole rush process. 

During last weeks meeting, everything I knew during recruitment came true as my big, Katy Cooper, was revealed to me!  The week prior to the reveal, we were surprised with gifts everyday.  It was heaven!  

On reveal day, all the new members were shuffled into a room full of shirts.  We had to find our shirt, put it on, and wait as our Bigs prepared to meet us.  When we entered the room, they all had jackets on.  In groups, they got on stage, danced and stripped off their jackets to reveal shirts that matched ours.

I'm so glad that Katy's officially my big, especially since she has been the one helping me out the most in adjusting to becoming a member of Alpha Chi Omega.

It's nice to know I'm officially part of the WILD family :)

Sunny San Diego

Common reason people come to San Diego:  the beautiful weather

but by some freak of nature, it HAILED last night!
Maybe it's just because I've never seen anything even close to snow before, but I thought it was amazingly cool.  The great thing though, after a quick night of hail, the weather is back to being 60 degrees and sunny!  
My friends at school on the east coast are all so jealous.