Don't All Rush At Once: Bid Day @ USC

Being in a sorority or fraternity are big deals here at USC. The Greek Life has a big presence on campus and over 1000 girls began the process of rushing this year.

If none of this makes sense, don't worry I had no idea what a sorority, rushing or bid day was until about 2 weeks ago when my housemate told me she would be rushing this year.

A brief overview; a sorority or fraternity is a group of guys or girls who have common interests and who organize social events, charity fundraisers and parties.

To be in one of these groups you have to "rush" which is a two week process where each rushee will view the Greek houses (where the richest of the sorority or frat members live) and talk to each group at various functions. At the end of the two weeks the girls (frats are far to cool for this kind of event) find out which sorority they have gotten into and attend Bid Day. Just a note, not all girls make it and can be dropped from the process if none of the groups want them.. its quite a harsh and judgmental process and to top it off you have to pay for the privilege of both rushing and then joining. Its not a cheap way to make friends!

Finally at the end of the process you have Bid Day where the girls adorn their new Greek letters and do the historic run through the horseshoe here on campus.
It is a crazy event with lots of screaming, cheering, singing and whistle blowing. I've never seen anything like it.. luckily my housemate got into the sorority she wanted (Phi Mu) and we got to see her Bid Day run!

Here is a video I took of Bid Day at USC 2011:

To view in HD click the 320 icon at the bottom of the player and select 720.

News Flash: Irene Is Raging

First an earthquake and now a hurricane, the east coast is getting a real battering from Mother Nature this week. No sooner had the excitement of the earthquake abated but serious weather warnings and talk of evacuating coastal regions of South Carolina became the new topic of conversation. Hurricane Irene was approaching and was heading right for us.

Yet it would seem that luck (for us anyway) was on our side as Irene has narrowly missed South Carolina and headed north, hugging the North Carolinian coast. The city of Charlotte, a mere 2 hours from Columbia, has experienced severe flooding and seen the first three victims of this raging storm which occurred due to falling debris. North Carolinas outer banks have been greatly affected by 8ft storm surges which have flooded most of the low lying banks.

With a hurricane so close by there has definitely been a change of weather here in Columbia, the blazing summer heat has been dramatically softened by cloud cover and although no rainfall there has been a swift wind filling the air. The only real physical sign has been the clouds over head racing by at an unbelievable speed. It is hard to imagine the destruction being caused so close by.

It was a close call but thankfully here at USC we have not been affected by the weather. I sincerely hope Irene begins to lose momentum before destroying anymore cities in her path.

It is safe to say that nature has definitely welcomed me to the States and reminded me that we may complain about the rain in England but at least we don’t have to contend with super storms and seismic activity!

I am clearly not in England anymore!

News stories covering Irene s destruction:
http://hamptonroads.com/2011/08/saturday-morning-reports-hurricane-irene-va-nc
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/08/27/tropical.weather/index.html?iref=BN1

Welcome to USC

I survived my first week at USC! It’s been a hectic week of filling in forms, signing up for classes and meeting many many new people but it’s been amazing! I have moved into my dorm, watched band practice, drunk from a keg, played beer pong, eaten pop tarts and learnt that despite being in America there is still a language barrier, sometime I don’t feel like they speak English here at all! I am now starting to settle in and am actually looking forward to my week of classes!

Here are a few photos from around the beautiful campus. Some of the oldest buildings on the horseshoe (the original campus) were built in 1801 and are gorgeous. I love the historical atmosphere and colonial style of a campus which is situated in a more urban setting. 

Your walking 10 blocks? Say it ain’t so girl!

We all know the old stereotype that Americans are lazy and walking further than the parking garage (oh yes I’m using the lingo!) is pretty much alien to them all. So much so that when I asked directions to the federal building I was told “oh that’s 10 blocks straight down the street ma’am, I’ll give you the shuttle information.” “No no I’ll walk” I say. To this I received a look of complete shock and sympathy from the lovely but slightly overweight information lady who is still insistent on passing me the timetable.

Not only is walking strongly discouraged but being a pedestrian is just no fun. When you do actually want to walk somewhere it’s like playing chicken with every other car on the road. Even on the green man (or white here) cars are still lawfully able to turn into the road on a red light making every crossing potentially your last.

Further problems arise when you start walking along quite happily and the pavement will disappear leaving you with no choice but the walk on the verge next to the insanely busy road whilst all drivers look at you in disbelief. Countless times I have narrowly missed being taken down by cars, honked, yelled at or asked if I needed a ride somewhere.

I do not particularly enjoy the walking game here but despite its risks I did not take the lady’s advice and did walk to the federal building, getting there alive and in less than 15 minutes and was even able to wave at the people taking the shuttle on my way back home.