Recruitment 2011!

I'm not going to bother to even TRY and explain how formal Panhellenic sorority recruitment works, but basically, there are a lot of rules, a lot of days, a lot of girls, and a lot of preparation...

We meet and greet possible new members into our house and chat with them to see if they'd be a good fit for our house. The better connections you make, the more likely they are going to feel comfortable at your house. And then, at the end of four days, you have new, baby, DELTA ZETA members!!!

day one, sweet home delta zeta

day two, aloha delta zeta

day three, painted turtle camp philanthropy

day four, preference night

Today was Bid Day, which means that the girls we wanted got our bids. If they accepted, they ran down to us on Driscoll Green and we welcomed them with matching t-shirts and goodie bags and had a celebratory party back at the house. SO MUCH FUN!

party at the house

It's really important to have a good recruitment because these new members are literally the future of your house. Also, if you don't recruit enough girls, then you won't have a big house that year.
Luckily (and of course), we got forty nine wonderful new members! Can't wait to get to know them all better and love them like I do all the rest of my sisters :)

xxo, S

∆Z does Red Rocks

On Sunday, some ∆Zs organized a little hike around Red Rocks Park outside of Denver. It was warm and the scenery was beautiful - just like the girls! Couldn't have asked for a better day with my sisters :)

In case you were wondering, Red Rocks is the same place as the amphitheater where I saw Dispatch back in June. It's still naturally amazing - even without the rockin' music :) We actually made our own music, singing a Delta Zeta-ized version of "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz; as we went along our hike singing our song, we made some people so happy, they asked us to keep going (what a good feeling!).

Dee Zee love and mine
xxo, S

Dublin (26 to 29)

Unfortunately, our trip had to come to an end at some point :( We left Brian and Julia's house on the 26th and took the train to Dublin! (No dead gentlemen in the restroom this time).

Stu made friends with the front desk guy at our Kinlay House hostel when we checked in to our sweet top floor room.

we got to climb all these stairs every day!

view from the room

walking around the city at sunset

Our first night in Dublin, we took it easy and went out to a simple dinner and hung out at The Porterhouse Brewing Co. afterwards. This place had several of their own brews, unique to the brewery and brewed right in Dublin. We got to taste them, and really enjoyed them!

The next day, we headed off to tour the Guinness Storehouse. Formerly the brewery for Guinness beer, it is now a museum dedicated to history of the Guinness brand.

The inner structure of the building is built in the shape of a giant pint glass, which is, of course, what Guinness is served in. Escalators going every which way to take you from floor to floor made this place more Willy Wonka than Hershey Park.

At the top of the Storehouse is the Gravity Bar, representing the head of the pint. Windows on all sides of the circular top floor provide spectacular 360 degree views of Dublin. It is also here that you can redeem your entrance ticket for a free pint of freshly poured Guinness.

 the view

outside at the end of our tour

Of course, we had to enjoy our Saturday night in Dublin! We signed up for another pub crawl and set out into the night.

whalen's, where they shot part of "P.S. I Love You"

a token hipster bar, which we loved

Dublin has some pretty odd street sights at night:

We spent our last full day in Ireland on a walking tour around the city.

We ended the tour at St. Stephen's Green, the big park in Dublin. After, we walked to get dinner (we were starving!) at an Indonesian restaurant called Chameleon.

The food was sooooo good! We devoured everything and had the best time relaxing on their comfy couch seating. We were also the only people on the top floor of the restaurant, so we got to giggle and hang out and just enjoy our meal :)

That night, we returned to The Porterhouse and enjoyed the new beers we had discovered for the last time.

We also went back to the bar from the night before, Whalen's. They played music that Doug and I really liked and it was fun to just sit and hang out.

whalen's

And that was it! Our Irish adventure had come to an end and we had to go home :(

sunset on our last day in Ireland

Bye-bye, Ireland. Until next time, the four best friends are signing off and hope to see you again!