Happy October 3rd!

Today is important for several reasons:

1) It's officially been one whole month since I arrived in France! The time has absolutely flown by and I can't believe everything that's happened already. From making new friends to seeing new places, the past month has been fantastic (albeit, with some ups and downs). I can't wait for everything that's left to come... but also don't want it to go by too quickly!

2) Today is Debate Day. That's right - the first Presidential Debate of the 2012 election year. And do you where it's being held?! THE UNIVERSITY OF DEVER! That's right - my school is hosting it :)

Facebook is blowing up with updates from people who were picked in the lottery to get a ticket to the actual debate and with photos from the madness that is campus right now. Think lots of media, security, and apparently lots of fences, too. Classes are all cancelled for the day (lucky) and I won't get to watch the debate live since it would be at 3am France time (8 hour time difference). Anyway, so proud to be a DU student today and I can't wait to hear about how the debate goes.

3) And of course, the reason of highest importance is Mean Girls:

xxo, S

Letter to Rho for Recruitment 2012

Monday was Bid Day back at DU. Although I wasn't there to experience it, I've heard only good things! Recruitment was tough last year - I personally felt very disappointed with my own performance and had to learn the hard way that even if you expect the best from people, you don't know what you're going to get.

Anyway, we welcomed fifty (!!) new members to ∆Z on Monday and I couldn't be happier!!! I'm so proud of all my sisters back in Denver and proud to call myself a Delta Zeta girl. Before Recruitment began this year, I wrote a short letter to my chapter (Rho) pumping them up with a little encouragement. I want to share it here with you all because a few girls said it was touching to them. And also I miss everyone back at DU! Here it is:

Bonjour à toutes mes soeurs!

As recruitment approaches, I know you are all getting very excited. After all, I'm 4,000 miles away and super excited! For many of you, this is your first recruitment and you are very lucky to have such a determined, driven, passionate, lovable, friendly, and smart woman like Été to lead you through this. All of E-board, all the chairmen, our new and already-loved CCD, all the alumnae, all your sisters worldwide, and all of us who are abroad want you to succeed and we know you can. So don't be scared - it's going to be one of the greatest and most fun things you will ever, ever do!

While I haven't been with you all throughout Perfection Week and the workshops, I still feel that you have all been working your very hardest (it's that sisterly bond we've got, i can literally SENSE it). If I could give one piece of advice to every Rho woman who is recruiting this Fall, it would be this: Have courage. To quote John Wayne, "Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway." Courage will make you stand out to every single PNM who walks through that door (and sincerity, and smiles, and sisterhood - all that good stuff too of course). It's not just bungee jumping or public speaking that takes courage, so much as being outside of your comfort zone and succeeding at it.

Anyway, thanks girlies for letting me pep-talk you all a little bit. I really and truly miss everyone so much and can't wait to see you all when I get back. Bises (that's 'kisses') from France!

In the Flame,

Stephanie

Congratulations to Rho on our best Recruitment ever! See you guys in January,

xxo, S

Academia

Dear all DU students/alumni; all Bronxville H.S. students/alumni; and my family,

YOU DON'T KNOW HOW LUCKY WE ARE!
By the good graces of God and the Universe, we are smart.

Why am I so thankful all of a sudden? And why did it take me so long to realize this? The second, I'm not sure. But the first one is why I am writing to you.

Studying abroad, I have come across more than just French culture; also Spanish, Italian, and other European cultures; plus American culture outside of where I live.
One of the things I've noticed about American culture is that not everyone is as smart as the people I've been surrounded by my whole life.

I'm not trying to be rude or insensitive here! No, no! And I've discussed this with other DU classmates of mine who are studying abroad right now, too. We've been smacked in the face in our encounters with students from other colleges who are having difficulty with the curriculum. Meanwhile, us DU kids are breezing by; working hard, yet barely working; playing hard (and hard to get).

Back to academia.
Today's lesson: accept the things you cannot change, and learn to accept such things early in life, because it will save you much frustration later on.

We won't always be surrounded by such great minds, as evidenced, by our abroad experiences. Now is the time to thrive amongst our like-minded peers and take pride in the fact that we can all intelligently discuss current events, literature, economics, history, chemistry, and culture.
Even when we go off to our eventual careers and settle in new towns with our families, our coworkers and neighbors may not fulfill our ever-inquiring minds. Thanks to our privileged education and upbringing, we are not ignorant; we are not easily placated; and we are not unintelligent. We are a small, but important group of people.

Don't let the pressure or pride of this gift go to your heads, though! Modesty is as important as ever, as I've learned. Bragging about how easy that quiz was; how little you studied; or how much you don't care won't earn you any friends. You can't alienate people, but you can offer to help as much as possible, and be especially understanding. Especially now that you are aware of your own brain power.

So cheers to us! Cheers to our futures and our fortunes, not just monetary! Cheers to the friends we've made, and the ones we'll meet, and let their range of knowledge not barricade the doors to friendship! And cheers to our ability to give thanks for all that we take for granted!

xxo, S

2012 Breakdown

California Christmas!

New skis for the 2012 season!
Atomic Access

Reunited with ∆Z juniors who got back from abroad!

 patriots vs. broncos game - pats pats pats!

∆Z girls go to BΘΠ formal:

Making cookies for K∑ with Betty Crocker:

Note to all sorority girls: frat kitchens are a scary scary place!

Some skiing adventures:

Skiing this year wasn't as good as other years. In fact, it was pretty sucky. When it did snow, it wasn't much and didn't last long. Sometimes you had to wait all day for it to even get soft enough to shred. And the few times we got powder, it was gone in a flash. Me and Steeze had a good day at Copper (below) and quaffed the fresh on the back bowls :)

 with steezy at Copper Mtn.

Went to Aspen for the weekend (Feb. 9-12):

We stayed with Oley's family - they are such awesome, nice, cool people! - and skiied fo' free one day and hiked a nearby mountain the other day.

me, stu, oley, and doug on top of Aspen Mtn.

Performed "Wannabe" at Gamma Phi-Oke with other ∆Zs:

We pulled it together at the last second. Good effort ladies :)

Discovered the magic of the song "Call Me Maybe" with Stu:

Finals week was just full of this song. And now it's in constant rotation in my playlists.

And that's basically my winter quarter! Spring has just started and I can't wait for all the fun times that are about to come...

xxo, S

She's alive!!!

OK, HI I'M HERE!
So so sorry for the lack of posts, uh, all year. I'm working on a few stories, tales, and updates for you all. In the meantime, see what I've been up to on Tumblr:

• smcny911.tumblr.com
• playlistpluspictures.tumblr.com

For now, HAPPY EARTH DAY! Betty Cocker, Liv, and I are out on the sun deck at Driscoll (the student center). Just soakin' up the sun and gettin' work done...

Tomorrow, I have my French class in the morning and Film Crit in the afternoon. During my break, Liv and I are thinking about coming back here for lunch and doing reading before class! I just love spring :)

xxo, S

P.S. I promise I'll be a better blogger/updater now!

HALLOWEEKEND

Happy Halloween to one and all!

My friends and I had a great Halloween weekend. I had four different costumes, which my friends and I spent weeks coming up with. A bunch of us got ready in my suite beforehand and then partied all together.

getting ready to go out: music playing and costume-altering

betty crocker (a real southern girl) as a belly dancer with me, a sassy texan girl, and our cowgirl sister

 group of us before heading out on friday

 mk and me. troo wuv!

 me and miss bananaanna

 more dz sisters!

flight attendant, ballerina, and "walk of shame"

 stu and me

she is some sort of circus performer/ 80s workout instructor

 stu and doug in matching jumpsuits! 

 betty boop (as betty "boom!") and me

i'm a flight attendent from hawai'i

liv-love and stu

princess jasamine and a grecian goddess - so pretty!

The other cosumes I wore that aren't pictured here (sad!) are a lax bro and a tacky tourist. These were pretty funny... the lax bro one didn't do too well in the cold weather, however.

Can't wait for next year! Or just another costume/theme party in the near future!

xxo, S

First snow

You'd think that by now I'd be used to unpredictable weather in Denver. Nope! On Monday, it was about 80 degrees at the warmest.... and last night, it dropped to 30 and SNOWED!!!!

Woke up to these beautiful sights on my way to class at 8am

I hope it warms up a bit for this weekend (Halloween!) and cute costume-wearing, hehehe

xxo, S

Guess who's...

...coming to visit this weekend? MY DAD!!!

It's Parent's and Homecoming week at DU and my dad is coming to visit - yay!!
We get to go to a hockey game tomorrow, a BBQ at the ∆Z house, and my dad gets to meet all my friends at DU. All so much fun! Oh, and visit some of his friends who live out here, too :P but it's mostly about me. Like always. (Kidding.)

He's arriving tonight and I CAN'T WAIT!
Hooray for the weekend :)

xxo, S

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