Wish You Were Here

hopkins, greek god of…really fun times?

At this point in the week {early afternoon on a Monday with several nighttime classes, a Phillies victory, and hours of studying to go until I can curl up in bed again}, I am already counting down to the weekend.  Don’t get me wrong – I love school, and especially now that our chilly fall weather is here to stay – but this coming weekend is GREEK WEEKEND so I am especially excited to get my work out of the way!

While other schools typically have exciting Greek Weeks, last year was the first time Hopkins really tried to make it an event on our campus.  Since Greek Weekend 2008 was such a hit, this year we have even more really fun things planned and many more Greek groups on board, including our multi-cultural fraternities and some academic ones too!  The winners of each event get points towards their overall total, and whoever comes out on top at the end of Greek Weekend is the ultimate champ…and gets a pretty incredible trophy to keep for the year {the trophy for the sororities is on the left and the trophy for the fraternities is on the right}.  Here are some of the things I’m most looking forward to:

Penny Wars – We set up jugs on the Breezeway for each Greek organization on campus.  Pennies in the jugs are worth ++ points and silver coins/dollars will subtract points.  The goal is to come out with the most pennies in your jug and the most silver/bills in the others so that you have the highest point total.

Trivia Night/Pub Night – Every Thursday at Nolan’s {in Charles Commons} is Pub Night.  Everyone is allowed to come in and enjoy the food, and there are supposed to be great drink deals for people who are 21+.  This week, we’re combining Pub Night with an intense Trivia Night, in which all of the Greek organizations will form teams and compete against each other in a bunch of rounds.  I am a pop culture fiend and am naturally really pumped to WIN this one!  We’ll also have entertainment provided by frat bands at JHU {as well as one Alpha Phi, who plays bass with the Betas} so it’ll be really neat to see everyone in that kind of setting.

Barbecue/Cookoff – Entrance fee is 3 canned goods/$3.  Cooks from the fraternities will compete to make the best BBQ dish, and teams from the sororities do the same with the side dishes.  You can enter the competition as many times {with as many different dishes} as you want.  Each person who comes to the event gets a certain number of votes {though if you donate more canned food, you get more votes to spend!} and, at the end, whoever’s dish wins will get a certain number of points for their Greek group.  I’m still trying to decide what to make!

Soapbox Derby – The fraternities who compete in the soapbox derby all build their cars ahead of time {I’m not sure of the rules, but it seems like they can pretty much use whatever they want} and then race them down the path between Dunning Hall and the Freshman Quad.  There were some unfortunate wipe-outs last year if I remember right, but it was still a lot of fun to watch.  And they always get really excited when they get to build things in the first place…

Football game/tailgate – This weekend, Hopkins football is playing Ursinus at home!  To be totally honest, I normally don’t go to football games here {I think I’ve had enough to last me a lifetime after seeing my high school team lose almost every week for four years} but the weather will be nice and a bunch of my friends are going, so why not.  The school is hosting a pre-kickoff
barbecue and tailgate for anyone who wants to come out a little early as well – food and sports!  You can’t go wrong.

POWDERPUFF FOOTBALL – This is basically what Greek Weekend is BASED on, especially according to Alpha Phi.  Every sorority is paired with a fraternity {to sort of “coach” them} and competes against one another in a series of flag football games.  Flag football generally doesn’t have the reputation of being very high-energy, but you have no idea how intense some of these games get.  We take our team {we call it WAPHI – Alpha Phi + Wawa, the frat we’re always matched with} very seriously – we had try-outs, have been practicing for over a month, have made little buttons to support our team, and will be getting t-shirts shortly.  Last year we won and we most definitely plan on keeping our legacy alive!

{Photos: The team banner in the rain;
my big, the fiercest QB around; after we won!}

All of the different events are basically to see which Greek organization on campus is the “best” in a bunch of different areas {but it all comes down to whoever participates most}.  One of the best parts is that ALL of the money raised from ALL of the events will be donated to the winning group’s philanthropy – and Alpha Phi’s is cardiac care, so we would obviously love to win for that reason alone.

But ultimately, even though it’s all designed as a competition, it’s in the spirit of bringing us together as a Greek community and allowing us to interact even more with one another.  It’s no secret that I love being in Alpha Phi, so it’s cool to get to share with the rest of campus how invested we all are in Greek Life.  Like we always say, Greek Life is part of your college experience at Hopkins {not your entire college experience at Hopkins, like it can be at other schools} – but sometimes it’s nice to share that it just happens to be one of my favorite parts of all.

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