Dinner at the KD House

Dinner at the Kappa Delta house is always a good time! Dinner is always served right at 5:30 and trust me I'm always one of the first to be down there. Dinner starts by going to get our House Mom so that she may get her food first. Then we all get in a line and get our food buffet style. There is always a main course, fruits and vegetables, and a desert! Our amazing cook, Nena, usually takes dinner requests, and she takes desert requests for anyones birthday. After we have all gotten our food and sat down is when the real fun begins. It's mainly us telling goofy stories about our days and laughing about the stupid stuff that is said or done. I love eating dinner at the house, it's when i get to see the most people and socialize the most! After we're done eating we take up our dishes rinse them off and the waiters take care of the rest. Yes thats right! We have waiters that clean our dishes, pick up the left over food, and clean the tables. Everyone knows that a college girl is busy, therefore we need to have someone help us out here and there. :)

Vacationing With Your Sisters

Cancun

A week in Cancun with 6 of my sisters was a blast. It's great having a house full of sisters that would be willing to take a week long trip with you and not only that it's awesome that we could spend so much time together and still not be sick of each other. Sure we live in a house together but not all in the same room or do everything together at all times. It is doing things like going to Cancun, parasailing together, shopping together, eating together, and sleeping together every day that made us even closer on this trip. We were all good friends and sisters before we left and now we are just that much closer! It is so nice to know that I could go on a vacation with anyone of my sisters and know that we will have a blast and look out for each other! I mean what else is family for? 

Philanthropy (Shamrock-Prevent Child Abuse America)

One of the greatest things that the greeks do to help the community is to hold philanthropies that raise money for various organizations. Kappa Delta has the most national philanthropies of any NPC sorority. One of our philanthropies is for Prevent Child Abuse America. 20% of the proceeds go to the local foundation and 80% goes national. Every year we hold a spaghetti dinner, where for three hours people can buy a ticket and eat as much spaghetti as they would like. It is a lot of work but more than worth it! We get to see all of our friends in the greek system and see others who have come to support the cause. It is just a great time to spend with your sisters and make and even greater bond. Not only does it benefit us, but it also helps with the organization we give the money too. We recently had our Spaghetti dinner, where about 300 people came to show their support for the cause and eat as much spaghetti as their hearts desired (or maybe only their stomach could handle). 

la la la la la... SERENADES

Serenades are pretty much the best thing ever done in the greek system. The first serenades I saw were before I even joined Kappa Delta. The boys in most of the fraternities had come up with new lyrics to popular songs to sing to us. They were congratulating the girls on bid day for joining a sorority and I was extremely jealous that I was not one of those girls they were singing for. They would take girls on their knee and sing to them that they were their sweet heart and all kind of lyrics that just make a girl go gaga for guys. Not only are serenades used for congratulating but they are used to woo the sorority/fraternity that a house wants to be paired with. 

Hours are spent to serenades, in fact when our house serenaded this year for Greek Week, we started at 9am and by the time it was all said and done we went until 3. The morning was dedicated to learning the dance and all the songs and the afternoon was spent serenading the boys.

i wanna YELL LIKE HELL!!

Yell Like Hell is one of the most fun and memorable things that any greek at Iowa State gets out of their Homecoming experience. First I will start off by telling you what Yell Like Hell is all about. It is a competition where greek sororities are paired with a fraternity to come up with a skit, act it out, have dances, and a stomp. It takes hard work but in the end it is all worth it. This year it was 3 practices a week for several weeks of getting together and practicing our skills. I learned a lot from this experience, including the ISU fight song, which i may have never learned if it hadn't have been for yell like hell. It was a great way to meet new people and to get to know our pairing for homecoming. I made several friends through Yell Like Hell that I will never forget. The rules are pretty strict, hours are allotted for practice, and if anyone practices out side of their allotted time, that team may lose points or even be disqualified

The final competition starts with first cuts which are held outside in a parking lot. There are plenty of judges who make sure your movements are sharp and that you stay within the lines of the "stage". It is eliminated to final cuts which is 3 pairings who are allowed to paint their bodies and wear whatever they would like that would add to the performance. 

So You Want to Go Greek?

Going Greek isn't something that most people are born wanting to do, that includes me. I stereotyped greeks, just like many others do. I thought they were all rich snobs, and people who thought they were better than everyone else. This was all until I was convinced that my stereotypes were completely wrong. I came to college convinced that greek life was not for me and that my friend was crazy for doing formal recruitment. This is a way for girls to see all of the houses in one week and decide which house is best for them. Many think it is a very stressful process in which it is much to difficult to select a house based off of 20min conversations here and there with a few of the girls in the house. Although many claim that they did not like formal recruitment, I sometimes wish that I would have been involved in this sort of recruitment. Don't get me wrong I love my house and I know that no other house would have fit me, I just would have liked to see the process from the other side.
I will first go into detail about how I was recruited, which is known as informal. This is a way in which the girls can join without the pressures of formal. Girls come to the house, hang out, and just get to know the girls for who they are. Although I did not attend specific events to be recruited, many times a house will hold recruitment events, in hopes that they will find a quality young lady, that helps to contribute to the house.
Now on to Formal, I have not gone through formal recruitment or done formal yet, but I will enlighten you with what I do know. It is a week long process in which girls are divided into groups with a Rho Gamma. The Rho Gamma is a dissafiliated greek member, meaning that for the entire recruitment process they are not allowed to reveal what house they belong to. These girls are in charge of making sure the girls are finding the house that they really want to be in, and supporting them through the entire process. The first day, every girl goes to every house, from here on out the houses eliminate girls and the girls eliminate houses. It seems like a very intimidating process, but from my knowledge the girls seem to end up loving the house they end up in. The day before the last day is known as Pref Night, this is the night when the girls rate which house they want first, second, or last. The last day is Bid Day, a bid is an invite to join a house. It is a very exciting day, and everyone is just thrilled to become a part of the ever expanding and evolving greek community.