Let the games begin!

This upcoming week at Ohio State is Greek Week, also known as one of the best, most fun weeks of the year in the Greek Community.  Greek Week is an excellent chance for sororities and fraternities to get together and mingle.  For the week on campus, Greek life seems to take over, and be much more apparent that usual.

Greek Week spirit!

Greek Week serves several purposes, to meet other men and women in different fraternities and sororities, to participate in philanthropy competitions and to have fun!  When thinking of Greek Week, most in Greek life think of Theme Gatherings, known as TGs.  While drinking in your best Anything But Clothes outfit is a blast, there is more to look forward to.

I happen to love the Variety Show, where sororities and fraternities choreograph and perform dances, and people get very competitive.  I participated in my sorority's dance team last year and had a great time.  Unfortunately, I did not have time to do it this year, but will definitely go to watch instead.  It is amazing to see the talent that others in the Greek community have, and see everyone come together.

My sorority's dance team performance last year

The Greek community also hosts guest speakers and does several philanthropy challenges, promoting Greek life well on campus.  There is also an event called the Greek Games, where the pairings of sororities and fraternities compete against each other to determine the winner, and the best overall pairing.  These competitions range from relay races to dodge-ball to a pie eating contest.

Everyone who participates has their own view of Greek Week, some girls view it as a change to make out with boys dressed at G.I. Joe or in togas all week, while others like myself view it as a chance to put Greek life in the spotlight in a positive way.  I think Greek Week is an excellent way for Greek life at Ohio State to very publicly enhance its image, and to communicate to the Ohio State community.

Are you in Greek life? What is your favorite part of Greek Week?

Live from Ohio State...it's Phi Trotters!!

I attend many on-campus events, from sporting events to diversity lectures to my sorority's events.  On Saturday, my sorority hosted our annual philanthropy basketball tournament, and I decided to live-tweet the event.  I did not want to spam my twitter followers and be annoying, so I only tweeted about the event three times.

The proceeds from the basketball tournament benefited Sharsheret, an organization for Jewish women with breast cancer.  The girls in the sorority do not play, we organize the event and host it, coaching teams, running the brackets and keeping score.  The event takes place at the Recreation and Physical Activity Center.

In my three years attending the tournament I have coached teams, which is really fun.  Basically, as a coach, you hang out with a team for the day, cheering them on and making sure they know when who and where they are playing.  Many other sororities and fraternities in the Greek community support us, and make the event really fun.  We rent out a large gym in the RPAC and blast music, having a good time while supporting a great cause.

This year, I coached my boyfriend's team, him and his roommates are all members of a fraternity on campus, and play every year.   My team referred to themselves as the "Study House," which others in their fraternity call them.  Their tradition is to wear neon shirts and blue shooting sleeves, which some of them wore on their legs, but I am not sure why.  Also, this year one of the members of the "Study House" did not want to play, but he dressed up as a team manager, and helped coach his roommates.  Coaching with me were two freshmen girls in my sorority who had older brothers on the team.

The Study House and coaches

Although they lost their first game, we continued on to the losers bracket, and played a team of men also in their fraternity.  The "Study House" won this game, dominating against their opponents.  However, in their next game, their opponents from another fraternity crushed them in a game with a final score of 16-2.  But, I was a proud girlfriend, my boyfriend being the leading (and only) scorer of his team in that game.

Many other girls from my sorority were tweeting about the event the day of it, and also tweeted about it before, to publicize it and encourage others to participate.  My sorority also has national and local twitter accounts, and I mentioned my local chapter in my tweets.  The picture included in one of my tweets is the team picture seen above.  I received some response tweets and also some of my followers "favorited" my tweets.

Tweeting about an event is a great way to publicize it, as it is short and to the point, and a hashtag (#) can be easily followed to create a trend.

Have you ever live tweeted an event?  What event did you tweet about? Why?