Surviving the Summer Heat

It is HOT during the summer months in Arkansas! I have always lived here, and every year I scorch my legs on leather seats, although I haven’t found a solution to that problem yet, I have found a solution to my ice melting within five seconds of being outside. I have one word for you ladies and gents S’WELL! These lovely water bottles keep beverages cold for 24 hours and hot for 12. They come in all kinds of designs and three different sizes. The largest one is even rumored to hold a whole bottle of wine, if that is your sort of thing! They are literally the perfect gift and great to have in your backpack if you are one of the lucky students that gets to walk around campus in August! Honestly I feel that everyone could use one. Tea drinker? Works for you. Strictly water? Works for you. Want hot coffee in the winter time? Works for you too! I have tried all kinds of methods to cool off fast in this summer heat, but nothing really beats having an ice cold beverage. I bought the 17 oz. (medium size) in the Champagne color! But they have so many options for guys and girls. Seriously go get one ASAP! The link to their website is below.

http://www.swellbottle.com/

UARK Hacks: Move In

Ready for move in? Just so you know it will be all sorts of crazy, and there will be lots of parents and new faces, but here are just a couple tips I put together to make it go as smoothly as possible.

First one, pack in boxes or suitcases. When I was packing I put all of my stuff into boxes. Every box had a category, for example, Bedding, Toiletries, tops, bottoms, that sort of thing. Each box was numbered and then I had a piece of paper that had each number on it and said what was in the numbered box. So I might put my bedding in box one, then wrote it down on the piece of paper as 1. Bedding. Pretty simple, but it saved me a lot of time when moving in. I was able to decide what needed to be unpacked while my mom was there to help me, and what I probably could unpack on my own after we said our goodbyes. Second, pick a different move in time than your roommate. You will want all the space you can get to unpack your stuff, and if you are both unloading all of your stuff at the same time there will be barely any space to move and the room will be super crowded. Next, bring a toolkit and more command stripes than you think you need, as well as extension cords, and power strips. If you are a girl that is rushing you will soon receive multiple canvases that you will want to hang up and cover your walls with. Get plenty of command strips so that when you get the canvases you don’t have to waste any time putting them up. Plus those little suckers can add up quick, so it is best to get them on the back to school special than to get them later. I found the best ones to get are the command strips that are made kind of like Velcro, but instead they click together. I used them all year and never had anything fall off of my walls. Make sure you don’t forget your parking sticker. Your parking sticker is literally your car’s ticket to having a home on campus, without it you will for sure rack up an extensive amount of fines. Do yourself a favor and go ahead and put it in your car as soon as it comes in the mail. Lastly, don’t over pack. If you are joining a sorority you will have plenty of t-shirts to wear there is no need to bring any with you. Your room is smaller than you think and I bet that in two weeks you will be going home for Labor Day to say hi to your folks and tell them how much you love college already. Live in your dorm for a couple of weeks and try to figure out what you have room for. Better to bring it up later, than to come to move in with entirely too much stuff that doesn’t fit in your room. Hope this helps!

UARK Hacks: Panhellenic Recruitment

            So you decided to join the Greek community at the University of Arkansas. Are you excited? You should be, we are all excited to have each one of you, but first we have to meet you, and the week it takes to do that is nothing but stressful, but it doesn’t have to be. I have put together some tips that I wish that someone had told me. So to start us off lets go over the basics.

            You will have a t-shirt given to you for every day of the week except Preference Night. Last year when I went through recruitment most of the shirts were pastel colors. This year I have no clue what they will be. All you need is a cute simple necklace and some tasteful shorts to put with your shirt and some sandals. DO NOT OVER DO YOUR MAKEUP. Arkansas in August is hot and humid. You will feel like you are suffocating. Think about this before you apply your makeup. Leave the false lashes and the insane contouring at home. We want to get to know you, and of course we want you to feel comfortable in your own skin, but applying a mask of makeup is not the answer. Think the girl next door look, not the latest runway or prom makeup tutorial that you saw on Pinterest. Also, make sure that you are drinking plenty of water, sweating is your body’s way of cooling down which can cause you to dehydrate, drink water, you don’t want to collapse in the middle of a party, if it were me I would be mortified.

            Do not ask what our favorite fraternity is, or if we have a boyfriend, or how often we go out, or what our favorite fraternity party last year was. Like seriously do not ask that. Keep this in mind, if it is a topic you would bring up to your father, or even in front of your very conservative Grandmother, it is okay to bring up during recruitment. But here is another thing to think about, if those are the things you are looking to get out of joining a sorority you have come to the absolutely wrong place. Sororities are about coming together with a group of pretty awesome gals and trying to make an impact on our community and our world for the better. Like yay women we are awesome.

            Next order of business: your phone. LEAVE IT WITH YOUR GAMMA CHI OR IN YOUR DORM! I can’t stress this enough. Number one it is illegal to have it during recruitment, but number two if you are on your phone all day you won’t be able to see the bright new faces around you! Take this week that you are mushed together with a thousand other girls, to make some new friends. You never know someone that you meet in recruitment could be standing on the same lawn as you on bid day. You think I am kidding, but seriously it is weird how things turn out. There will be people to talk to, movies to watch, and coloring sheets to make beautiful, so embrace it and get to know new people. But while you are meeting new people do not talk about the houses. Like seriously I know it is hard, but find another topic. If you say something bad about Delta Gamma Phi, it will be just your luck that a third generation legacy will be sitting right next to you. So just don’t do it, you don’t want to be “that” girl.

            If you fall, laugh it off and just get back up. Also, it will be loud. Like honestly so loud you won’t be able to hear the person kneeling in front of you, so speak up. If you can’t hear the girl talking to you ask her to repeat herself. She realizes that it is loud and will not mind at all.

            There was probably a lot of information in this that you may or may not have already heard, but I hoped it will help you out just a little. Get ready for the weirdest and most fun week you will never want to do again of your life. But just remember we are just as nervous as you are, and we are human too.

If you have any additional questions go to the Greek Life page for help. I wish that I could talk to you myself, but with the Panhellenic Rules in place we are not allowed to.

www.uagreeks.uark.edu

**Disclaimer: This post doesn't in any shape or form reflect the opinions or views of any certain sorority.

UARK Hacks: Parking

            So you are dying to move in right? You have spent hundreds of dollars and hours of your summer deciding between the different color schemes available at the nearest Bed, Bath, & Beyond. Now you are staring at the pile that has accumulated in the corner of your room, patiently waiting to move to Fayetteville. Trust me everyone has that feeling, but what you don’t realize is that there are things you haven’t thought about yet. Such as your parking permit.

            Parking at the University of Arkansas can be one of the most confusing things ever, but I am about to give you a crash course and hopefully save you a lot of money. Yellow signs and permits are for faculty only. For yellow it is faculty parking only from 7 AM – 5 PM Monday through Friday. From 6 PM – 7 AM Monday through Friday, as well as the weekends these parking spots can be used by anyone. Blue reserved can be given to anyone, all you have to do is apply. I have noticed these spots are some of the better parking spots on campus, but I am sure there is a price with that convenience. These parking spots are reserved Monday – Friday normally 7 AM – 7 PM, if I remember correctly.

            Got a scooter? You’ll need a permit for that too. Motorcycle? Yep parking permit for that as well. Mopeds are super convenient and you will see them everywhere. Some buildings you can basically park within a 2 minute walking distance of your class. But the down side is that during the cold months, driving on a moped is about 10x colder. Bringing a bicycle to campus? Great! You actually don’t need a permit for this, but you will need a bike lock, without one your bike could be impounded.

            Living on campus? There are multiple options for on-campus residents. Resident Reserved is actually split up into zones, the zone that you are put in is determined by where you are living. I wish I would have had Resident Reserved. I had a Garland Parking Permit, and since I will be living in the Zeta House this year I will have it again, that was the better parking option for me. But I lived in Reid so to walk to my car in the middle of the bitter cold was quite a trek. So if you have the option do resident reserved. Not only could you park in the indicated zoned lot, but you can also park in any Green lot which is considered Student Parking. Student parking or the green lots, is a cheaper permit to have, but the green lots are normally in located inconveniently, and you have to move your car on game days, because these lots are normally sold as game day parking permits. This brings me to my next topic, game day parking.

            Game day Parking: Football Games - If you live on campus these lots have to be evacuated by midnight the night before a home football game:

Lot 37 (east of Hotz - faculty/staff only)

Lots 42 and 43 (south of Reid - blue reserved and faculty/staff only)

Lot 44 (north of the stadium)

Lot 46 (north of the Inramural Fields)

Lot 60 and 62 (Bud Walton Arena) Garland Garage

Levels B1 and 1 The Meadow Street Parking Garage Stadium Drive Garage

Lots 56, 56B, and 56D

Lot 29 (west of the Pat Walker Health Center)

Lot 27 (west of Animal Science)

Lot 74 (by Testing Services)

Lot 81 (Virginia Street)

If you do leave your car in one of these lots your car will be towed to the Lot to the East of Baum Stadium on Razorback Road.

            These are just a couple of tips that will help you steer clear of tickets for at least your first few weeks of school. Just remember, the people walking around with traffic vests and backpacks are bad news, so stay away, and no matter if you think that you might just be parked there for five minutes, park in a place that you are allowed to. Make a little more time to run your errand, and save yourself fifty bucks, and some time. Goodluck!