I'll be breaking up my post to make it easier to read! This one is pretty long though, sorry.
Visiting the chapters was split into two days so no real ranking was done until Wednesday.
I'm combining the first two days:
Monaco This was the very first house I visited during recruitment and I was SO nervous. When the doors flew open all I saw were perfect girls, with perfect hair, and perfect teeth. Ridiculous. The girl that met me on the side walk was teeny. 5'2 to my 5'9 frame. The conversation was casual, nothing special, but I was thrilled when a old friend from high school took her place during my time here. I almost feel like that conversation didn't really "count" since essentially all it was was catching up with an old friend since I had seen her regularly during freshman year. I loved this house and really hoped to go back Wednesday.
Italy My first impression of this house was, good. It didn't particularily stand out to me, but I had good conversations here. I also already knew girls in this house from my residence hall last year and from high school. Having them stop by to say "hi" during my visit here was definitely comforting. I had a good vibe here and would've been thrilled to go back to Italy
France I was definitely interested in visiting this house since one of my oldest and closest friends is here. I had a really great conversation with the two girls, one of which was on exec. board (all day long girls had been speculating what it "meant" if a exec member talked to you for an extended amount of time. I haven't learned the ways of recruitment yet so I'm still not sure!). The girl I spoke with was super outgoing and the conversation flowed easily. I was sure that I wanted to go back to France the next day.
Egypt Again, a house where I knew a girl from high school. I wasn't immediately impressed by this house and the conversation with the first girl I spoke with was a bit of a struggle. The next girl, an exec. member, was extremely outgoing and we had a great conversation. I remember at one point a second friend in this house bumped the girl next to me and gave me a huge excited wave, super comforting. Overall it was a good visit, but wasn't my favorite.
Scotland Throughout this whole process I tried my best to stay positive, but Scotland was the one house that I absolutely did not like from day 2. This house is VERY popular with PNMs and even general greek life members, but I didn't like it at all. My conversations were very uncomfortable and the overall experience just wasn't very good. As awful as it sounds, I couldn't wait to get out of this house
China China is the house that would stereotypically be what people picture when they think of sororities. While the house is a pretty good mix of girls from various backgrounds. The majority are blonde hair, blue eyed, size 2 and stunning. As a minority with long dark curly hair and a athletic build, I thought I would feel utterly out of place here. While I'm not proud to admit it, prior to recruitment I did judge this house based on the few members I knew and the stories I had heard that classified them as "dumb blondes".
I couldn't have been more wrong. The girls I spoke with were brilliant. And while I didn't feel like this was the house for me, I was so happy to have been proven wrong. Who would've thought that sorority recruitment would teach you valuable life lessons?
Anyway, I talked to some amazing girls here, and again, saw girls I knew from high school (I think its safe to say that in every chapter there is either a girl from my high school or someone from my residence hall floor). I couldn't picture being a member of this house, but it was a great experience and the house itself was BEAUTIFUL. Easily one of my favorites on campus.
Spain Because I went through rush as a sophomore, I had already seen all the houses on campus and already had a general idea of their personalities (or so I thought), except Spain. I knew nothing about Spain. My first day here was a blur. I think I talked with 3 girls, but as this house can unofficially be considered the feeder sorority for my high school girls I had known for years kept coming over to say hi or join the conversations. I really really liked this house and it became a fast favorite.
England This, was the most intimidating house on campus. All the English girls I knew were so smart, and they were known on campus for being "the Brains" the girls you'd want to have in a study group. Pretty intimidating reputation.
I loved this house. I was guided in by a super talkative girl who had all kinds of questions and topics to talk about, once inside she was bumped by a second, more talkative girl who happened to be from the same original state as me, California. We immediately bonded over missing home and the conversation went well. Even though I knew this house could afford to be selective, I really really wanted to go back on Wednesday.
Thailand This house wasn't very memorable. The girls were very sweet, but when I went home at the end of the day, I didn't remember much about them. No stellar conversation, but nothing "bad" either. It was just a nice house with nice girls.
Germany Prior to recruitment I really wanted to be in this house. So it was a bit of a bummer when I really didn't have that great of a visit here. The girls I spoke to were incredibly awkward and kept talking about food the entire time...it was interesting to say the least. Beautiful house though!
Ireland This house is one of the more underrated on campus. Its fairly new and not many girls were excited to visit here. I however had an awesome conversation. I spoke with a senior who had just gotten back from studying abroad and discussed everything from our mutual love of the show Merlin to her tips and advice on places abroad to visit when I go to Europe for my semester abroad. I hoped that there would be more girls like her in this house because it was the greatest day 1 conversation, ever.
Russia This house is gorgeous. But besides that the interest stops there. I wasn't very impressed by the girls or the conversations. It was all very shallow and while I played along and kept my most respectful smile, I just felt very uncomfortable with the topics of the conversations.
Austria Austria was a very interesting experience. This newest house on campus and also the smallest as they haven't had a very good retention rate in since coming to the university. Their girls are also known to be a bit awkward and there was an excessive amount of tent talk about how much girls didn't want to go here. Despite all that, I was looking forward to going to Austria because I understood that as a sophomore in a really competitive recruitment I don't have much room to be picky, and China shocked me, so I figured Austria might to.
The girl I was paired with was incredibly sweet. This was the only house where I spoke to one person the entire time so that was definitely interesting. I didn't feel like I belonged in this house, but it wasn't a bad house visit by any means.
Japan Japan was the house I was most looking forward to simply because I had more friends in this chapter than any other. I liked Japan, I wasn't wowed, and my conversation was only memorable for one reason and one reason only.
The girl I was paired with dropped the F-Bomb while telling a story. I could tell it was a total accident because she looked mortified immediately after so I pretended like I hadn't heard it, but that is one recruitment moment I will never forget. Despite her careless choice of words, I liked this house. It was nice, the girls were talkative, and I had friends there, I was looking forward to going back on Wednesday.
On Tuesday Night I ranked my houses:
1. Spain
2. England
3. Monaco
4. China
5. Ireland
6. France
7. Japan
8. Italy
9. Egypt
10. Russia
11.Thailand
12. Austria
13. Germany
14. Scotland
Breaking for HW, I'll post the rest in a bit.
