Azure Over Arizona

This Wednesday I woke up at 4:00AM and dragged myself to the airport to embark not on an international trip, but a travel-invoking journey none the less. For anyone who might not know, I'm the current Chapter President of Eta Beta chapter of Alpha Delta Pi at my college. Every two years my sorority hosts a large convention where delegates from all over the U.S. and Canada travel to meet in one location and participate in a variety of business meetings. My time in this officer position just happened to be such a year.

So I headed to Phoenix, Arizona not to explore a new country but a new culture nonetheless. A sorority convention is an interesting experience. First off, everyone's your sister. Clearly, that's the case being that it's a sorority convention, however it's interesting to watch the implications of that play out. Whether it's another collegiate-aged girl from Georgia, a professional-aged woman from California, or an older alumna from Maine everyone regardless of age, hometown, or whether or not you put sugar in your tea, still treats you like an old friend from the minute they meet you. It's sometimes off putting to combine an event with a lot of serious business and sisterly friendliness at the same time, but it's nothing less than the first and finest coming together.

Just one of the pools at the resort where the convention is taking place. I've yet to go to any of them though.

Our first day the only big item on the agenda was the opening banquet. I found some other sisters from the district my chapter is from and then proceeded to realize just why the first thing I always heard about the conventions and leadership seminars was the food. Every meal I've had here has been absolutely delicious. Plus as if hundreds of sisters and alumnae to talk to isn't enough, there's usually speeches and other things going on during the meals.

A selfie from my seat in the banquet hall.

A sister who was a previous Miss America pageant contestant was one of many speakers during our dinner.

We also have a sister in attendance who will be competing in the upcoming year's Miss America pageant.

This year the Eta Beta delegation consists of myself, our chapter adviser Clemence, and our financial adviser Mrs. Galentine. We also have an alumna from our chapter serving prominently on the international nominating committee for our sorority.  

Clemence and I at the opening dinner.

Eta Beta's representatives with our chapter flag.

I think Clemence has the best story by far though. She choose to travel to attend the convention with me this year because she's celebrating her 50th year as a member of Alpha Delta Pi. And not only that, but she was initiated on her chapter's 50th anniversary, so if her original chapter was still active it would be celebrating its centennial at this convention. Having Clemence with me makes all of the traditions within the convention seem all that more significant because of the additional milestones I'm excited she's celebrating on top of them.

One of the unique traditions our sorority has is that it opens each of its conventions with the Adelphean Processional, where sisters dress in all white and carry a flag representing each of the chapters respectively during the ceremony. I have to admit, my biceps got much more of a workout than I had anticipated with total flag carrying time being over 45 minutes. 

My roommate and I before the processional.

All the sisters preparing for the official opening of convention.

After that was a variety of different meetings. It's hard to complain about business though when it's balanced out with an amazing location and the nicest people. I've got two more days left in Arizona, and I can't wait to see what they hold!

Time to get down to business.

New Hair Color

So after a very long day of going to Pattaya, a floating market, and seeing Man of Steel, we decided to take Sunday easy. Well, actually my students had to cancel our plans due to a lab class at their university, but still. So as Kate settled into updating Facebook and attempting to download a movie on Thai wifi (estimated download 2000 hours later…) I decided to go out and dye my hair.

I arrived at the salon only two blocks from Santisuk in Lat Krabang and spontaneously choose a color via pointing. Then the real fun began. Hair stylists in America find my hair a challenge: it’s thick, curly, and particularly unmanageable. Well, in Thailand some of them have never even seen hair like mine in person, let alone worked with it.

It took less than ten minutes before a second stylist was recruited because of how much hair I had. And this is still the pre-wash and drying stage. During the actual dying part I learned how to count from 1-30 in Thai.  (Now I’ll actually understand how much money the coffee lady wants from me!) Well, after patiently listening to the Thai lottery on the television and letting the dye sit I was beckoned over to the hair washing station.

First, it’s not like America’s. It’s very strange. It feels more like a doctor’s examination table, except once you get over that it’s actually more comfortable than ours. This is the closest thing I could find to a picture like it. Well, as I’m laying back I see my stylist gesture to the one next to her and point to my hair. And then she re-soaps it and rinses again before calling over another stylist. After they look, say something in Thai, and wander off, another employee walks next to me.

Now I’m pretty proud of my ability to communicate with someone who speaks almost no English, and she could clearly form sentences, but she was trying to talk to me while someone was spraying water and scrubbing my head right around my ears. I thought I could make out the phrase, “200 baht to fix” and the word “fix” a few more times. Awesome; exactly what you want to hear. In what felt like a decade I finally made it back in the salon chair. My hair was Ariel red and my roots looked yellow-pink. Now, I have stylists all hovering around me looking concerned, nervous, and some attempting to say something. My stylist finally just points to my head. Me? I was just cracking up laughing. I seriously could not stop grinning.

All I could think about was my late nights of panic throughout this past year of college when my friend would try and dye my hair. During the worst part I looked like Rainbow Brite gone wrong and had ended up calling an ADPi sister I had never really talked to before. (She always had really pretty red hair, and I knew she had experience dying it.) That sister offered to take me to Walmart at one in the morning on a school night and then dyed it when we returned back to the dorm, saving me the embarrassment of wearing a head wrap until I found a better solution. (I still owe Kaitlyn dearly for that.) That's true sisterhood for you.

But these memories just started flooding back. Compared to that night my hair looked like a masterpiece! Besides, the faces of all of the salon employees were just too funny. I mean, I think they thought I was going to throw a tantrum. I knew my hair was going to turn out bright red. I had picked a red color and their dye is designed for extremelly dark hair. I couldn’t blame them, I just felt bad for them.

And I’m sure it didn’t help that I really did just keep giggling as they attempted to style it after I affirmed I didn’t hate the color. They were clueless. After a combination of attempts involving some sort of foam, gel, spray, air drying, combing, a diffuser, and a hairdryer, I knew that my hair was not going to turn out. But they didn’t. I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone look guiltier about taking my money. Still, I was just chuckling and extremelly amused with their wonder and confusion.

After I returned to Santisuk I quickly re-rinsed my hair, added my own product, and let it air dry. After it did I ended up with a style and a color that I actually love (not the colors I described earlier). And even if I didn’t love it, torturing those poor stylist wouldn’t have changed anything. I got rid of my prior roots, and had a fantastic laugh in the process.

Be grateful the next time you go to a salon and you can actually communicate with the person who is in control of your appearance for the next few months or so. But regardless of your situation, always take it with a grain of salt and find humor in everything. You never know when a trip to the hair salon will turn into an adventure in itself.

Mid-Afternoon Update

I haven’t taught yet but I had a few extra minutes lounging around my room so I thought I’d write an update. You know, just procrastinating no matter where I am in the world. I’m going to go over my lesson plan in a bit, but I just wanted an opportunity to show you a fantastic drawing my Big (translation: a Greek life term, the shortened form of “Big Sister”. She’s kind of like my sister, mentor, and just best friend on campus) did of her and I. Anyways, the sketch is awesome.

That’s it for now, but I’ll update you on how my classes went later! แล้วเจอกันใหม่  

Tokyo Airport

               You have to remember I’ve been traveling for over 20 hours, but welcome to the Tokyo international wing. I called my mother and she said I sounded drunk because of my lack of sleep. Great.

                I will tell you who is drunk though: whoever designed Japanese public bathrooms. Seriously. I went in and in my state of major sleep deprivation it took me a few minutes to figure out how to navigate the stall that could easily be the size of a college dorm room in America (I slightly over exaggerate, but only slightly). So many buttons. There’s something called a shower function. And my past trip to Italy taught me exactly what the bidet function is. I steered clear of both. OH! And they have lady urinals! Not even making this up.

                                             the airport bathroom - note the buttons on the right wall

                Other international travelers were bonding at the sinks over the weird experience we had all just gone through. I however, took off to meander around the airport. I exchanged $20 into Japanese Yen and took off into the stores. Most of the stores here are like Burberry, Cartier, Tiffany’s, and whatnot because of the whole duty free concept. Being a big spender myself, I opted for a 300 Yen set of Japanese Lilo and Stitch stationary. It was hard not to buy out the My Neighbor Totoro section in the souvenir shop. Things like a bunny shaped umbrella and Catbus pencil holders begged to be bought and distributed to friends back home.

                Mostly I just wandered, wondering what brought all these other people to be in the Tokyo international wing at red-eye flight hours. I met a wonderful Indian woman who although from the US, has been living in Malaysia for the past two years. She’s traveling back to San Francisco for her sons wedding.

                Oh, but the best is yet to come. My favorite person I’ve run into here is none other than… a sister! I was on a bus transferring my location between airport areas and a woman with a baby came on. There were no seats left so I offered her mine. Not long after, she commented on my crest sweatshirt- she too is an ADPi! It’s funny that no matter how far from home I am, I’m still close to family. Nothing like throwing diamonds in Tokyo. 

                                        a sleep deprived and post-14 hour flight Winona and a Pi sister from Phi chapter