On April 20th, brothers from Chi Chapter attended Earth Day Event! Earth Day Event volunteers take part in ongoing efforts to conserve and upgrade the park, including trail maintenance, invasive plant removal, slope re-grading, planting native plants and assisting with efforts to make the park more accessible to people with disabilities.
After everyone arrived, we were all split up into two groups: we were given hedge-cutters to cut weeds and overgrown plants that were blocking the trails and other volunteers were given shovels to remove dirt and debris from the driving lanes. Cutting the plants were fun and we even cut some branches off of trees that were in our faces. At the end of the trail, we were given tangerines and nutrition bars to recuperate. A speaker about sustainability gave us some eco-friendly tips at the end. We ended with the toast song, thanked the LA Works organizers, and went home.
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I got to the volunteer center at 2pm and was assigned to a book signing area! Before my shift started, I had a short break, and the event organizers were nice enough to give us a free lunch meal. I got to eat a soft, fluffy ham sandwich, an apple, a cookie, chips, and a beverage of my choice. I met up with Maria and Priya, whom were at the "East meets West" area where they have volunteered for around six years for the Festival of Books. They didn't get any volunteer gifts though since they were volunteering for a privately-owned book merchant and not USC specifically. They went to see if they could get a volunteer shirt, and I got to chat briefly with one of their co-volunteers. Afterwards, I went to my assigned area, and I met Bibi, the event supervisor for that area. She was really cool, and she told me how she knew Tupac's mom and some famous people. I didn't believe her at first, but when I checked the people on my Itouch, she seemed pretty convincing haha. One of the other co-volunteers was Kevin Xu! He's an active from Alpha Kappa and it was cool talking to him about USC and their APhiO chapter. Most of my shift, we didn't do much because we were in charge of helping organize the books signings for when the authors arrived. However, the authors didn't stay for longer than 30 minutes, so we were just chilling and watching the booth most of the time. One of the authors though was from the movie White Chicks!! She was the worker lady from when the girls go shopping! Closer to 6pm, Maria and Priya came to see where I was volunteering and we took the picture and sang the toast song. I thanked Bibi for the fun time we had and left.
The event was pushed back to 9:15 PM to allow travel time for people who were also participating in the Fam Comp. We all had a lot of fun playing on Tim's Wii and it was nice to see everyone try playing at least once even though some of us had never played before and didn't know what to do. Afterwards, people started playing Jenga and Apples to Apples and then it was getting pretty late so we all decided that it was time to go home around 11:30. Two hours of family bonding!!
On April 4, a group of Alphas got together to make spring rolls with everyone. Big shout out to Raymond Mai, Kevin Qiu, and Jonathan Wu for flaking in so last minute in order to help the family out. Everyone at campout enjoyed the spring rolls and we enjoyed making them. It was nice bonding as a family because it was such a random family event and more people should come out the next time we make food because Alpha's can definitely cook. Food is definitely the best way to bond as a family and we'll be sure to have more events related to food. Maybe next time, we can try making a different ethnic dish because it was great that we got a sample of something very cultural.
MATAGUAY WAS SO FUN THIS YEAR! I'm only speaking for myself, but I had a lot more fun this year than I had last year. I really wish more people from Chi chapter would've gone because it really is such an amazing opportunity to meet IC brothers and learn more about APO. Rides were kind of difficult to arrange because all of us ended finals at different times. A brother from ZO (Edwin Ng) picked me up from UCLA, Stacey rode with Aaron Torio from LM, and Jessica, Kevin, Diana, and Olivia met up and drove to Mataguay together. The ride was trafficky and rocky; we all got there at different times. The first night was introduction and just hanging out, then we went to bed in the Boy Scout cabins, which was totally fine except it was webby. Gross. We started activities at 8:30am the next day by first splitting into groups. My group, Team 11 AKA THE BEST GROUP WE WERE ON FIYAHHHH, started out at the shooting range and I did soo well :). Afterwards, we dug trenches and helped widen this thing where electrical wires were going to go through. At 12:30pm, we went back to the common area and ate lunch (hamburgers & hot dogs), then continued our services painting cabins and platforms. It was really tiring and I got a lot of paint on my shorts. We actually stayed longer than we were supposed to, so we got back semi-late for dinner (steak, chicken, vegetables, pasta, salad). Each group had to prepare a roll call and skit (theme: celebrity neophyte). For group 11, our roll call was, "THISSSS GROUP IS ON FIYAAHHHHHH (fiyah fiyah fiyah fiyah). GROUP 11. SSSSSSS *finger to bootayy*, oww." We were hot. Yeah ;). Jessica and Kevin, who were group leaders, ended up winning, but my group is still the best. I went on a night hike with Stacey, then we went back and played games till 4am and went to sleep. I have a moth story I'm going to post after this. It's really funny (now that it's over). We woke up at 9:30am on Sunday, got ready to leave, ate breakfast, took pictures, hung out, went to Julian Pie Company, and headed back homesies. We also toasted, woot woot. So yes, Mataguay was really fun & now I'm going to post highlights and things to keep in mind for next year. I hope more people go. IT'S WORTH IT. GO. IT IS SO FUN OMGAWD.
TEN-OTIC. Wait, no. Chi-otic, WHADDDDDUPPPP. Just kidding, they're exotic. #ambiguousflag
Oh dang, Diana. You werkkk dat FIERCE.
SPREAD YOUR WINGS AND PREPARE TO FLY, FOR YOU HAVE BECOME A BUTTERFLY. #dianaisready #mariahcarey #butterfly
A normal picture :D. Go Olivia and her group, arf arf!
Group picture! HAPPY MATAGUAY FACES ON!
Kevin Wang. Justin Bieber. Strong resemblance, obviously.
THE WINNERS OF MATAGUAAAAYY!!!!! PUT YO CROWN ON, GUYS. WE RULE DIS SCOUT RESERVATION.
WHY YOU SHOULD GO TO MATAGUAY:
- Chapters in attendance: Rho Pi, AD, OSig, ADT, X, PP, LM, Gamma Beta (SJSU), AK, Rho Gamma, ZO, Phi Delta (Cal Poly Pomona). LOOKATDAT. EVEN SECTION 4 MADE IT BECAUSE IT'S THAT AWESOME.
- Small group bonding with ICs that you don't get the opportunity for at large IC events such as this
- It's only $20 for housing, friendz, and food (which includes steak and chicken sho delicious)
- NATURE. You don't really get signal up here, so no technology getting in the way of fostering friendships ukno?
- THERE'S MORE I SWEAR. ASK ME FOR STORIES OR SOMETHING.
IF YOU GO NEXT YEAR, DON'T FORGET TO:
- Wear closed-toed shoes.
- Bring water for service.
- Bring games if you want.
- Be prepared for bugs (moths, wahh).
- You can only maximize your fun at Mataguay if you stay OPEN & SOCIAL outside of your own chapter. Don't be exclusive and only stick with the people you know, or else Mataguay will be pretty lame. I'm speaking from experience!
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The inter-chapter event was bright and early at 7:00am. The traffic to Manhattan Beach was not too bad and Catherine arrived there at 6:45am with Peter already waiting in the parking lot. They waited for the other chapters that were slightly late. Rho Gamma arrived at 7:10am with other people from their chapter trickling in at 7:30am. Alpha Kappa arrived at around 7:30am due to the GPS leading them down the wrong way. The beach was very clean and did not need any cleaning. Rho Gamma's IC Chair decided to make it an IC Bonding day instead. We walked over together to Starbucks and spent about an hour there just talking amongst one another. Peter and Catherine learned about the various similarities and difference in the requirements of pledges in other chapter. They spoke about our majors, future career goals, why they decided to join Alpha Phi Omega, and various other topics. It was really nice to get to mingle with the other chapters. Around 8:30am, they all decided to head down to the beach and just enjoy the beach before they all left. It was cold down by the beach but it was nice to see all the people surfing and the sun coming out. At 9:00am, they parted ways with the toast song. Overall, It was a wonderful experience especially since it was Peter's and Catherine's first Interchapter event.
The Launch Event was an online leadership workshop that 42 Chi Chapter Brothers partook in. There were a total of almost 245 Alpha Phi Omega Brothers throughout the nation that took the workshop as well mostly from Regions 1 and 2 by the polling data. Brothers had to register for the event a few days, or hours before the event in order to join the live workshop. A couple of pledges decided to come together in the Rieber Terrace 8th Floor to do the class together. Around 10-15 people brought their laptops to listen and participate in the workshop together in solidarity. The event started promptly at 6:00pm with various lectures on being servant leaders, conflict resolution, friendship, and various other important skills and lessons that we could apply within our chapter. It was an interesting experience in that we could "raise our hands", participate in the chat questions and respond in polls. It felt like a real workshop without having to leave your room/ lounge. The workshop ended a little slightly over 8:15pm with the presenters fast forwarding through some portions as they were running out of time. The presenter explained that we would get an email with a survey asking about our experience and after which , we would receive certificate of completion. Everyone was instructed through email to that a screenshot of this and send it back to Justin upon completion. The survey was quick and easy and tested us about things we learned during the seminar. Overall, the workshop was a great and innovative way to learn about important skills to uphold as Alpha Phi Omega Brothers.
BROTHERS:
Jonathan Widjaja, Jessica Bobis, Myesha Cheatham, Maria Valenzuela, Herumi Ann Baylon
PLEDGES:
Amber Zhao, Michelle Li, Peter Vo, Catherine Teotico, Patricia Natalie, Andrew Suh, Emily Neai-Proeung, Jeremy Yap, Jenny Lam, Maiko Ibay, Myha Nguyen, Tin Vu, Bo Bae Jeong, San Li, Sarah Pham, Daniel Park, Hazel Jeon, Talia Berson, Alex Kim, Joseph Chan, Miye Nakashima, Tin Tran, George Hsin, William Nguyen, Jun Park, Jade Vo, Linda Kang, Marina Ozawa, Abram Summers, Merry Fu, Lisa Lau, Danny Ly, Dan Tamayo, Joseph Duy Nguyen, Tracy Lin, Melissa Barcelona, Kim Duong
On March 20, 2013, a group of brothers went to TLT Food, a restaurant which started as a food truck. A group of people walked to TLT, and some people drove. TLT was really crowded but they got lucky and a large group that was occupying a nice long table fit for 15 decided to leave! The pledges occupied the table and waited for the actives to order food. The food sounded realllly good but was a little expensive. Like, an order or carnitas fries was was $9, but regardless, everyone ordered their food and it was reallllly really good! Tim took a bit of Gabby's left over blue crab grilled cheese sandwich and he looked like he had a taste of the heavens in his mouth--it was crazy. They also tried some Ghost chilli pepper sauce that singed your mouth. Everyone had a good time talking to each other about random things, and finals too, of course. Overall, the event went well and people definitely enjoyed the food at TLT)!
