Whistler Olympics

During the Olympics, Chris Furrer and I were lucky enough to go to Whistler for the opening weekend. It was a complete whim of a trip, but in the late afternoon on Sunday, Chris and I headed north. Fresh off a plane from San Francisco that morning, I knew it was going to be an epic weekend.
Where were we going to stay you ask? Well we could not have answered that ourselves as we drove along the interstate. But upon arriving at the border, my girlfriend, Tracy, gave us a ring and told us to head her way and we could sleep on the floor. I don’t think we could have lucked out more.
But we did. To drive the Sea to Sky highway up to the mountain, a permit was required due to the heavy traffic. Our luck came when we discovered that after 6pm, the permit was not required.
Anyway, long story short, we got up to Whistler and passed out for the night. The following day, Chris and I roamed around the village to see all the sights. It was a grand time. That night we were also able to go up to watch the women’s luge event. It was pretty sweet and I snapped some good picks.
That night we just went bar hopping (since it is legal up in Canuck land) and then called it a night. After a short jaunt home on Tuesday, we were back in the great US of A and back to the boring lives until two weeks later when we were able to go back up.
But that story is for another time.

IFC Delegate Duties

Over the last two quarters I have been the IFC delegate for the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity. What this means is that I am required to attend biweekly meetings in which a representative from each Fraternity meets with the IFC Exec board to vote and discuss both current issues and community events taking place on campus. It has been a great experience for me and through it, I feel more connected to not only our chapter, but the entire Greek Community here at the University of Washington. It has been a great way for me to get involved and I thoroughly enjoy being a part of the bigger Greek Community and relaying information between our chapter and the IFC.

HFF,
Neil Sharma

SPE Karts

This week we have been working on our annual philanthropy SPE Karts. Its been alot of fun for both us and the participating sororities. Charlie Miesner has done a great job organizing everything and making it the best SPE Kart yet. The philanthropy benefits animals in need through PAWS. Activities this year included an exotic car show, sumo wrestling, kart painting and kart races. So far 2200 dollars has been raised for the cause. Makes me proud to be a Sigep.

-Johnny Mo

Maslenitsa

This year the University of Washington held it's annual Maslenitsa celebration. On February 14th, the Slavic department followed all of the traditions of this old holiday to celebrate the last week before the great lent.

Maslenitsa (Russian: Ма́сленица, Ukrainian: Ма́сляниця, Belarusian: Ма́сьленіца), also known as Butter Week, Pancake week, or Cheesefare Week, is a Russian religious and folk holiday. It is celebrated during the last week before Great Lent—that is, the seventh week before Pascha (Easter). Maslenitsa corresponds to the Western Christian Carnival, except that Orthodox Lent begins on a Monday instead of a Wednesday. The Orthodox date of Easter can differ greatly from the Western Christian date.

The most characteristic food of Maslenitsa is bliny (Russian pancakes), popularly taken to symbolize the sun. Round and golden, they are made from the rich foods still allowed by the Orthodox tradition: butter, eggs, and milk.

Maslenitsa also includes masquerades, snowball fights, sledding, riding on swings and plenty of sleigh rides. In some regions, each day of Maslenitsa had its traditional activity: one day for sleigh-riding, another for the sons-in-law to visit their parents-in-law, another day for visiting the godparents, etc. The mascot of the celebration is usually a brightly dressed straw effigy of Lady Maslenitsa, formerly known as Kostroma. But due to the Seattle weather the above activities could not be performed.

As the culmination of the celebration, on Sunday evening, Lady Maslenitsa is stripped of her finery and put to the flames of a bonfire. Any remaining blintzes are also thrown on the fire, and Lady Maslenitsa's ashes are buried in the snow.

This holiday is greatly wealcomed in Russia, due to all the festivities and great food. Of coerce the same can be said for the recreation here in the US.

Axe Undie Run

I was recently chosen by GMR marketing to be the campus ambassador for the University of Washington for the Undie Run which will be sponsored by Axe. The event will consist of members of the community around the University of Washington showing up at a starting point and donating the clothes they are wearing to charity. From here, all the participants in their underwear will run a set path around the campus of University of Washington to show their dedication to the community. The run will be no longer than one mile. This will be a very fun event and will mostly consist of the students of the University of Washington. My job in this internship is to instigate, promote, and run the event when the time comes. The current planned date for the event is May 11th, 2010. It will be starting around 8 P.M.

Nolan Heintz

Phi Gift

The twenty of gentleman of the phi class have made a generous decision. Each phi member will be making a considerable donation to the house for a specific project, that project has been decided, finally. A new basketball hoop is on it's way. To complement the new hoop, privacy hedges will be planted around the front exterior of the property. The new beautiful hedges will not only reduce our "fish bowl" appearance but will add to the immediate beauty of the house.
Immediately to the left as you enter the SigEp property from 21st is a sad excuse for a basketball court. The basketball hoop being the center piece, having an outrageously old backboard and broken rim. This all will soon be replaced. The common game of SigEp tips will change, but for the better(joe cant dunk). Another common problem with the 'basketball court' was that the bushes surrounding it are in a very poor condition and allow the ball to escape. The new hedges will provide a backstop to an escaping basketball.
It is commonly thought that we live in a "fish bowl" because of our large amounts of windows, but with the new inclusion of our hedges we will have a small sense of privacy near our front door. Along with the much needed aesthetic appeal that the hedges offer. So thank you to the generous donations being made by the graduating phi class in a much needed way!

Yesterday in Red Square, the brothers of Sigma Phi Epsilon joined forces with Northwest Auto Salon to present the third annual Red Square Charity Car Show. Three years ago the event was founded as the kick-off to the weeklong philanthropy event, SPE Karts. Each year we hold the event, it is an improvement on the last. As philanthropy chair, I am proud to announce that at this year’s car show, we were able to raise $2,250 for the Progressive Animal Welfare Society through car registrations and spectator donations. That effectively doubles the amount we raised last year and I hope that in future years, the trend continues.

The week’s events are far from over! Tomorrow evening, sorority participants will decorate a soapbox derby kart each chapter was given. On Wednesday, sororities will participate in a field day that will include a relay race and sumo suit wrestle. Finally, the week will culminate in a soapbox derby race held on the University of Washington campus where the sorority with the most points will win the title as “SPE Karts 2010 Champions”. For more information on the week’s events check out the Facebook group: “SPE Karts 2010”.

To make a donation, mail a check payable to PAWS to:

Sigma Phi Epsilon
ATTN: Charlie Meissner
4637 21st Ave NE
Seattle, WA 98105

Vancouver Winter Olympics

This past February, a small group of SigEps went on a trip to Vancouver BC to see the sites of the 2010 Olympic games. The Phis who attended were Sam Dowdle, Grady McGuire, Zack McMacken, and myself. Our Phi leader, Corey Krzan and my brother Scott Uhrich also joined us. When we first arrived, we took the Olympic Line streetcar to Granville Island to see a few of the shops. We then took the Olympic Line to downtown Vancouver to see the main area of the games. We immediately saw gatherings of diverse people from around the world. Everywhere we looked we saw hundreds of people and there was a line for nearly every store and restaurant. The longest line we saw was for the Olympic Superstore. Since we wanted the full Olympic experience, we decided to wait in it. The line moved quickly, winding around two sides of a block. Later that day we walked down Granville Street in downtown Vancouver. We saw things ranging from zip lines from buildings, to stations set up to celebrate nearly every country. We even saw Canada Hockey Place (where the hockey games were played) and BC Place (where the opening and closing ceremonies were held). We eventually stopped to eat at Red Robin and soon after we made or way to the see the Olympic torch. The area was filled with people and flags of every country. Nearly everyone had a camera out and was taking pictures. The atmosphere was exciting and everyone was extremely nice. I frequently saw people politely asking strangers to take pictures of them so they could remember this experience forever. As night drew near we headed to a restaurant to watch the exceedingly popular men's curling final, of which Canada won, and the third place hockey game. With Canada's victory in curling, the streets filled with chants of Go Canada! It was an incredible experience to be at the Olympics, and I am happy I was able to share it with my close fraternity friends.

-Ryan Uhrich

A visit to the Church of Scientology

A few weeks ago Sam Dowdle, Alex Suryan, Ben Melton, Jason Covert, Ryan Uhrich and I went to the Seattle Church of Scientology. We took a personality test called the "Oxford Capacity Analysis"... no word on whether anyone with any connection to the University of Oxford was consulted to create the test. The test was over 200 questions long and asked questions like, "do you often make thoughtless remarks or accusations which you later regret?" and "do you sleep well?". My results seemed contradictory to me because it said I am both nervous and determined. We also were the only people who didn't work at the church to attend the Sunday service. We saw many signs and symbols similar to christianity including crosses, the pastor's collar, and his title, "pastor". However, he claimed scientology is not based on traditional religion. Before we went to the church, I did some research of my own. I found some clips of writing from founder L. Ron Hubbard quoting famous psychologists, however I also found writings by him rebuking modern psychology. While we all found the experience interesting, I think it raised far more questions than it answered.

Curtis Knapp