It is no secret that I am in love with my school. I absolutely love it here, as you can probably tell from my past posts. So since this past weekend was Homecoming, I absolutely loved seeing all of the UD spirit come out all across campus from my fellow classmates and returning alumni.  The University provided so many fun, celebratory events throughout the whole week and I love that everyone just got swept up in all of the festivities to celebrate how amazing the University of Delaware truly is.

The UD Football team getting the fans pumped at the Homecoming Pep Rally

One of the highlights of Homecoming weekend for me was the Pep Rally on Friday afternoon.  I originally had to go for another commitment as a Social Media Ambassador with the University’s Office of Communication and Marketing (OCM) to promote the use of the official Homecoming hashtag #UDHC, but I ended up loving every minute I was there. It almost brought me back to my high school pep rallies, which I loved because everyone was so spirited and so excited to root for our school.  While the Pep Rally was originally supposed to be on the Laird turf, due to the weather, it was moved into the newly renovated Little Bob.  With henna tattoos, a photo booth and caricature artists, it felt like UD’s own carnival inside the Little Bob!  The festivities continued with DJ and music numbers by some members of our talented student body, as well as performances by our own dance team, cheerleading squad and mascot team. including the newest addition to the mascot team: Air yoUDee, a blow-up version of our beloved Blue Hen!  The varsity sports team then took to the stage for recognition, and played target practice with the hundreds of students gathered by hurdling free UD swag out into the audience.  In addition to those free spirit towels and frisbees, each student who attended the Pep Rally left with a special UD Homecoming 2013 T-shirt!  Definitely worth the walk to and from the Little Bob in the rain, if you ask me!

Hannah got her friend who was visiting to wear UD colors all day!

Another highlight from the Homecoming festivities was getting to see so many new and old faces on campus.  My sister, Hillary, graduated from UD in May, as did many of her friends, who I also became friends with over the course of the year through the Blue Hen Ambassador program, the Honors Program, and my other activities I am a part of.  So, it was so nice seeing them all back on campus again; it made me realize how much I missed having my sister on campus, not to mention so many of her friends who are equally as amazing and fun as she is!  In addition to running into so many members of the Class of 2013, my friend from high school came down on Saturday to visit and spend the day with me.  She has visited before, but it was so nice getting to show her just how spirited and special the University of Delaware can be, while inconspicuously trying to convince her to transfer from her own school (since UD is obviously the only school anyone should ever go to).  My friend absolutely loved her time here, from laying out on the Laird Campus turf, to celebrating Homecoming in blue and gold on the way to the football game, to walking down Main Street to grab Central Perk in the morning. It is hard for someone not to enjoy a day on campus! She can’t wait to return!

Obviously, I had a fantastic weekend and I hope everyone, from alums to current students had a happy, safe, and enjoyable Homecoming Weekend!

~Hannah Tattersall

In light of recent events surrounding the UD campus life, many people have been asking me what I like to do to spend my time on the weekends.   To be honest, I personally have a wide range of interest of things I like to do.  From going to see plays, to grabbing dinner on Main Street, I try to spend my weekends with not just my books studying for my classes next week, but instead I choose to have some fun with my friends and see what is going on around campus.

As if you didn’t already know, many RSOs have different events on the weekends for students to go out and partake in.  However, my favorite RSO that is a pro at putting on weekend activities is SCPAB: the Student Centers Programming Advisory Board.  They are the people that are bringing everyone’s favorite red-headed singer, Ed Sheeran, to the Bob this Wednesday, and made my dreams come true by letting me meet the amazing Harry Shum, Jr. from Glee last semester.  Besides this, SCPAB is also in charge of showing films in the Trabant Theater every Wednesday and every weekend.

Each semester they also try to put on an outdoor movie event on the North Green, which just so happened to have been on September 13.  The movie shown was Monsters University, the prequel to Monsters, Inc. and one of my favorite new movies.  So, when I saw that it was playing this weekend I was so excited to go and begged my roommates to come see it with me even more when I found out it was being played outside under the stars!  I assumed there was going to be somewhat of a crowd, but the actual turnout was unlike anything I had ever seen.  At one point during the movie, I turned around to see and the green was packed.  It looked like one of the pictures from the Freshman Twilight Induction Ceremony where the green was swarmed with all of the freshmen.  The place was just a sea of blankets, people and popcorn!

Regardless of what had happened around campus earlier in the week, by Friday night, a vast majority of the school had gathered outside to watch and laugh along to a Disney movie. It almost makes me wish UD offered an Oozma Kappa fraternity, the one Mike and Sully must join to compete in the Scare Games in the film, where watching Disney movies was the only requirement! Yet, it still made me super proud and excited that even though part of our student body image may have been tainted a bit, it showed me that many of us still love to bring out our inner child, especially when Disney is concerned.

Hopefully, something similar to this can happen every weekend with the SCPAB Film Series. I know I can’t wait to see Despicable Me 2 when it comes on October 4^th and 5^th.  Who knows? Maybe a similar experience to Monsters University will result, too!

Hannah Tattersall