AEPi North-East Conclave

Another conclave - this one at Rutgers in New Jersey. On the way down there, we made a detour to Manhattan to visit two guys from our chapter that now live in New York, Tim and Sheldon. We left Waterloo at noon and finally got to Rutgers at 1AM, which made for quite the long trip which included the 2 hour pit stop in NYC.

L-R: Dale, Kyle, Harris, Phil, Me, Sheldon, Matthews, Tim, Cory

While everyone else was staying at a hotel for the weekend, I stayed at the AEPi house. One of the guys on my last trip to Israel was in the Rutgers chapter of AEPi, and he let me stay on his futon at the AEPi house. We had a few drinks and then went out for sandwiches called 'fat sandwiches', which are famous at Rutgers. I had a Fat Darrell, which consisted of chicken fingers, french fries, marinara sauce, lettuce, tomato, and onion on a roll. it was amazing. The next night I went out to a house party with Felix and a bunch of other people from the house.

Fairly uneventful conclave, but a good time nonetheless.

AEPi Midwest Conclave

Yet another AEPi road trip. This time again to Ohio State University for a regional conclave. This time we rented a coach bus to take 50 of us down there. This was ideal because 1 - I didn't have to drive, and 2 - I was able to relax and watch movies during what turned out to be a 12 hour drive due to the detours to Guelph and Hamilton and the crappy weather. We finally got there at around 10ish. After checking in and finding a place to grab some food it was time to start partying.

The next day was full of standard conclave seminars which I am very accustomed to at this point, having previously attended three conclaves and a convention. After the dinner banquet we started to party - which lasted well into the morning - 5AM to be exact. Partying until 5AM was a must; The need to stay awake was pinnacle as the bus was leaving at 5 to take us back home. This was ideal because we didn't have to pay for an extra night at the hotel, and we needed to get home in time for the super bowl. Once on the bus, everyone passed out, and before we knew it it was 11AM, and time for a rest stop for breakfast. We finally got home - well in time for the superbowl, and it didn't take close to 13 hours!

Banquet dinner: L-R: Jon, Yuval, Cory, Josh, Lee, Victor, Me, Harris

AEPi Conclave in Philadelphia

This weekend I went to Temple University in Philadelphia with 3 of my AEPi brothers. We drove down for a regional convention – even though it was outside my region, what better way to spend a part of reading week? We stayed at the AEPi house at Temple, which houses 17 guys. It was tons of fun partying with them and then going for late night missions to get cheesesteaks.

Thursday night we went to Pat’s and Gino’s (both famous rival cheesesteak places). The guys from Temple instructed me on how to properly order a cheesesteak, which reminded me of the Soup Nazi episode of Seinfeld in which there was a strict procedure on how to order. One of the guys from Temple, Adam ordered a cheesesteak from Pat’s. He walked across the street to Gino’s where the rest of us were eating. When he realized that he forgot to put ketchup on the sandwhich, instead of walking 30 feet across the street he just used the ketchup from Gino’s at which point an employee inside the corner restaurant started to bang his spatula against the glass window while screaming “Use it where you buy it!!!” Adam replied by saying he was from out of town, even though he wasn’t. At this point we thought it would be a good idea to leave quickly as we headed back to the car.

Coincidently, the weekend of the conference coincided with the weekend where the Leafs were playing the Flyers in Philadelphia. Naturally, the game was a must. Everyone told me to be careful of the Philadelphia sports fans, as they are not the nicest. In fact, Veteran’s Stadium (where the Eagles play [NFL]) had its own courtroom and jail. We managed to stay out of trouble as the Leafs beat the Flyers quite easily 5-2.

Us in the AEPi house just before leaving for the leafs game.

L-R: Josh, Zack, Me, Josh, Jordan

Saturday night after a long night drinking and clubbing we thought it would be a good idea to go for a cheesesteak at Jim’s (another famous place) at 2:30AM. After waiting 20 minutes for a cab we got there, and there was a lineup out the door – I figured it would have been about an hour wait. The 5 of us there managed to cut the line and we only waited about 20 minutes. Right when we got to the front of the line 6 more AEPi guys showed up and we managed to squeeze them right in front of us. Luckily nobody pointed this out otherwise things could have got ugly. The cheesesteak was much better than at Gino’s and well worth the 20 minute wait.

The entire weekend was awesome, the AEPi chapter at Temple was a great host, and I had tons of fun hanging out with them. There are too many other stories to tell, but this blog is not the place for them.