Convention & Epcot

This is my third convention, and my first as an alumni. As usual, I got to see a lot of friends I hadn’t seen in a long time – a few I hadn’t seen in 3 years since the last convention. As an alumnus there wasn’t much for us to do. There were some nice sit down meals, including the gala banquet on Saturday night and there was a bit of programming on Saturday where we were trained in running the alumni chapter. The majority of the time was just spent hanging out with old friends and making new ones.Thursday afternoon as part of the convention schedule we went to a Disney park! I hadn’t been to a park in over 15 years, so I was excited to see what was new, or at least new to me. I went to Epcot and had a blast. I went on a mission to mars simulator which was pretty cool – they got you up to almost 2 G-forces. The next ride and arguably the best ride in the park was the GM Test Track. You sit in a car on a track and they drive you through scenarios simulating the testing of the car such as braking, swerving, accelerating, and handling. The last part of the ride is a barrier test, where you are supposed to accelerate and brake before hitting the barrier (a wall). On the ride at the last minute the door opens up and the car accelerates outside, and they throw you into high banking turns as you continue to accelerate. The car then accelerates even more through a straightaway hitting 110km/hr then turning into a high banking 180 degree turn. The ride was so good and the line was so short that I walked back on the ride a second time.

On our way to get to the other side of the park we decided to walk through an indoor area just to see what was there. Everything happened to be geared more towards kids until we saw this cool simulator that was like a large arm that twisted, turned and flipped 2 people in every direction possible. The lineup was not long and we decided to go on the simulator. Once we got to the front of the line we overheard 2 people asking questions about the simulator. We found out that it wasn’t just a boring old simulator but before you ride the simulator you get to design your own rollercoaster which you then get to ride on the simulator! How awesome is that? FYI, I thought it was super awesome, bordering coolest thing ever.

The rest of the evening was spent doing a few other rides and checking out the pavilions. I ended up eating a delicious turkey leg from the American pavilion and then we watched the amazing fireworks show.

Zack and I at Epcot

Me and none other than Mr. Potato Head!

AEPi's Gala Dinner with the Hebrew University guys L-R: Me, Shahar, Albert, Gil, Marty

Florida Convention Intro

It's the month of August, and everyone knows what that means - AEPi Convention! This year the 98th annual Alpha Epsilon Pi Convention is located at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. This will be my 3rd convention (2007 in Palm Springs, CA and 2008 in Chicago, IL) and first as an alumnus. Before heading to the convention I made a vacation out of it and planned a few days of travelling around Florida with my buddy Mike. Our destinations before Orlando are Miami, Key West, the everglades, Cape Canaveral and Daytona.

Picture taken on Daytona beach. Reads 'AEPi 2011' The donuts were conveniently done by the car!

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.

Chicago boat tour

There was some AEPi convention stuff going on today, however I decided to skip out on it again - didn't really miss much. Instead I went on an architectural boat tour of the city. I took the city bus downtown, and just as i stepped off the bus it started to rain. Just my luck, as I figured I would be soaked while on the boat tour, and end up with crappy pictures. I had to pre-order my ticket, so I was going on the tour rain or shine without an umbrella or raincoat. Luckily 15 minutes before the tour started, the rain stopped, and the sky was blue as could be. The tour was an hour long and awesome - the tour guide talked non-stop, and there was a lot of interesting information, but there was too much info to absorb any of it.

Chicago from the riverCrazy mirror bean

After the tour, I got back to the hotel and got ready for the banquet. After 3 hours of dinner and speaches I got bored to tears and left to party. The speaches ended up continuing for another 2 hours. We partied late into the night, fell asleep for about an hour before we had to get on the bus at 6AM to come back to Toronto.

Me, Craig, Matt, and Josh before the banquet

Take me out to the ballgame

Another early morning full of AEPi stuff, and now skipping ahead to after lunch... Instead of going back to the AEPi stuff, which I had done last year, I went out and about around town in the daylight. This time we walked around the same areas of the city, however in the daylight it was completely different. We managed to get back to the Chicago Theater and get a picture in the daylight.

Joel, Jon, Jon, and me at the Chicago Theater

We got back to the hotel in order to get ready for our early dinner before we went to the Chicago White Sox vs. Boston Red Sox game. This was an ideal 5-star hotel pre-baseball game meal: burgers, dogs, giant pretzels, peanuts and Cracker Jacks! The game was a lot of fun. The White Sox won 4-3, and the game became close when Boston hit a 3 run homerun in the 7th.

The Chicago skyline from the baseball stadium

Sightseeing and Second City

This morning started off early, after a long night of partying. This morning started off hectic as I found out I had another interview with RIM this afternoon. In between the speakers all morning I was trying to track someone down in order to let them know that I can't make the interivew! We sat down for a nice banquet style lunch and awards. After lunch I ran back to the room to try and track down someone from RIM. Luckily I was able to finally get in contact with the interviewer. I had the interview on the spot and it went well (I found out the next day that I got the job!). It was perfect timing as right after the interview ended, I headed back to hear from the next speaker who was Jerry Reinsdorf - Owner of Chicago Bulls and White Sox, who is an AEPi Alumni. He talked to us about his experiences in AEPi and left plenty of time for Q and A.

There were a few more sessions in the afternoon before we all boarded buses to the famous comedy club Second City, where many Saturday Night Live stars start their career. We had the entire show booked out for AEPi, and it was non-stop laughter. After the show some of us decided to walk around downtown Chicago and see the city. We did some wandering with the hopes of eventually finding the famous Chicago Theater. Without luck, and the night getting late we decided to head back to the hotel. We hopped on a subway, and long story short we got lost and just decided to get off the subway and take a cab. Due to dumb luck, when we turned the corner after getting off the subway we were right at the Chicago Theater! The light weren't on, so we had to make a point in coming back tomorrow. We hopped in a cab and headed back to the hotel where we again partied the night away.

The city skyline at night

Chicago - The Windy City

AEPi convention #2!!! This time in Chicago. During this trip, I was scheduled to be writing 3 final exams. Luckily, I was able to reschedule them; I wrote two yesterday, and one the day before. It has been a very stressful past few days, but I'm happy its over with and that I'm heading to convention. Unfortunately once I get back I still have one last exam to write.

The day started out early, as we left for Chicago at 730AM, and left on our 10 hour bus ride. We rented a greyhound bus for 25 of us from different AEPi chapters in the area. The bus ride was long and the scenery was extremely boring. We stopped for lunch at a Burger King in the states, and one of us tried to apply for a job. Additionally, I had a job interview with RIM while on the bus.

We eventaully arrived at the hotel, and checked all out stuff into the hotel. We went out for dinner to a famous deep dish pizza place, where the food was amazing. After dinner we headed back to the hotel, where we heard some speaches and then began our first night of partying.

The Canadian Delegation

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 Roadtrip to Ohio State

Another road trip - this time to Ohio State University. We had an interesting drive down there to say the least - including getting stopped at the border. Not only does Salzman not have his passport, but his drivers license has a hole in it! When we get there we go and grab some food, and get back to the house in time for the party.

While waiting for everyone else to wake up the next morning, I walked around the mansion and took a look at some of the cool stuff they had lying around. Started up in the 1920s I believe, the OSU chapter was the 5th chapter of AEPi. We found some books, plaques and awards that dated back to the 1930s which was pretty cool. While looking outside through the window, we saw a few police cars followed by SWAT vans barelling around the corner. I was informed they were probably going to a different fraternity house. I was somewhat puzzled because my watch said it was 9AM. Once everyone woke up, we went to the mall. Nothing interesting happened there - Salzman bought an iphone - but besides Lee Rosen, who really cares???

We got back to house, and got ready to go to the football game. Undefeated OSU (ranked number 1 in the country) was playing University of Illinois. The stadium held 105,000 people, and the atmosphere was electrifying. The game got off to a great start with 2 touchdowns in the first minute, and it looked like the highscoring play would continue. Somehow, Ohio State ended up losing their first game of the season, and it put a damper on the evening. The game was a lot of fun, and to see first hand the rediculousness of college football was pretty awesome.

AEPi Road Trip to University of Maryland

We left Waterloo at 7PM, and arrived at the AEPi house at 4:30AM - what a long drive! Completely exhausted I went right to bed. The next thing I know I get woken up by by guys I have never met before saying "We are going drinking in 10 minutes, lets go". This wouldn't be so bad, except its 9AM. After 10 hour drive and 4 and a half hours of sleep, the last thing I wanted to do was drink shitty American beer at 9AM. Maryland was playing Georgia Tech in football at 12:30, so we needed to party beforehand. After partying, we headed over to the game. It was awesome to see college football first hand. There were 47,000 people at the stadium - all in red cheering for Maryland. The game was good, but I decided to leave at the half because i was exhausted from lack of sleep, standing during the entire game, and the heat - yes it is october, and it was hot as hell. We took it easy for the rest of the afternoon.

The plans for the evening were to go to an AEPi party in DC. But more importantly, how could we miss the leafs vs. canadiens game on Hockey Night in Canada? Luckily the house had NHL Center Ice, so we could watch the game. The guys from Maryland couldn't understand our obsession with hockey. The leafs won a thriller in overtime, and then it was time to go party in DC.

Sunday we woke up and went to work. Their chapter earns money by vending beer at NFL games. There was a few open spots, so some of us got to go to the game. The game was a lot of fun, and so was selling beer. It was another hot day out, and going up and down stairs carrying 30 beers at a time for hours was quite exhausting. In addition to making money for their chapter, I pocketed $100 in personal tips! I wasn't able to watch the entire game, but I still had a good time, and the atmosphere was crazy.
At the Redskins game: L-R Stoop, Coleman, Lipnowski, Yuval, Boris, Josh Rosen, me

That evening we drove into DC to check out some sites. DC was only half an hour away; I couldn't have driven that far without going to DC. We saw the White House, Washington Monument, and Lincoln Monument. At the Lincoln Monument L-R: Melnik, me, Boris, Wilks

The road trippers: L-R Coleman, Stoop, Lipnowski, Kyle, Melnik,
Yuval, Wilks, me, Josh Rosen, Boris

94th Annual Alpha Epsilon Pi Fraternity Convention

Stoop and I got a lift to Palm Springs from two other brothers from Brandeis University in Boston, who happened to live in LA. The drive was awesome (except for the LA traffic). Seeing the desert, and all the wind turbines as we got closer to Palm Springs was really neat. The only discouraging thing was watching the digital thermometer in the car. It jumped at least 10 degrees Farenheit in about 10 minutes. Every day in Palm Springs it was at least 110 degrees, pushing 115 - but at least it was a dry heat!
There were over 500 people at Convention. It was awesome to meet new people from all over the US and Canada. In addition, I saw a lot of people I had met over the years on road trips and other regional conclaves, so it was good to see them again. We also saw the guys from UCSD and UCSB again and shared some of our crazy travel stories with them. I was already exhausted from travelling for 4 days, but there was no time to sleep at convention. It was another 4 days of partying well into the night, and then we had to wake up early (8AM) every morning for seminars, meetings, speakers, etc. We managed to miss the hottest part of the days, as we were inside from about 9AM to about 4 or 5PM pretty much every day. We did not have a lot of free time to ourselves during the day to go to the pools and enjoy the resort.
All in all, convention was amazing. I learnt a lot about AEPi, met a ton of cool people, and got some great ideas to take back with me.

The Canadian brothers who made the trek out to Palm Springs

AEPi Chills at UCSB

Luckily after this short stop on the highway next to a US Border Patrol sign, we continued on our way to where we were going - not Mexico. After not sleeping much, we finally arrived in Santa Barbara at 5:30AM. We took a cab to Isla Vista, where the AEPi house is located. We arrived at 6AM to find hte side door wide open, and nobody awake. We left a not identifying ourselves as brothers from Canada and that they should not kill us thinking we might be bums. We grabbed couches and passed out due to exhaustion.

We woke up and met all the guys that lived in the house. They were impressed with the mission we took to get there, and that we arrived at 6Am. For breakfast we went to this quasi-gourmet bagel shop that served a variety of interesting bagels and toppings. I went with the pretty safe bet and ate a bagel with cream cheese, lox, tomato, onions and some seasoning - it was amazing. We then went back tot he house and hung out there until the weather was nice enough to go to the beach. The beach was a 10 minute walk from the house. It was very small, but the view along the coast was awesome.

After the beach we got back to the house and started to make dinner plans. We asked them were an In-N-Out is. They were shocked to hear that we had never eaten there, desptie the fact that we have only been in California for 2 days. They told us that one was not close, but that we absolutely had to eat there. More on this In-N-Out craze later. we partied well into the night and eventually got to sleep on the not very desirable couches.

AEPi Road Trip to University of Michigan

This week 15 of us took a road trip to Ann Arbor, Michigan. Why Ann Arbor you ask? read on... The house was ginormous. Not enough couches for all of us, but more than enough floor space. The house holds 45 guys, has 3 floors, and their own personal chef! When we got there and started speaking with the AEPi brothers that lived in the house and told them we were from Canada and on an AEPi road trip, the conversation continued along these lines:
Them: Oh cool, where are y'all going?
Us: We are here, University of Michigan.
Them: But where are you going after this?
Us: Back home to Waterloo.
Them: Where did you come from?
Us: Waterloo.
Them: (extremely confused at this point) But where else are you going? (implying that this could not be our only destination)
Us: Nowhere. We drove here just now (Friday evening), then we are leaving to go back home on Sunday.
Them: Why would you come here?
Us: road trip! it's not about where you go. all that matters is that you go! This university is within driving distance (4 hours) from Waterloo and there is an AEPi house here, where we can sleep.... and party.

Much like the Abbot and Costello skit 'Who's on first?' They didn't seem to have a clue.

Friday night we went out for pizza, which was aaaammmmmmmazing. I had a deep dish cheese pizza which was extremely filling. If the Americans know how to do one thing right - it's pizza. After dinner, it was party hopping between the AEPi house, the bars, and other house parties.

Saturday started off with a crappy breakfast/lunch at some restaurant. When the waitress came around, we asked her how much sales tax is in the state of Michigan, as we did not know. To our surprise either did she! Not only did she not know how much the sales tax was, but she didn't even know what the hell sales tax is to begin with!!! After explaining it to her while trying not to laugh uncontrollably, she was still unable to give us an answer - go figure! Welcome to America! hahaha. After that ordeal, we walked around the massive campus in the hope that we would end up at Michigan Stadium (which we did, eventually). Naturally, it was closed to the public, and there was a large metal spiked fence surrounding the stadium. Since it was the weekend and there was no football game there, the grounds appeared to be empty. After walking around it for about half an hour trying to figure out how we are going to get in, we decided upon a spot where we would hop the fence. Three of us successfully hopped the fence and sprinted about 50 feet to get to where the seats are. The fourth person decided against hopping the fence, and opened the gate instead - stupid us. Ironically, just as he walked through the gate, a maintenance person rounds the corner in a van, chases after us and threatens to call the cops. At least we got to see the stadium for about 30 seconds. Michigan Stadium is nicknamed 'The Big House' because it is the largest stadium in North America, seating 120,000 people. That night AEPi hosted a Las Vegas style mixer with a sorority. There were about 200 people at the AEPi house that night. Afterwards, we told the guys they hosted a great party. They laughed at us and told us that it wasn't big enough to be considered a party.
Us at Michigan Stadium: L-R: Matthews, Lee Rosen, Goldstein, Franklin, Stoop, Me, Benaim

Driving back to Waterloo also proved to be eventful. At the border, the guy starts asking us the standard questions. I will pick up the conversation where it gets interesting:
Border Officer: Where do you go to university
Jay (our driver): 3 go to Laurier, one to Waterloo
Border Officer: What are you studying
Jay: Business, business, communications, engineering
Border Officer: I graduated from Laurier business, and look where the hell I am now!
He then let us through with no problems. That kept us laughing hysterically for a solid 10 minutes
Overall, yet another amazing AEPi road trip, as expected.

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.