University of Alabama

Hello again y’all! These last five days have been a great experience for me. Just like Auburn, I was a little dude on a huge campus. On Saturday, I attended my first ever SEC football game and it was completely different than Big Ten football. Although Alabama played a very beatable team, the atmosphere was very great to sit back and enjoy. I arrived to the stadium about four hours early to check out the surroundings and how Alabama does their tailgate. The only downfall is I had to pay $20 to park about a mile and a half away and walk all the way to the stadium. Once I arrived to the stadium I stumbled across the “Walk of Champions”. This is where the team arrives in buses and walks down a main walkway to the entrance of the stadium. I happened to get there early enough, where I was able to stand in the front row as the team walked by. Although I am not the biggest Nick Saban fan, I was still within an arms reach of him which is always enjoyable to any football fan to be that close to important football people. After the Walk of Champions, I entered the stadium and took in the environment to see what the people of Bama had to offer. At the beginning I was able to watch the Million Dollar Band (which practiced at Faught Stadium last Spring) which was super cool. The Tide steam rolled over Arkansas State which I figured would happen. Overall, my first SEC experience was super fun.

On Sunday, I was about to golf (yet again) with an alumnus of their housing corp, a graduate student of the chapter, and an officer for the chapter. They took me to Ol’ Colony which is the home of the boys and girls Alabama golf team! The course was super challenging and I had a ROUGH day due to having a case of the slices…but I enjoyed my time with the fellas and getting to see a new course!

The Chapter Visit

This chapter is the second largest chapter that I had to present to and work with. The men were phenomenal! I was able to sit around and watch football with them and crack jokes and enjoy my time with many of the members. They really made me feel like I was one of them which I always appreciate. They are currently trying to find ways to improve some operations but I feel like they have the ability to become an elite chapter in their area!

The house was a very nice one in my opinion. The chapter has very rich history due to being started in 1917 as a Lambda Chi Alpha chapter. They had the original composites of the founding fathers and other composites from the 1920’s,30’s, and so on.

Food

Much of the food I ate was at their house, which their cooking staff was excellent! One place I was able to try out was as the brothers would say was “An Authentic Alabama Italian Restaurant.” The restaurant was called Depalma’s and was super good. My favorite part of the meal was the super cheesy bread sticks and they were jaw-dropping delicious! I had a filet for dinner with zucchini and garlic mashed potatoes. Overall I would give the meal a 9/10. It was very delicious, if you are ever in Tuscaloosa!

Next stop is a small liberal arts school called Montevallo!

Until Saturday, see ya!

Jimmy