2022 UE Road Trip - crescent.evansville.edu

MADDY WEBB

Road Trip 2022

From February 25^th-26^th UE hosted the annual event called Road Trip. High school students from all over the country and world come for these two days to experience college life here in Evansville. Last spring Road Trip was held online but this semester it was back and in person. A group of us all signed up as hosts for the incoming road trippers that weekend. Our job was to open our rooms for these students, so they had a place to stay. We also were their new friends while they were here as they get the full experience.

On Friday the 25^th, was the day the road trippers were to arrive. Some flew and some were drive-ins. Most were on the buses on multiple routes. We all gathered in Eykamp while we waited for the names of our road trippers to be called. The energy was ecstatic, and everyone was talking and laughing. We cheered on as names were called and we met our road trippers!

I had two road trippers both from Greenfield, IN. Grace was Undecided while Andrea was interested in Creative Writing. They were the sweetest people I’ve met and was so excited to be here. After a quick dinner we went quickly to the dorms to drop off their things, so we didn’t miss Musical Madness.

Then Musical Madness was next! Last spring Musical Madness was online so it was exciting to be able to sit in the audience. The theme was gameshow and each group had their own spin on it. Zeta, Sigep and TKE were Are You Smarter Than a Purple Ace? Chi-O, FIJI and Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia had UE Jeapordy. Labda Chi Alpha and Alpha Omicron Pi did Total Drama College. Next was Phi Mu and SAE with Musical Feud. Then at the end Phi Tau, PRIDE, and Sigma Alpha Iota did Ace’s Take On: Deal or No Deal. Third place was Total Drama College. Second was UE Jeapordy and first place was Musical Feud!

After Musical Madness we all shuffled out to receive drinks and snacks and enjoy some karaoke. Lots of wonderful and talented people sang and the song choices were fantastic. It was around midnight so we all decided to get some shut eye before the early day tomorrow.

The Next Day

As a host for Road Trip, I was not required to go to everything. The road trippers during this time had their welcome at 9:00 AM and then their mock classes after. The mock classes seemed to be exciting for the road trippers and even Dr. Thomas a professor of Archaeology here at UE taught one of these classes. After and impromptu shopping spree we met up in Ridge while the received some complementary free stuff.

Lunch was quickly approaching so we all quickly grabbed a table. This was when most of the road trippers could try Ridge food if they were not able to make it to breakfast. Let’s just say it was interesting. On the tables in Ridge though, there are these signs with some interesting messages written on them like…

“Cult of the Garbonzo” and “Beans”.

Who knows what that means?

The road trippers in my group decided that they wanted to visit the Mesker Park Zoo. Not all the animals were out, considering the weather, but a decent amount were! The penguins were the first to see and they were definitely a showstopper! They were adorable! Then further along we came across the otters. The danced in the water, showing off their skills.

Finally, near the end, we saw the Siberian Tiger which seemed bored but that was okay!

After the zoo we all took a much-needed break by winding down and playing some boardgames. We played two of the greatest games called Exploding Kittens and Unstable Unicorns!

After dinner we decided to go to bowling. It was a loud but exciting time and one of my very own road trippers won our game!

Then we went back to campus and attended the magician/comedian show by Ben Seidman! It was an amazing show and he even pickpocketed someone in front of us and we all didn’t even notice. My friend Ever and I went up and took a picture with him which was pretty cool.

His Instagram is @benseidman

After the show we ended up eating some ice-cream and went to bed for the road trippers to leave tomorrow. The next day at 9:00 AM I led my road trippers to Olmsted to say goodbye. It was bittersweet but they both said that they had a wonderful time!

Road Trip was a very memorable experience as a host and for the road trippers it must have been even better! Many of my friend’s road trippers said that they are interested in attending here including my own!

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