For one of these gorgeous ladies, giving support means not moping about the fact that the Spin Class she took me to makes me fear that my sitting parts will never be the same again. For another, it means getting to work early and putting Googly Eyes on her computer.
My support for the third lovely lady involves acquiescing to her request that I write an entertaining blog post, “preferably travel-related”, for her to read tomorrow/today.
What better way to fulfill that request than with a Time Warp Post?
So It Begins: Becoming a Wahoo at the University of Virginia in 2007
As soon as I arrived at UVA in 2007 for my exchange year, I quickly realised that this university was a strange and magical place full of supernatural beings, bizarre events, and ingenious edibles (like the vegan Carrot Cake Ice Cream above).
For example, at UVA, in every crowd of normal students…
… lurks a superhero with a Smurf Sword, ready to fight for justice.
However, at UVA, it’s not just superheros who emerge from the land of fairytales…
… cheerleaders actually exist too. Just like unicorns.
At UVA, a dorm room might appear to be equipped with a wardrobe for clothes…
… but, in reality, the wardrobe’s life purpose is to house endless piles of snacks and candy.
(Okay, okay, I may have been the only person at UVA who referred to their wardrobe as their “pantry”.)
At UVA, you might find yourself convinced that hyperactively-coloured chips, so salty they make your tongue cry, are a healthy breakfast…
… simply because they’re “baked(!)”. Whatever that means.
At UVA, an alternate reality might present itself…
… but, before long, fade away again before your eyes.
At UVA, you might not realise that someone behind you (you’re the odd one wearing the jacket, with the curly hair) is taking a photo of you talking to the boy you had a wee crush on…
… but, four years later, you’ll wish you could whisper to past-you that this boy is now one of your dearest friends.
At UVA, the trees will always be beautiful…
… and as long as you know how to do the Sorority Squat, you’ll do just fine.
{ 79 comments… read them below or add one }
Aww what memories! And I always thought that college sorority time was a scary and traumatic time for people (hazing) but it looks like you had lots of fun!
Oh heavens, Lorraine, I most certainly did not rush a sorority! No way in heck was I joining those hordes of girls traipsing around the streets in bikinis in the middle of winter! The Society I joined… well, when I tell you about it, it’ll make more sense. And they did do a bit of hazing, although technically hazing is illegal
P.S. Wait, do you mean I could actually pass for a sorority girl? It’s like all my dreams come true!
Oh course you could! You’re the popular girl no?
Alas, I think the fact that I found frat parties incredibly revolting would have put a dampener on my sorority popularity, had I rushed one
Lolzy, the sorority squat! You know the terminology down pat
The terminology and the mooooooves, right?
How perfect; that was more than I ever dreamed of! How I miss those fall trees…. Thank you xxxx
You’re so much more than welcome
So proud of you today! xoxo
haha love the sorority squat!!!
Mr BBB was most sad to find out that he has a ‘hockey butt’ when we went to the states lol
Oh my heavens, I’m not sure I even want to know what a hockey butt is?!
Woah, jealous much! Looks like an absolute blast. Carrot cake vegan icecream?! That does sound like a magical land I wish I could visit.
Americans have all the [vegan dessert] luck! *pouts*
Love you long time. Whoops…sorry Jenny. Rove you rong rime
Your EXISTENCE makes me feel better
and much well-wishing to the other ladies doin’ it tough at the moment!
Amen, sister. Darling, I truly hope you’re feeling a bit better! I’m up for Saturday night if you are? Oooh hey, I just got a text from you! Synchronicity!
I love these posts
But why (WHY??) do we not have that ice cream in Australia?! Surely there must be a demand! It’s not even something you could order online 
No, not unless you wanted melted curdled non-dairy milk on your doorstep.
It’s a hard life we lead!
What an entertaining post. That carrot cake ice-cream looks AMAZING!! I believe some Sydney health food stores sell similar delights. I may have to make a trip with an esky one day.
I find it so funny that the Cheetos pack says Naturally Baked. Is there such a thing as artificially baked??
I got my Vitamix today!!! WhoooHooo! I had been planning this for a long time – so today 3 of my friends and I all bought one!
Yay! I’m so excited for you! I bet in the space of a month you’ll have used yours more than I ever have
But I’ll get back to mine soon, promise! Looking forward to hearing how your homemade nut meals go!
P.S. And thank you! I mostly don’t understand how these are baked at all. My oven can’t create nothin’ like that!
simply because they’re “baked(!)”. Whatever that means.
Saying its baked is important, since its healthier than being fried, just like a large coke is healthier than a jumbo coke:)
And sweet potato fries are better than normal potato fries?
I enjoy the band-aids in the snack pile, in case munching and crunching goes awry and you need some assistance.
I also like the trooper on the left in the cheerleading picture – it looks like their routine has brought him to tears. “It’s….. so……. ….. …. ….beautiful!”
By the way, you may have also been the only person at UVA who took *pictures* of their wardrobe/pantry:D
I was wondering which people would be the ones to take note of and comment on that. Which is why I chose not to crop the right hand side out
Emma FTW!
OMG! And you commented on that dude too! I was absolutely going to make a joke about him, but more along the lines of ‘so bored he’s picking his nose’.
I embrace my oddness with pride.
It also looked like he could be taking part in some illicit drug, but that would be much less interesting to speculate on.
So I went with crying. Nose-blowing works too!
Yes, after all, everyone knows that it’s only the football players, not the refs, who regularly snort coke.
I wish I’d had enough guts to go on exchange when I was a wee lass. Constantly trying to make up for it as an adult.
I so agree with you. There was a heap of stuff it just never occurred to me to do that I would have loved. If I ever have kids I think they are going to think I’m insane as I encourage them to do all the stuff I didn’t.
Teehee, for some reason I’m imagining your children playing the piano while fire-twirling, patting pet alligators, and tying cherry stems in knots with their tongues all at the same time…
Sounds about right, although they may also be wearing headphones learning a second (or third) language too!
While learning sign language with their feet?
Oh, I wish I’d known you then, I would’ve hassled you forever until you went! I’m a huge advocate for exchanges, but that’s also probably because I adore travelling heart and soul.
However, I don’t have enough guts for a tattoo…
aww that closet full of food looks so inviting. thanks for sharing the memories
Thanks Caitlin
It’s so nice to have people to share the kooky memories with!
Having grown up on, but far away from American Pop Culture I actually wouldn’t be surprised if there was the occasional superhero walking amongst the high schools and universities. Hope this trip down memory lane did the trick for your friend! X
Happily, two of the friends have commented here, so I think it did help a little
And I’m trying to think of a witty rejoinder about superheros, but alas! My brain is fizzled from waking up super early for my work trip to Sydney today.
Love your “pantry.” Some nice selections in there, indeed.
I’m particularly impressed with how adept I was at buying non-processed snacks while in America
Hey, you went to UVA!? I turned that school down and I’ll forever have an attitude towards it because basically all my friends wanted to go there but I didn’t because it was…well, it was UVA. Too close! I also got turned off by the fact that everyone there seemed to be so preppy…too many popped collars and polos! But sigh. I guess there are cool people at UVA too…like you.
Aw, thank you Sophia! I can definitely understand wanting to get further away (at least, in the American context. In Australia, there’s not the same ‘leave for college’ mentality, and most of us live at home during uni). There definitely were some at UVA who definitely conformed to a close-minded preppy white folk stereotype, but I found some (hopefully) life-long friends there too
men rising from the crowd with smurf swords, girls in odd positions (yes the cheerleaders not you) and a wardrobe full of food – sounds like fun
Now my question is – is the celebrity squat done to find the camera or is it an effort to avoid it?
It’s done to make the girls look good for the camera, I think! I believe it started as a way of getting dozens of girls into one photo (a sorority group photo) in a staggered-height way, so that they could all be seen? Or maybe it’s just purely stupid. I don’t know.
I always wanted to do cheerleading moves…well, I’m not dead yet! Love that picture of it!
Oh, and there’s a giveaway on my site if you’re interested!
Thanks for letting me know; I’ll check it out! And yes, life is too short to not try cartwheeling
A hoot of a post Hannah … I enjoyed it even if I’ve seen those photos before. I see them in a different light now … and I’m thinking the sorority squat would be a good new yoga pose – the sorsquatana perhaps?
*snorts with laughter* Oh, please, I hope Andy is reading this!! The sorsquatana…. brilliant.
P.S. I’m so glad you don’t find these ones boring! I think I’ll do a WLDS one eventually, if you can figure out that acronym…
Dang girl, what a fantastic experience, love the squat, and the cheerleaders, I thought they were a myth. Love your trips down memory lane, fun to see you before I knew you.
Aw, thanks Anna! I also find it so funny when I go back to old posts on either of our blogs and see the comments we wrote before we were truly friends
You may have been the only one at UVA with a cupboard full of snacks – I was the only one at boarding school who did the same thing. I spent 6 horrific weeks boarding and loathed every minute (and will hold it over my parents forever) but I did have an impressive snack supply. Mine also included fruit because you couldn’t get anything other than ancient floury apples or bananas at school, so I had to hoard actual edible stuff that my friends would bring me from home. Ahh the memories.
Thank heavens your stint was only 6 weeks, then! Though I must admit I fantasised about boarding school as a kid… (and this was before Harry Potter made it cool
) Fruit beats my snacks in the health stakes, but in the fun stakes? I’m not so sure 
Actually it was ok if you were a full time boarder, it was more that I was a “day girl” invading the space! Oh and there was plenty of chocolate, but it was the first time in my life where I actually craved fruit from not having access to it.
Oh, that would be tricky, actually. Very “betwixt and between”, as they say!
Yay for Googly Eyes on computer mission
Beautifully written, a great read, as always. Talk about the land of whacky foodstuffs! Vegan carrot cake ice cream. Why?! I hope your friends rapidly pass through their tough times into happier days. I expect this post will bring them each some smiles.
Why? Because it was very, very tasty, and we pansy lactose-intolerant folk like to get our ice cream on without getting our stomach pain on
Thank you so much for your words of support for my friends, my dear. Truly.
Oh… my… GOODNESS… you want to be a sorority girl?? Who are you and what have you done to my Angle Babe??? WHO??!!!
I do indeed love the fact that your shock and horror here shows how purely and completely you know me, my darling fellow Angle Babe. I can assure you with all of my heart that the above photo came from making fun of sorority girls, not trying to be one. In upcoming Time Warp posts, you shall learn that the group I was hazed into was far, far more on the geeky side of things
UVA, huh? Well we just might have been neighbors. Actually that’s a lie because in 07 I was finishing college in Atlanta and then moved up to Chicago to work…
The point is, I grew up in VA and knew 1040673471742 people who went to UVA since it’s a great school and close enough to DC (home) for parents not to lose their shit when darling baby goes away to college (my poor parents didn’t have that option – moved to Atlanta then Chicago then Amsterdam then Melbourne, oops).
Anyway, cute trip down memory lane. And small world, too, I like to think… being so close and all.
Oooh, it makes me happy to think we were almost-but-not-quite-but-close-enough-so-let’s-pretend-it’s-irrefutable neighbours!
My brother was actually born in DC and my parents lived just over the border in VA (though before I was born), so I feel we truly are connected by our past American addresses 
Yay small world happiness!
I want the ice-cream and must confess to not having a clue what the ‘sorority squat’ is??
And that, my dear Kath, is why I put in the above link
In short, the sorority squat is (I think) a pose used by sorority girls in group photos so that they can all be seen in their apparent gloried hotness.
Man, now I regret not going to UVA – I’ve never even heard of the sorority squat!
Oh, the sorority squat is certainly not unique to UVA! And hey, I bet you could do the squat right now if you wanted to
How was the ice cream?! Everything dreams are made of?
From memory, it was pretty darn special! Keep in mind this was four years ago now
It just makes me so sad, because in Australia all we have is one type of soy ice cream in either vanilla or chocolate. BOO.
Ah, what cute pictures!
I loved that ice cream, but haven’t seen it in stores in years. Not sure what happened.
Maybe they stopped making it when I left the country?
Looks like you had an awesome time at UVA, now imagine if you had gone to ANU instead
Love your squat pose!
Oooh, now I’m confused, as I’m not sure whether you’re aware or not that I am/was an ANU lass? The exchange year was just one year away from ANU, and golly, it was nice to be at a university that doesn’t just look like crummy office buildings
Jefferson represent!
Love the pics! and if I had been there you wouldn’t have been the only one to use your wardrobe as a pantry …lol
I absolutely love all those US goodies, they do it so well
Erin, that means so much to me. I was very, very alone in my pantry escapades. You make me feel less odd.
And yes! Americans are so incredibly good at snacks 
Hahaha, this made me smile and laugh! And it elicits memories over here as well … For example the crazy yellow and salty crispy things: I ate those once when I was in the US as a child, and I could never touch potato chips again since then. Crazy! But I’d like to try a spoonful of that rice-based carrot cake icecream!
I thought you’d like the vegan Carrot Cake ice cream, Kath! I miss it… but I don’t miss the crazy yellow and salty crispy things
Oh! Hannah! I love it when you share memories of your time at UVA. Makes my heart squeal (they do that, right?). You look so happy in that sorority squat (that link…hilarious). Oh, & Reese’s Puffs?! Please, tell me how they were! I can’t imagine they were very good, please prove me wrong. I still have a stash of reese’s mini cups! AHHHHH USA EXCITEMENT!
Heidi xo
*claps delightedly* Heidi, your enthusiasm fills my soul with so much gladness! I had such a blast writing this, and considering that I was at UVA for a whole year and did a massive lots of travelling during said year, I reckon I can eke many more Time Warp posts out of it
I think I was happy because I was doing that Sorority Squat with people from the Society I myself joined… but you’ll have to wait to hear about that 
P.S. The Reese’s Puffs? So so so sickly sweet, but having a handful for dessert? Not too shabby
Lightsaber guy was in my first year Chinese class! You should add some context: That was for the yearly, hugely attended HYPNOTIST show. And I remain firmly convinced that everyone on stage just hams it up, not a smidge of actual hypnotizing occurs.
*laughs* Oh, that’s like when I made fun of a stranger in the background of one of my Brisbane photos and my friend’s friend knew him
I actually decided not to mention that it was the hypnotist show, because I thought it was more amusing to think of someone dressing up like that for no reason 
But yes… I didn’t believe any of it either! Plus they only did stupid things…
Hahahaha! Organic, organic, organic, organic, Reese’s Puffs
Oh, absolutely. 100% good for me
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