Written by Social Chair Alex Eschenroeder '12

From Bid Night to Beach formal, the brothers of Phi Delt had a memorable social semester. For numerous parties, mixers, and date functions, [Joey Connor '12] and I, the co-social chairs, divided and conquered in the preparation stages to make each event well-provisioned for the craziness that was to ensue. High points from the semester include the Great Goat Debate of 2011, the West Main Date Function, and the continued legend of Phi Delt Beach Formal.

Goats, PETA, and the IFC
One would guess that the longest Phi Delt thread ever to exist since the Xi's initiation into the fraternity might be concerned with a pressing current event, a music recommendation database grown over time, or maybe even JC's special video suggestions. However, the first Phi Delt thread ever to overreach gmail capacity was concerned with actually a quite tiny issue - a pygmy goat. While the members of the Phi Delt Executive Board held the position of guarding the fraternity from an almost assured complaint filed by one of many animal activists disguised as PST, PPL, or especially ETP students, offenses were vollied by impassioned fraternity members set on acquiring a miniature goat to sit in a cage, bleat, and poop during our upcoming party. The pro-goat offenses, made primarily by two members of the fraternity vying for the John Bankson Award for most animals killed during a college career, were genuine despite their supporters' population controlling backgrounds. Nonetheless, even with earnest suggestions that the Rhos could take care of whatever animal we bought, the goat was substituted out for three rented chickens. After the chickens were returned to their farm, the owner could almost swear he could hear, on quiet nights, the faint clucking of Old Crow Medicine Show's "Wagon Wheel" coming from the chicken coop. Meanwhile, the great goat debate persists and will likely be a central issue in this fall's social chair election.

West Main March Madness Date Function
West Main was reserved for this event with an open bar tab. Much to our, and almost everybody in the fraternity's surprise, the tab was finished with time left at the date function. We just won't tell anyone it was a double date function, to which multiple people were encouraged to invite more than just one friend. Anyway, the half of the brotherhood that was not watching March Madness on the downstairs TV hit the dance floor and had a great night. West Main will surely be on the venue list next year, and ne'er will a Phi forget the night we (sort of) closed an open bar.

Beach Formal
Beach formal has quickly become one of the most sought after weekend trips by UVa girls from different corners of the university, and this year's extended weekend in the Outer Banks didn't disappoint. With three houses rented, the sleeping space was tight but the brothers content. With only a couple weeks of classes left to go, nothing could be better than a weekend in the warm sun on the beach. For the brothers who went to Corolla, North Carolina early in the week, these moments of relaxation and warm weather were realized. However, on Saturday, the day of the dance when everybody had arrived, the beach weather was about 50º F and windy. While a few brave people played soccer or football, most of the girls and many of the guys sat huddled like penguins insulating each other from arctic winds. It was character building at its finest. So, with characters reinforced, the members of the Phi Delta Theta Fraternity and their dates danced for hours into the night, presumably just trying to stay warm. 
The venue: Currituck Club. The band: Leggz. (Guest performance: "Kappa Rap" performed by three now brothers who have listend to that song way too many times) Average age of the band: 43. Quality: Outstanding. They actually were really good. And they played "Shout". A lot of bands don't do that anymore. It was a great night to both end quite a weekend and perpetuate the beach formal legend forward yet another year.

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Matt Sutton '12

What an incredible weekend. We had Joe Riley giving shooting lessons, John Buttram offering up his rifle for target practice, Liam and Grady tipping a canoe and going for a swim, a day-long Lord of the Rings Marathon, Panda momentarily redeeming his role as Warden, and Craig Cilley giving architectural tours (thanks to Hayden's expertly crafted guide) and being an all-around incredible host. There were trips to Moe's and Dairy Queen. There were tears of joy and sadness as we expertly carried out the evening's traditions. Above all of this, there was a strong sense of brotherhood and camaraderie as we shared a relaxing weekend at the Cilley's incredible plantation.

Coming out of this trip, I wonder just what it is that makes the weekend of Brotherhood Retreat so great and brings us all so close together. It's the moments spent catching up with a fellow Phi that you haven't seen in awhile. It's bonding around important traditions. It's the 2:00am tree-house chats about life, love, and brotherhood. It's the time spent with your closest friends in life. I am so grateful for experiences like these, and I want to thank you all for coming out and making this another incredible Brotherhood Retreat

Remember why you joined Phi Delt- for times like these. 

Proud to be a Phi.



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Bobo Mullens '11

Ralph Waldo Emerson once said that “a friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.” As if heeding these words, the brothers of Phi Delt decided to combine both good friends and nature on a midnight hike of Old Rag earlier this semester.

Brothers listed in the photo, front row first, left to right:
First row: Matt Hanna ('10), Andrew Johnson ('10), Quinton Clemm ('12), Jon Karunakaran ('10), Quyen Nichols ('12), Gifford Taylor ('10), Sheffield Hale ('12), Jonathan Yagel ('09), Rob Meyer ('11), Second: row: Bobo Mullens ('11), Hayden Basset ('12), Matt Cofer ('12)The inspiration for the hike stemmed from the wise words of Matt Hanna (’10), who argued we ought to trade one Thursday night out for an incredible view of “sweeping mountains illuminated by the bright moonlight of a full moon.” Over fifteen brothers, from all three pledge classes, jumped at this chance to go hiking. None were scared off by the prospect of losing sleep and delaying their work due the next day. The chance to go on an adventure with brothers was too good to pass up.

The adventure got off to a disastrous start with over four cars getting lost on the way to the start of the trail. Some cars were so late that brothers Andrew Shaw (’11), Navin Vigneshwar (’11), and Wes Andrews (’11) assumed the worst and bravely went ahead. It took over an hour of struggling through the senseless backwoods roads before the rest of the group arrived at the start and began the hike. The hike turned out to be a workout of a couple of hours each way. Brothers managed to amuse themselves on the way up and on the way down with several terrible games of “I spy” (lots of trees and rocks), whistling in disharmony, light saber noises courtesy of Matt Cofer (’12), and some serious conversation.

The top of the hike presented us with an infinite array of large, beautiful boulders. These presented a challenge to surmount, but were fun; and brothers Sam Pierce (‘10’) and Jon Karunakaran (’10) adroitly led the way through. Our efforts brought us to one of the higher peaks. There, we caught up to the long lost original three, and settled upon our victuals of victory; twizzlers and yoghurt covered pretzels.

It was at this point that a hand pointed out that there was higher peak to everyone’s left. Taking that peak’s very existence as a challenge, brothers quickly rushed towards it. At 12:20 am Friday morning, the brotherhood reached the top of 3,300 foot Old Rag, joking, laughing, and panting. At this beautiful moment of ascent, the triumph of victory and the unbounded glory of the moonlit vista were met; and in the distance pale argent beams glinted through a darkened azure sky.

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A man of incredible wisdom once said, "Whenever Phis travel in groups, boundless possibilities make themselves known." I have had the singular fortune of traveling to mystic lands with such groups during my time at U. Va. - Boulder, CO; Montreal and Quebec City, and Oxford/London all spring immediately to mind. But few things could have prepared me for the outrageous delight of Spring Break ’09 in Tampico, Mexico.

The idea was conceived in October of ’08, when I (A. W. Simmons, ’09) shared a class with David William Bobo Mullens III (’11 - hereafter ‘Bobo’) and we discussed his family, who live full-time in Mexico. Heavenly light shone upon me. All was understood. Staying with brothers who live in exotic locales? No brainer. This was to be my spring break.

Myself, Bobo, John Karunakaran (’10), Sam Pierce (’10), Buddy Gray (’10), Edward Lindquist (’09), and Alec Toth (’09) were on the team. While Toth and Edward zipped direct to Bobo’s home in Tampico, Mexico, We Five flew commercially to the border to meet Bobo’s father (David Bobo Mullens Jr.), also a Virginia Beta Phi (’81), to cram into a single-engine Cessna which would carry us the rest of the way. Mullens II is owner and operator of an agricultural business in Tampico, hence the family’s residency. After a warm welcome of endless tamales from Bobo’s saintly mother (and American school principal) Judith, we settled in for the Real Deal.

The break’s motto was ‘Mexico - where you almost die every day.’ Over our six-day adventure, we survived outrageous traffic patterns, a sandstorm (while beaching it up on the Gulf), precipitous peaks (hiking the 2,300 ft. promontory Bernal), deep-sea fishing on the Gulf, visiting the pre-Aztec ruins at El Tajin, and exploring what many of us thought to be the most beautiful place we’d ever been, the Tamul waterfall. I flew a plane, Buddy wore too much sunscreen, a cat peed on Karunakaran while he slept, and many, many more things occurred which space and basic human decency disallow from recounting here. An incredible trip, with incredible hosts. Just one more element of fraternal life that I will miss terribly upon graduation and not soon forget.

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