10 signs there's warm weather at Hofstra

Sophomore journalism major and Pride Guide Cristina shared these 10 things to look forward to as we start having warm weather (like we do now!) here on campus.

1. Everyone starts Instagramming pictures of the Hofstra tulips.
   
2. You hang out with friends outside on the quad.

Hofstra Pride in Alabama

Pride Guide Carly Gasiewski is a junior public relations and dance major who recently visited Auburn, Alabama. Here, she discusses some of her observations made while visiting a new college campus.

Over the spring break, I finally took a trip to visit my best friend down in Alabama at Auburn University. This was my first time in the South in general, so you can imagine that I completely had no idea what I was about to be immersed in. However, I found that the most interesting part of my trip was noticing the differences and similarities between a school like Auburn and us here at Hofstra.

For one, when I say college, I actually mean college town. Auburn, Alabama is all about one thing, and that is the university. Coffee shops, super markets, clothing stores, everyone associates themselves with the university in some way (even the Wal-Mart had a university gift shop.) Everywhere you look you see “Go Tigers!” or “This is War Eagle Country,” and really any other phrase that would associate with the school and or their athletic teams, especially football. I have to say, this was something amazing to experience. It really gives you a sense of a connected community and gives you something enormous to be a part of.

A major thing that also differs from our lives up here in New York is the lifestyle on campus. I know personally, I am constantly running around on campus, eating meals in class, and carrying my laptop with me everywhere so I can do more work. However, when I was at Auburn, this did not seem to be the norm. Everyone seemed to calmly walk to class, had time to play football outside or to sit down with friends, and everyone would even wait in long lines for coffee (which was extremely difficult to be part of, being a New Yorker!)

However, what I loved was how Auburn had their own sense of pride, just like we have here at Hofstra. Whether it was the football team, a sorority or frat, being alumni or just an Auburn student in general, everyone took pride in being a Tiger which reminded me of my Hofstra Pride.

Photo credit: Carly's friend & current Auburn Tiger!

Quidditch: the most "magical" extracurricular activity

Hi, my name is Melissa and I'm a sophomore anthropology major with a concentration in archaeology and two minors in creative writing and art history. I'm from Vienna, Virginia and I'm on the Hofstra club Quidditch team. At the end of this spring break, my team and I headed down to Rock Hill, South Carolina for the eighth annual Quidditch World Cup.

We are part of the Big Apple Quidditch Conference which is in the Northeastern Region of United States Quidditch. Quidditch was founded by Middlebury University in 2005 and Hofstra's team has been around since 2010. This will be Hofstra's fourth consecutive World Cup journey! We are currently 2nd in the BAQC and 8th in the Northeast region. We do lots of tournaments and events throughout the year from Hofstra to Boston to Rochester. We recently went to Massapequa High School for a charity function and met a lot of great kids who were really into Harry Potter!

Quidditch is a full contact, no padding sport with four different positions. Everyone has to have a broom in between their legs while on the pitch. Chasers take the quaffle (a slightly deflated volleyball) and try to score in the three hoops that the keepers protect. Beaters have dodgeballs and throw them at the other players. When you get beat, you have to get off your broom and tag up on the hoops. The final position is the seeker, who wrestles with a human snitch to pull a tennis ball off of the snitch's shorts.

My team is my home at Hofstra. I knew that I wanted to join Quidditch when I applied to schools but I never thought that I would fall in love with a sport and group like this. I joined my freshman year and became a chaser on the team. This year I picked up the position of backup keeper, which has been a great experience. Without the support of my team I don't think I would be able to do as well as I have.

All in all, I am glad to have found my niche at Hofstra. I know I will be friends with these people for the rest of my life.

Update on Hofstra Quidditch's World Cup pursuits, via the team's Facebook page: "We did not qualify for bracket play but we are proud of our 2-3 record this weekend at ‪#‎worldcup8‬! A special goodbye to our seniors Theresa Buchta, Rob Walsh and our coach Colleen O'Mara!"

Roll call: What are your Spring Break plans?

Spring break started Friday, April 3, and campus is pretty quiet without most of the students here! A few Pride Guides shared their big plans for the time off.