Day 6

Princeton, NJ

Friday, March 3

Our final “school stop” on the tour was at Princeton University in New Jersey. The drive was pretty short from Philadelphia so we got in in the early afternoon which gave us plenty of time to do some activities. We split up into a couple groups where some G’s explored the campus and got some work done and others were determined to get into a gym and get some exercise (and get a shower in since we were getting a little stinky).

The non-gym group got some work done at a local coffee shop and found some pretty cool university buildings. I was in the gym group so I can speak more to that, but it wasn’t an easy process to just get a workout in. We tried to get a day pass at the YMCA but they only had two-week passes, so we then tried to get into the Princeton gym. Our Princeton contact came to scan us into the rec center, but unfortunately only two guests were allowed per Princeton student. Ian and Thomas got into the Princeton gym and from what I heard it was pretty nice and they got a good workout and shower in. Derek, Tiger, Sam, Luke, and I all headed to a nearby gym to get some day passes and we all agreed that a nice shower after a few days and a sweaty workout may have been one of the best experiences on tour.

After our side quests we met up with our host group, Roaring 20, at a restaurant called Tiger Noodles for some dinner. They were al really cool and had a big group! I think around 20 members. We learned a bunch about Princeton and how their group functioned a little differently than ours (like having 30-40 arrangements in their repertoire). Princeton also has something called arch sings where every group will meet up at one of the arches on campus to share a song or two. Although there wasn’t an arch sing the day we were visiting, they hosted a little impromptu sing with just the two of our groups where we could sing for each other. As we sang a little crowd started to form as well.

We loved singing with R20 and are super grateful to their members for hosting us in some of their dorms for the night. Before hitting the bed though, R20 took us to an eating club. None of us had heard of that before and were very confused, but it functioned pretty similarly to a fraternity. Although it was absolutely pouring rain that night and everyone got a little soaked (see Varun), we got to the eating club for a pretty awesome party. It felt a little different than Michigan because we had our names on a list when getting in, so you could say we were VIPs in a way. After a fun night we got some rest, met up with a couple R20 members for breakfast at a little café called Small World. It was a great last school stop for the tour and we were all excited to take a rest day in Pittsburg the next day. See ya!

-TJ