With winter break quickly approaching, college students everywhere are reveling in the nostalgia of going home. Going home for winter break is the absolute best time of the year. You get to see old hometown friends, eat all your parents’ food, and enjoy the festivities of the holidays without worrying about school. However, if you work through college, sometimes employers are not so giving. I, along with many other students, sometimes don’t get as much of a break. Those days at home are limited, and usually feel rushed to fit in all the activities. The majority of your break is spent back in your good old college town – at work. This isn’t all so terrible, though. Usually, a good amount of friends have to do the same, and you can have a pretty fun winter break with just your clique in town.

Two years ago, this happened to me while I also couldn’t stay in the dorms over break. This resulted in my winter break being spent at my best friends’ fraternity house. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again: do not believe all those stereotypes about fraternities. Those boys provided me with the most fun and hospitable break I’ve had. So, if you’re ever wondering what Christmas break in a fraternity as a girl is like, here’s how it goes:

Fraternity boys are hospitable. Like, mom when people are coming over, hospitable. They immediately set me up with a room for the week, ensuring it was comfortable, clean and not weird for me to be staying in someone else’s bed. They cleaned up their living room area (to a point, that tends to change once someone orders food), and offered me the stack of blankets sitting in the corner. I even convinced some of them to make me dinner sometimes –let me tell you, boys can cook.

I love the tradition that comes with fraternity. The week I stayed in the house, there seemed to be an unspoken routine of when everyone woke up, they all retreated to the living room to lazily eat breakfast and watch Cops. Because it is winter break and no one else is around, there’s an even larger sense of community, as the few of us who stay behind have to band together. We spent those mornings with our crappy shows and donuts, happily avoiding the cold hellhole of a North Dakota winter outside. They were willing to put up with whatever random thing I wanted to do to avoid the negative degree weather, like make gingerbread houses or try on ridiculous clothing at Ragstock for hours.

Lastly, the part you probably expected: they were always down for a drink or two (okay, maybe more than that). Having fraternity brothers as well, practically your brothers, never gets boring. Sometimes I woke up to people playing soccer down the hallway at 4 a.m., and other times we made drinking games out of reading our friend’s past tweets.

To end my reminiscing, I’d like to sum it all up by saying: fraternity guys are actually pretty amazing guys. They took care of me, fed me donuts, and made sure I always had a drink in my hand. I had a pretty awesome winter break with them that year, and give the fraternity hotel a 5/5. Enjoy your winter break, all you exhausted students! No matter where you may end up.