College students have interesting ways of combating boredom. For some, fighting off monotony includes all-night videogame tournaments. For others, it means watching DVDs of "Lost" for five straight hours.

And for Amanda Becker, it sometimes involves writing e-mails to the E! entertainment channel.

Becker, a College of Communication junior, said she and a friend e-mailed E! "as a joke simply because we were so bored." But the joke became more serious when a casting director e-mailed her back about being on the Style Network show "How Do I Look?" (The Style Network is affiliated with E!.)

"When the casting director read that I was in a sorority, she responded immediately — literally 10 minutes — and from there, we were in," Becker said in an e-mail.

Becker said she and two friends from her sorority, Alpha Chi Omega, were flown to Los Angeles for the week of Jan. 15 to Jan. 21 to be on the show. She said E! paid for their travel and hotel expenses.

Kerry O'Tolski, associate producer of "How Do I Look?", confirmed that Becker and her friends were taped for the show.

According E!'s Web site, "How Do I Look?" is a reality show in which two people are given the opportunity to make over a friend. The person receiving the makeover chooses the look he or she likes best in the end.

As the makeover recipient, Becker said her taping schedule was different from her friends'. She said they all filmed together two days during the week, her friends filmed without her one day and she filmed by herself one day.

The taping process involved a lot of time, according to Becker. She said her experience suggested that television production is a game of "hurry up and wait."

"While filming, I'd have to be on camera for 45 minutes, then have two and a half hours of downtime to just talk to the crew and eat," she said. One day, "we were there from early morning until about 8 p.m., a long 12-hour day."

But the experience wasn't all work. During her free time, Becker said she did shop, explore Robertson Boulevard, Melrose Avenue and a mall. It was hard to pick her favorite part of the trip, she said.

"A week vacation paid for by someone else, also finally getting to put my feet into the Pacific Ocean," she said. "And that tattoo. It's hard to choose."

Jen Frank, a junior in the College of Arts & Sciences and an Alpha Chi Omega member, said Becker was excited when she and her friends returned to the sorority house after filming the show.

"They said it was a really good time," Frank said. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

Frank said she has known Becker — or "A.J.," — since their freshman year at Marquette. They met when they both pledged at Alpha Chi Omega during the winter of 2003, she said.

According to Frank, she and other sorority members were cheering Becker on as she e-mailed back and forth with representatives from E!. She said initially, they were all just waiting to see what would happen.

"We were all rooting for her, saying how cool it would be to go to L.A. for a week," Frank said.

Becker said she could not turn down the opportunity and that if she had the chance, she would do it again — with a few minor changes, like more time sightseeing and less time shopping.

But overall, Becker said the "How Do I Look?" crew made the experience rewarding. She said she initially wanted to be on the show because it seemed funny, but the biggest benefit in the end was having a "free week vacation" in California during winter.

Some of Becker's friends were not surprised that she ended up on TV. Frank said Becker is outgoing and likes to be spontaneous. But spontaneous as she may be, Becker said she has never done anything like her E! adventure before.

"It's still surreal and will be until they actually call and tell me when it will air," she said. "I still have no clue."