Strawberry Swing

Happy Valentine’s Day, everyone!

It’s been a berrilicious week! But first and foremost, a Super Bowl report – after a fervid confrontation with the Indianapolis Colts, a bunch of great commercials, and great quantities of food and liquids, the New Orleans Saints went back home carrying the Vince Lombardi Trophy! Zoe, Loujaine, Bettina, Steven, Max, Annie and I watched this fabulous sports event at the Armadillo Grill – very American.



I personally think that the fact that for once, we internationals were outnumbered by the Americans, contributed to the American spirit of the evening. Here are some questions that came up during the game:

Why do they call it Super BOWL?
Why isn't it Super Football? Or Super Ball?
When do they sing?
Can we go next year?
Who are we cheering for?
Do they wear underwear?
Why are the others watching wrestling/basketball now?
Why don't you eat with little yellow forks here in America like they eat with chopsticks in China?
How many points do you get for a touchdown?
How can people be doing their homework here when the Super Bowl is on TV?

(courtesy of yours truly)

None of these were answered, or taken seriously for that matter :/


Furthermore, it seems that midterm crisis has struck. Currently, the scoreboard says Maja 3 - Duke 1. Since we all had a pretty tough and long week, Steven, Zoe and I spent Friday evening watching Mulan at my place, with Zoe-made hot chocolate and Bailey’s. As peaceful as it may sound from my prior description, the evening somehow ended with a Zoe vs. Steven fight! Those two spice my life up.



Also, on Saturday Duke played Maryland at Cameron! Obviously, we won. Brian Zoubek did exceptionally well this time, so I googled him. And what do I find out? He has Slavic (Czech, to be precise) origins! Seriously, I feel that the world would stop spinning without us. So, I didn’t get lost this time, and watched the game from the students’ bleachers with the Cameron Crazies. What a fine bunch they are! Not only did we win, but it was also Coach K’s 63rd birthday, his 1000th game, and 30th year in Duke – a lot of reason to celebrate! All in all, it has been a great weekend!




OK, I gotta run now (literally)!

Type ya soon! :)

There's something about this rush...

Saluti dalla biblioteca Bostock!

It’s Super Bowl Sunday! Which means that today, at 6 p.m. at a yet undetermined location in Durham, I will witness the pinnacle of the American football season. This year, this grand event will feature the New Orleans Saints vs. Indianapolis Colts, both fighting to win the Vince Lombardy Trophy and the title of the champion of the National Football League. Even though I’ve already had the opportunity to meet fervent football fans and see a football game live, I still can’t say I know exactly what to expect from today’s football confrontation. But I will definitely let you know how it went, and try to upload some decent photos!
However, this week I witnessed another great sports event! This Thursday, Steven, Bettina, Jeremy and I paid a visit to the Blue Devils at Cameron. After standing in line for a couple of hours (actually, I just joined in about 1,5 hour before the game started, but only because I had class), we set our feet in the stadium. WHAT A FEELING THAT WAS! Students with blue and white paint all over their faces, or even bodies, the players warming up, a whole entourage of coaches and assistant coaches coming in, cheerleaders hopping around half naked, fans from the ages of 0 – 80 eagerly waiting for the game to start (there was a woman breastfeeding her baby and cheering in the seat in front of me, that’s where the 0’s from), all of this with a “Killers – All these things I’ve done” soundtrack! What a RUSH.
Sadly enough, I managed to lose Steven and Bettina at the entrance and was unsuccessful in finding them till the end of the game. Since Steven had my camera on him, I didn’t take any pictures, but I had my iPod, so I made a couple of videos which I will hopefully upload soon. However, my third big FAIL of the day was my poor choice of attire. That morning I decided to wear one of my Duke t-shirts, which would go great with the Duke school spirit that has been successfully rubbing off on me since August. The thought of checking Georgia Tech’s colors didn’t even cross my mind that morning. Boy, finding me on a photo of the right side of the Cameron bleachers that night would sure be an easy game of “Where’s Waldo”.

Despite these little mishaps (I DID learn from them), the game was a complete success – Blue Devils 86, Yellow Jackets 67. This game definitely gets a spot on my 10 most exciting events of my life list, with the crowd cheering “Let’s go Duke”, Coach K yelling at the referees, Paul Hewitt screaming at his players… GREAT times. And this is exactly why I am SUPER EXCITED about next weekend’s game against Maryland.

OK, back to studying, I wouldn’t want to watch my first Super Bowl with a feeling of guilt about not having tackled some work first.

Salut, mes amis!

IT’S SNOWING IN DURHAM!! It started last night, and it’s been the best surprise ever! Well, not really, but it’s on the top 5 list, which is still a big deal.
After a rather enjoyable walk in the snow, I went home to prepare for Max and Zoe’s arrival. Yes, their arrival does require special preparation, like childproofing the apartment. While our original plan was to go out to Parizade’s for a Whiteout, we decided to stay in and play games that involved red cups, ping pong balls and some other utensils. Fun times.
Anyhoo, today I woke up around noon, opened the blinds and saw Central COVERED in white powder. Mind you, this is the first time it’s snowed in Durham this winter. I went to Uncle Harry’s, the local grocery store, to get some food only to find it’s FULL of people stocking up with food as if they’re preparing for a month-long lock-down. I have to admit, the atmosphere at the store was such that even I was affected, so my bread-and-milk drop-by turned into something a little bit more than what it originally was supposed to be. On my way back to Erwin, I noticed that the roads are nowhere near cleared. Apparently snow is such a rare occurrence in Durham that the town’s winter equipment infrastructure is extremely scarce – there are no more than 5 ploughs here! Crazy southerners!



So later in the day Ferdinand, Stanislas and I decided that we want to take advantage of the pretty white snow and go out sledging at the Sarah P. Duke Gardens. We layered up and hit the road. What a fine choice that was! Mucho divertido.
The Duke Gardens are beautiful even during winter, but the not so convenient part about them is that there is a lot of water all over the place which comes in the form of ponds and little creeks. There was about 3 feet between the end of our little sledging track and a pond. After a really fun dive in the snow which ended with me lying on my tummy, staring straight into the water and cleaning snow off of my camera, I decided I’d call it a day for sledging.
Before we left, Stan invited us to his place for some Gluehwein in the evening. Zoe came over around 6 because we wanted to order dinner. But guess what – when it snows out here, restaurants either close down, or don’t deliver. Basically, snow is considered a natural disaster in Durham. So we went back to Uncle Harry’s, got some eggs and bacon and made our own dinner. Zoe played housewife and did most of the work, and when I told her that she smells like fried bacon, her response was “And it’s the most beautiful smell in the whole world.” God bless America.



To sum up, the moral of this post is that people of NC need to learn how to deal with snow.

Peace out.

You only live twice!

Hello world!
I've been thinking about starting a journal of some kind for a while now, and decided today that a blog might be the way to go! So many things have been going on that I try to remember to share with people, be it while skyping with friends from back home, family members, friends who are all over the US right now, or simply things I think I might find fun to read in a couple of months/years time. For fear that I’ll forget to share something important with you guys, and that photos might lack a verbal explanation, I figured that I should start writing things down! :p

So since I've been back from winter break, a lot of things changed:
1) friends left back to Europe (Xavier, Ruggero)
2) some of us have stepped away from our slightly nerdy routine and have been going out more (check picasa for proof)
3) I picked some pretty sweet courses for this semester – French, Policy Analysis, Tai Chi and Chinese Culture and Sociolinguistica italiana
4) I have started fundraising for a volunteering trip to Ecuador
5) the Reality Center has become more fun than ever and it is great to hang out with our friends again after a long break!
6) I might apply for Erasmus in Italy this year! (?)

I’m probably missing a bunch of things on that list, but this is what came to my mind first.
While talking to friends from home for the past couple of days ( LOVE Ena, Marina, Nusa, Sven :), I just realized that May is just around the corner and that my time in the US is almost over!! AHH! I am sooo excited about seeing everyone back home after such a long time, but I’m sure going to miss this place. It’s grown on me.

Heading off to bed now, long day tomorrow!

Bonne nuit! :)