Now enough self reflection, here is a sampling of the pictures, followed by a slideshow at the end of this post!

View from the Brooklyn Promenade!

Brooklyn Promenade 2nd Edition

View from outside my building of the Empire State Building!

Washington Square Park

And here are Stephen’s pictures–

Brooklyn Promenade

Brooklyn Promenade

Brooklyn Promenade

Brooklyn Promenade

NBA Nation at South Street Seaport

Sprite Slam Dunk Contest

KIA Pack the Trunk Game

Obstacle Course!

City Hall Park

Inside the subway station - home of NY Chinatown!

Shake Shack!

Madison Square Park (& Shake Shack)

Found this in the sand!

Look! I'm a photographer, too--I took this one!

It only looks like this at night because of the shadows

Empire State Building at night

Empire State Building

View from the top!

View from the top

Times Square

Times Square +

Us!

I was going to post the rest of the pictures directly, but I was afraid it’d be too long, so here’s a slideshow–

More about what’s been happening before New York (St. Petersburg for the Sports Journalism Institute & Poynter Institute for journalism! and California) later–hopefully not two months later!

The other day, I hung out with Dexter and another one of my friends who had come home for the weekend, and we just talked about our college lives. It dawned on me then that my college experience wasn’t like anyone else’s, certainly not the experiences of my friends back at home. I guess I had taken for granted the ample amount of opportunities available to every Duke student. I realized that though study abroad was pretty popular nationally, not many programs offered the same ones Duke does–the variety of countries, the Duke professors, the Duke credit transfer. At other schools, many students end up having to go over the summer because they can’t fit it into their schedule, while at Duke though people do choose to do that for one reason or another, it is definitely in the norm to go during the Fall semester with a bunch of your good friends and just explore the world. Another thing that I really took for granted that really stood out to me was the quality of people at Duke. My friend was talking about how he planned a ski/snowboarding trip to Big Bear for his college friends, but along the way, he was met with laziness, a reluctance to help out, and a total lack of responsibility. His friends were against change and remained inflexible throughout their entire trip, even when adverse weather conditions should have encouraged them not to continue driving. I realized that I rarely encounter that with kids at Duke. They’re responsible; they’re gracious; they’re reliable; and they’re all-around great to be around. Never once do I have to worry that if I plan something someone will be difficult. Never once when we plan a group potluck that we worry that someone will end up not bringing anything. Never once when we plan a birthday are we afraid there won’t be people who want to come out to dinner or want to help bake a cake or are willing to use their room as a venue where we can yell “surprise!” In addition to all that comes with the amount of quality discussion and talks I have with people at Duke. We talk about what’s happening in the world; we share our opinions; we introduce others to new ideas and information. Sure, we’re not doing this all time, and we surely do gossip, make fun of each other, and tell crude jokes, but those quality conversations are certainly not out of the ordinary. It’s very normal to have an everyday conversation and throw in casual references to Orwell’s Animal Farm, quickly followed up by a sports/YouTube reference to Brian Wilson’s, “I want to rage. Right now.” and have everybody understand. It’s those kinds of things that I take for granted–the worldliness, the culture, the awareness of what is happening day-to-day. That’s something that I’m not entirely sure I would get on a daily basis if I weren’t at Duke, and for that, I’m so happy. So happy I made the decision to come here, and so happy I’ve never regretted a day of it. I don’t entirely remember where I was going when I started this post, but I guess that’s what you get with a student who has taken two finals and written three papers in the span of a week and a half. I’ll be sure to come back soon with LDOC pictures as well as any last-minute Duke pictures I can come up with! In the meantime, here’s the schedule for this coming week:

• Mother’s Day with mom & grandma with lunch and mani/pedis!
• A free taping of X-Factor at the Galen Center next to USC with friends from USC
• A free taping of Jimmy Kimmel Live (with Zac Brown Band!!!!) in Hollywood with Serena
• Go Cart racing with my cousin & her friends at SpeedZone for her birthday
• Maybe a Lakers game?! (Not because I doubt there will be future games, but because of schedule conflicts)
• UCSD’s version of LDOC (Sungod w/ Wiz Khalifa, Jimmy Eat World, Mike Posner, etc.) with Kevin, Serena, & Dan
• Kevin’s Formal at Palm Springs (super last-minute, but I’m excited!)

That’s about all on my short-list, but you can tell I’ll be busy! More pictures later, and happy summer!!

& Did I mention Food Trucks??

FOOD

In addition to the food provided via daytime programming, we will have vendors available. Drain the rest of your food points at one of these stations:

• Grilled Cheese Truck
• Klausie’s Pizza
• Only Burger
• Bulkogi
• Parlez-vous Crepe
• The Fast Italian
• Tropical Smoothies

Simply amazing. LDOC is always a blast, and it’s a really great way to relax right before reading days & finals start up. Lucky for me (or maybe unlucky?) I don’t have finals during finals week. But that just means I have one tomorrow, one Wednesday (yep, on LDOC, unfortunately), and then three final projects/papers due during finals week. My goal is to finish those before I head home Saturday, so we’ll see how that goes. Sad news is that I won’t get to go to our annual Beach Week at Myrtle Beach, SC with everyone, but I’m excited to get to see my family (& avoid this humidity!)! Oh, in other news, in my Chinese class, we’re going to Eastern Lights again for a class dinner as our LDOC on Tuesday, so that’s super exciting! Now, on to pictures & detailing what I did..

First off, the WaDuke. Seriously one of my best dining experiences at Duke & elsewhere! I don’t have pictures, unfortunately, since Gabby took them on her phone, but if she sends them to me later, I’ll put them up! Basically, the WaDuke is short for the Washington Duke Inn, which is a really upscale hotel/golf course right on the edges of Duke’s campus near the athletic facilities, and the place has a very nice restaurant & bar. One of the best things about it is they take food points, which are Duke’s dining dollars, meaning that you can go there for dinner, and you wouldn’t have to pay with other forms of money. Great for the student budget & for the dining experience My block went there last last Thursday, and they had a $25 happy hour special that included an appetizer, an entree, and a dessert platter of Creme Brulee, Blueberry (something.. some sort of cake…), & Tiramisu. We all got different entrees, and they were simply spectacular. I wish I knew better words to describe it, but it really was great (& went along perfectly with my soup, which was corn chowder with shrimp), and the service was outstanding. It was really nice to go to a sort of “formal” meal while not worrying about having to actually drive out or pay out of our own pockets. That reminds me of Duke’s Merchants on Points, which is a list of places that deliver to your dorm room and take your food points. I’ve definitely used that plenty of times, and the food is really good, and you never really have to worry about getting tired of eating the same things all the time. Yummmmm. Ooh, that also reminds me of what I want to do this week before I leave–eat lunch at the Nasher. I had gone with Caroline & Gabby before, and it’s a really great place to get good food & be in a quiet, calm setting. It’s also right on campus between East & West, so it’s really no hassle to get there at all! I bet you can tell how hungry I am!!

The day after, we had our ChiO Formal, which was really fun! I didn’t go to Formal last year, so it was a really cool experience that kind of reminded me of Prom but a lot more casual (& we presented our littles!), so here are some pictures:

Me & my little!

Me & my big!

Me & Steph aka future roomie!

The next night was just as busy since Gabby’s birthday was the next day, and a bunch of us got together and went to Mt. Fuji for dinner then threw a little celebration for Gabby in our hallway before having a classy (completely sarcastic) night at Shooters. Pictures from the night!

Our half of the dinner table!

Me & the birthday girl!

Sunday was spent catching up on work & relaxing, so not too much to say there.

This past week was busy as usual planning upcoming ChiO philanthropy events (we have one with a campus dining place & another working with Stella & Dot jewelry to provide a Trunk Show with proceeds going toward Make-A-Wish Foundation), getting work done, helping out with Blue Devil Days, etc. On Wednesday, we had our ChiO end-of-the-year banquet catered by Foster’s, so the food was really great, and it was sort of sad because it just hit me then that the seniors were graduating, and I wouldn’t see them regularly anymore, if at all.. Ahhhh, it’s still frightening and sad to think about now. Moving on.. On Thursday, my block went to Local Yogurt, which is a frozen yogurt place right off-campus, and that was a lot of fun just all being together because we’re always so busy and never in our dorm. Friday was fun and relaxing, but Saturday.. Saturday was where it was at. In the afternoon, Gabby & I stopped by the Sophomore Class BBQ to get free food and sunglasses. Then she had to set up for DUU Innovations’ Water Balloon Extravaganza, which turned out OUTSTANDING with free food, t-shirts, slip & slides, dunk tanks, and, of course, water balloons. That evening, we had our Chronicle semi/awards banquet called Sclafani (named for former editor Matthew A. Sclafani), which was a lot of fun, especially getting to know kids in other departments, as well as the writers in sports better. We met up before to all hang out then bussed it to University Tower to have some really delicious food, & then after, we went back to the office and jammed to tunes (& witnessed epic rap battles)! Awesome night

Sports!!

After that, the weekend still wasn’t over, and on Sunday, we had senior chapter, where it really hit me again how many of the seniors I knew and were going to miss. We had senior willing, which where the seniors willed down their things to their littles and other members of their family & the sorority, so that was a lot of fun, and the atmosphere was really relaxing, and it was great to have everyone together for the last time of the year.

& Here we are on Monday! I’ll probably be MIA for most of the week working, but hopefully I’ll get something up soon!

But first off, I just want to say Happy Birthday to my Dad, who has been super awesome and supportive and a great help when helping me move into Duke. To celebrate his birthday from 3,000 miles away, I’m including a family picture (then I promise I’ll get on with the post!)

My dad, mom, me, & my cousin Fall of 2009 in front of the Duke Chapel!

Now, on to the regular post. I know I promised that I would mention a lot of things in the last post, and I definitely will, so be sure to read until the end (or scroll down if you’d like!), but first I’m going to give a quick rundown of life here. I suppose many of the elements will overlap, though, now that I think about it..

Academics – The professors and students here amaze me every single day. They’re so intellectual and so knowledgeable yet so down-to-earth and friendly. I’ve taken topics ranging from Microeconomics to Ethics to Chemistry to Advertising to French literature to the Holocaust and more. And even if I’ve previously been exposed to the topic, I end up coming out of each class with new insight on something or having learned something completely new. My most recent example is from my last class–Institutions & Reforms in Rural China–on Thursday. We learned about the petition system in China, which has its citizens submit petitions about their grievances at the main government office (not entirely sure what it’s called exactly). They are often beaten by police officers, stopped by petition snatchers (people who are hired by local governments to steal these petitions so their government doesn’t look bad and less petitions from that area are submitted), or in the best case scenario, wait for hours just to receive a signed letter from the members of the congress that demand the local government’s officials to solve the problem. On very rare occasions are petitions actually taken seriously. I think about .2% of the time was the statistic. It was hard for me to wrap my mind around that, especially growing up in America and being used to a government system that really caters to the people. I talked with my professor after class about it, still trying to get the idea that this all happened because of corruption, and that power did not derive from the consent of the people. The whole idea still intrigues me, and I’m definitely looking for Tuesday’s lecture/discussion. Continuing off of my Chinese class, I know in my last post I mentioned that I would talk about what I’m working on, and for now, it’s a research paper on Public Safety, and I’m focusing on public safety in the Middle East. It’s fascinating how they don’t have a real police system in place, and there are a lot of tribes in that region, and it’s interesting to see how that works with public safety and relating it back to early America with bandits and thieves threatening Native Americans, as well as the same situation in rural parts of China. In my other class about the Holocaust, I am watching the Holocaust mini-series that was debuted on American (and English, German, Italian) television and analyzing how that related to Germany’s ability to confront or deal with the Holocaust. It’s really quite interesting, and I’m hoping to turn out some quality research and analysis on the topic!

Athletics – There are sooo many club sports here (all of which are GREAT — our club tennis team placed 7th nationally this past weekend! We could’ve gotten higher, I’m sure, if one of our players hadn’t sprained his wrist last Thursday.. booooo), & there is so much school spirit! The athletics here in general are great, and people go to games–which often have free food and/or t-shirts, too! Here are some pictures of our basketball successes, and if you want to know more about tenting, just click on the KVille category–

Cameron Indoor Stadium - Hall of Fame

Coach K Wall

Cameron Indoor Stadium - Hall of Fame (Men's Basketball Section)

Durham & etc. – You probably won’t often find occasion to step outside of Duke’s campus (there are so many activities going on here all the time, like this past weekend’s Springternational and Duke Royale and this week’s Nash-Up at the Nasher Museum of Art, DMLI Spring Trunk Show, and Old Duke featuring Sugar Ray (with free t-shirts & food, too!)!! But if you’re just itching to go off of Duke’s campus, there’s plenty to see at the DPAC (Durham Performing Arts Center), the Durham Bulls (AAA baseball team), and more! & Durham has repeatedly been voted as one of America’s foodiest cities, and that’s definitely true, with Brightleaf Square relatively within walking distance of East Campus (harboring sushi, Italian, Greek, gelato, etc.) and Ninth Street with food like Mexican, Mediterranean, Jimmy John’s, etc.

Activities – There are so many clubs here that you are BOUND to find one that fits your interest. I personally am involved in The Chronicle’s sports section, a member of Chi Omega, play for our Club Tennis team, am Managing Editor of the Duke Journal of Public Affairs, and still have time to study, work, & hang out with friends! The resources here are great, and everybody is so knowledgeable, so there is no doubt that you won’t find something you’re interested in!

I’m trying to think of what else I’m missing that is glaringly obvious, but I can’t think of any off the top of my head. If you think of anything, definitely feel free to comment or shoot me an email, & I’ll be glad to give you more information! Now, back to working on my research papers/projects. Night! & Be sure to stop by the Club Tennis table tomorrow morning and say hi if you’re in town!

Hope you’re excited for a LONG post ahead!

Congratulations again!

Needless to say, it did not disappoint, and I’m still left yearning for more, though I do wish it had a little more flavor in the meat itself. I guess I’m just not all that much of a meat person.. Continuing on this train about food, we all went to Chinatown Tuesday evening before heading to the Liacouras Center and had some stellar bubble tea and homemade Chinese food. It reminded me of home; it was fantastic! We also had Morimoto, a super high-end sushi place (we had a gift card from the hotel since we had some troubles with our bedroom and had to relocate twice) owned by Chef Masaharu Morimoto, who is a chef on Food Network. It was supeeeer delicious. I definitely hadn’t had sushi that good in a long time! I even took some pictures, though the quality isn’t all that great.

Yellowtail Tartare

Fried tofu

Seasoned rice cooked in a black rock bowl with fish

Sesame Mousse Cake

Now, on to my time in Philadelphia related to work. Our days were filled with bouts of busy-ness and bouts of relaxation. We arrived Saturday evening and grabbed dinner before going out to Penn to meet up with some friends. We had Don Memo’s, which had really good Mexican food and guacamole made on-the-spot. After, we walked around Penn’s campus and met up with some friends involved in Greek life there. After a couple of hours, we got pretty tired and headed back to the hotel.

The next day, the Duke vs. DePaul game was set to tip-off at 2:32 p.m. (I never understood why game times are so odd.. I understand when there are back-to-back games, but not for single games like earlier this season at Duke). We got in at around 1 p.m. to watch the second half of the Connecticut-Georgetown game, and it really looked like the Hoyas were going to upset the Huskies, but Connecticut came back with an explosive finish to propel them to the next round. Andrew and I had really great seats courtside on press row. We were lined up with the basket facing the Georgetown bench, and apparently we were even featured on television a couple of times yesterday! I was sitting by a writer from The Washington Post, that was an awesome experience. Here–I have a photo of our seats (and press passes and name cards) on press row!

In front of our seats!

Sunday we had a good game against DePaul, forcing them to turnover the ball and out-scoring them inside the paint. Basically, we performed better than them in every single statistical category, which was a great sign–and a great improvement from the team’s performance last week at home against Marist. We went to the press conferences, filed our stories–check mine out here–then went back to our hotel room and relaxed. It was too bad that I realized on the last day that the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall were just a couple of blocks away from our hotel. It would’ve been cool to see them again since the last time I had gone was in 8th grade!

The next day, Andrew and I slept in while Tracy went to get lunch with her friend since she’s from Philadelphia. The two of us then headed to the teams’ practices and press conferences so I could write a preview for the Elite Eight match-up against Connecticut. After, we basically stayed in the hotel room for most of the day before heading to Morimoto for dinner. On Thursday, we did much of the same thing before going to Chinatown in the evening then to cover the game. After the pressers–including Geno Auriemma’s which lasted about 40 minutes–we worked on getting our stories in as fast and well-written as we could. Then we headed back to the hotel and went to sleep so we could catch our early 9:22 a.m. flight back to RDU. So here I am, sitting in the terminal at Philadelphia International Airport writing this post. Well, we’re starting to board, so I’ll be back to update again later in a couple of days!

I am currently sitting courtside at this game. More updates tonight!!

This time around, we explored Philadelphia, and I & another photographer (Tracy) and writer (Andrew) met up with some friends at UPenn and grabbed Don Memo’s before, which was amazing Mexican food. I love when they make guacamole on the spot! Anyway, it’s getting late, and I’m pretty tired, but I’ll be sure to update again tomorrow with pictures and more details from the game! Be sure to keep up with it at sports.chronicleblogs.com!

Also–I’m still upset about our men’s game against Arizona. I was in my friend’s apartment, and we literally all almost cried and were really upset in the final seven minutes when it seemed like it was basically over. Another year gone, but it was a great season. And Kyle Singler, Nolan Smith, and yes, you too Casey Peters!, thank you for four amazing years. You’ll always be #1 in my heart.