I’ve finally chosen my courses for the fall. Most universities seem to have a shopping period – usually one week at the beginning of the term when you are allowed to visit classes before committing to taking their midterms. For someone like me who has a hard enough time choosing a restaurant for dinner, the prospect can be a bit overwhelming. But I’ve got a good line-up now, including a hydrocarbons course where we trek to Houston during fall break to study the energy industry. We each are responsible for researching one aspect of our trip ahead of time – a company, a guest speaker, or some other aspect of the industry. I learned more about liquefied natural gas over the past week than I ever thought I would.

I didn’t have to wait until October for a field trip, though. My land use principles and policies course organized a field trip to the Duke homestead for the annual tobacco harvest. We had a great time. There were a number of men, women, and children dressed in traditional outfits harvesting and “looping” the leaves in preparation for hanging them to dry in the barn. I learned the origin of bright leaf tobacco (named for the golden color the leaves become when dried through heating) and gained a new appreciation for living with the modern conveniences of the 21^st century. The funniest moment of the day may have been when we were told that the harvest would begin a few minutes late because “the mule is stuck in traffic.”

Before I sign off, I should admit that I did have a bit of an existential dilemma this week. In the same land use principles course, we received our first assignment: research a piece of land with an eye to its zoning, development potential, and market value. An interesting assignment, right? You may not be aware of the background: I used to work for Peninsula Open Space Trust, a nonprofit land conservation group in the Bay Area. This kind of property research was a big component of my day-to-day work there. When I say a big component, I mean that essentially it was my job. Wait a minute, I thought. I used to get paid to do this! And now I’m paying you?

Overheard at Duke this week

Overheard in room 249: “If you think this is already going pretty fast, drink more coffee!”

Overheard in Love Auditorium: “Over long time scales, yeah, there will be more oil. Some of it will be us. Okay, that was kind of gross. Sorry. Sometimes ad-libbing has consequences.”