This week was a whirlwind of tours, presentations, and meetings designed to help us get oriented at the Nicholas School. The week began with our placement tests and ended on a much more pleasant note, with a free keg from FOREM, the social club at the Nicholas School. In a complete throwback to the 80’s, we got Otter Pops and pink plastic mugs that change color depending on the temperature of the liquid inside them – just like Hypercolor shirts! Remember those?

 

Among the things I learned this week:

- Apparently the plural of y’all is “all y’all” – I was schooled by my friend from Nashville!

- In the South, barbeque is a noun and refers only to food itself, not to the act of having a barbeque to which friends are invited, as we might do in California. I think. But I’ll need more clarification on this one.

- If you go the campus computer store for the third time, you may receive your new laptop. But don’t expect an owner’s manual.

- Much to my delight, Perkins library has a much more lenient food and beverage policy than my undergrad institution (no more sneaking bookbags stuffed with lattes through turnstiles!) and many beautiful reading rooms with huge windows and very comfortable chairs (this could be a problem, actually).

 

Funny: One of the Nicholas School student groups is called “Gray Devils” – aimed at older grad students at Nicholas.

Funnier: It’s for students 30 and up.

 

My boxes and furniture finally arrived from California… on Saturday morning at 7am no less. This ended the visions I had of my belongings being auctioned off on the side of the road in Texas. It’s wonderful to have everything here – most notably my bed, slippers, espresso machine, and stereo. I also met my neighbor – a very nice guy who’s a radiologist at the medical center. He offered to help with my boxes, which makes me think he must be crazy.

 

I decided to bring the weekend to a close with a “restorative” yoga class at a studio nearby. It was essentially sanctioned nap time. That I paid for. But restorative it was. Nevertheless, I think I’ll hug a pillow in my own bed next Sunday night. For free. Quote of the evening: “Happiness is not easily won; it is hard to find it in ourselves, and impossible to find it elsewhere” – yoga instructor Scott (Actually, it was Chamfort. Maybe Scott should have been there for the Duke Honor Code session). Om. I’ll leave you with a few more quotes, gathered over the course of the week…

 

Overheard at Duke this week

Overheard at FOREM’s first keg: “You can tell the natural resource students by their poorly behaved dogs” – PhD student, trying to maintain his footing in a swirl of tails and paws

 

Overheard in the chapel: “I, as you can probably tell from this fabulous necklace, am the President of this University” – President Richard Brodhead, addressing incoming graduate students at Convocation