Wow, so these past two weeks have been insane!!
Brief breakdown & TONS of pictures to follow, so get ready!!
May 2 - 8: Reading period (no classes)/Finals week! I had a ton of errands to do to prepare for my internship in Raleigh this summer (I'm doing a sports internship for the Raleigh News & Observer and will be covering local college sports, the Durham Bulls, & the club soccer team nearby). So I had to get my apartment ready (I was going to put up pictures but realized that probably wasn't a good idea..) & do stuff like visit the dentist (ew, I had to get a cavity filled) & the like. I only had one final on Tuesday & a presentation on Wednesday (check out my Computer Science final project here! It only works with some browsers, though :( ) so I was pretty much cruising for the rest of the week. Our dorm did a great job of providing 9pm snacks every night of finals, like pizza, Cookout milkshakes, fruit and yogurt parfaits, and Dunkin Donuts, all of which were delicious!!
(North) Myrtle Beach, SC: May 8-10 - Last day of finals! So I headed to my apartment and started moving things in and had a pretty packed day with signing the lease form, etc. After, a couple of us (we had a total of 10 people heading out with us) started driving down to MYRTLE BEACH, SC! Basically, Myrtle is the place to be after finals end. Most people stay from Saturday or Sunday to Tuesday or Wednesday, and about half of Duke is there. It's a touristy beach with clean, pristine sand and waters (I like to think I'm a slight beach connoisseur...) and random mini golf and food places like pancake houses, waffle houses, and tons of gas stations. We also went clubbing at the Spanish Galleon in downtown! Here are some pictures of the beach now!
Wilmington, NC: May 10-11: But my beach adventures weren't over after we left Myrtle. We drove back up to Wilmington, NC, another beach city & stayed with my roommate, Caroline, for a night. It was amazing! We had delicious homemade food AND we got to go on her boat!! We rode around and ate at a dockside restaurant where I had a super yummy crabcake sandwich. Then we went back out on the boat and went tubing!! & After, we went to a small, secluded beach and hung out. Not too many pictures because the boat was super windy, but here we are again!
Semi-group picture on the boat!
Tubing!
Raleigh, NC: May 12-13: Just hung around getting the apartment ready, installing Internet, buying pots, pans, food, etc. Boring stuff. So..moving on.
Clarksville, MD: May 13-24: Headed up to Maryland with my boyfriend! My third time here (once in 8th grade for a DC trip & once earlier this year to cover a Women's Bball game for the Chronicle). It's been amazing so far! Good weather except for today.. it was gloomy & rainy :( The first night we got back super late so we just went to sleep.
May 14 - Went to visit Stephen's high school and walked around Centennial Park. It was quite gorgeous! There's a huge lake there, a playground, basketball courts, tennis courts, and they have boat rentals!! Oh, and plenty of grass, of course. We came back, ate dinner, and played Life. (I LOVE board games!!!)
May 15 - I don't really remember what we did today. I think we walked around at the mall and got 1/2-off frapps at Starbucks (I love Starbucks!!).
May 16 - Today was Stephen's mom's birthday! We went to a Chinese seafood buffet to grab lunch for a belated birthday lunch then headed to Costco. After, Stephen and I headed to Centennial Park again to go rowboat-ing!! It was a lot of fun, but definitely tiring. When we got back to the house it was around 5-6ish, so me, Stephen, and his brother made dinner for his mother. Spaghetti with sautéed vegetables and meatballs, garlic bread, tossed salad, and a cookie cake. All homemade! It was tons of fun & quite delicious, surprisingly! Then, we headed out to watch Avatar at a friend's house and came back super tired. Below are pictures from the rowboat!
Rowboat!
Manhattan, NY: May 17: We woke up really early in the morning and rode a bus from Baltimore to NYC ($30 round trip per person!!). We left at 8am and arrived at around 10:30am. It was a really smooth bus ride and we got there really quickly. We started off with Starbucks (of course!) in the morning & saw Madison Square Garden (Duke bball team's second home!!!). We then grabbed brunch at a place called Harries (I think?) & it was absolutely delicious!! We kept walking and saw Times Square & a huge Toys R Us! We also saw the Apple Store in the glass cube thing (Oh & this was my first time to NYC!) and a bunch of break dancers, as well as a person on stilts dressed up as the Statue of Liberty. We also walked around Central Park and rested on the rocks for a bit before taking the subway to Whitehall St. to take the ferry from Manhattan to Staten Island (where we saw Elmo!!) to see the Statue of Liberty (since we didn't have enough time to take a real tour) and then walked around the city and hit Wall St. & Broadway, saw the NYSE, and then kept walking until we hit Chinatown. Then, we took the subway to Union Square, where we saw the Empire State Building & some NYU buildings. Then, I met up with a friend from back home and went to Greenwich Village to eat some delicious food. After, we caught the subway back to Penn Station & headed back to Baltimore. Crazy & fun trip!!! Pictures now!
Break dancers outside of Central Park
Statue of Liberty!
Central Park!
Toys R Us!
Times Square
View from the ferry
Elmo outside of the ferry station to get to Staten Island
Wall St. & Broadway!
NYSE!
Greenwich Village!
May 17-18: We didn't do much these two days. Ate Qdoba & Five Guys (for the first time!) and shopped around at the mall for a bit. Played a couple board games, like Sorry & Clue. Heading to DC tomorrow to check out some of the museums, walk around, & grab dinner with a friend. Can't wait! (DC's my favorite city of all time!!) Thursday and Friday will be hanging out with some of the local kids who are just finishing school, like going ice skating, laser tagging, etc. Then it's back to Raleigh/Durham on Monday, and I start my internship at 9am on Wednesday! (So early!!) Super excited!
Hope you all are having a just-as-exciting summer!!
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A water adventure is a great idea for winding up! There's something about the nature that helps make the moment even more special. I'm sure you had perfect quality time with your mates. Well, this summer, me, my family, and some of my friends are planning to go kayaking and surfing the waves. It's always a great feeling to have them around and share these wonderful moments. How was the internship, by the way? :)
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