First week - done!

It's Sunday, which means I'm officially done with the first week of school and about to begin the second week. This week has been so crazy getting adjusted to classes and activities! & It's just about to get crazier. Here's a quick breakdown of what happened the past week.. and pictures, of course, though most of them are from the end of the week.

Wednesday - Started my first day of work as one of two Communications Interns at the Sanford School of Public Policy. I was pretty busy the entire time working on the upcoming newsletter, a summer reading list from faculty, etc. I'll be learning how to make changes to the webpage on Wednesday (no work on Monday since it's a staff holiday, but I still have class). The building's awesome, but definitely hard to navigate. It's all in a square, but some stairs go down and some go up, and there are great study places throughout the middle to study with tables, comfy couches, and chairs. It's definitely really cold in there, though, so I'll be bringing a sweater to work on Wednesday! My work station is right above the Sanford Deli, so I can smell all the delicious food. I tried the deli for the first time, and I loved the menu! Since it's the school of public policy, all of the sandwiches are named different things, like The Fillibuster, The Page, etc. I tried The Fillibuster, and it was amazing! I'll definitely try a different one on Wednesday and tell you about it!! After work, I headed to Art History again and learned about salons and how impressionism was a really radical, rebel movement. I never really thought about that since impressionism doesn't seem all that crazy to me (relative to Duchamp, Kandinsky, etc.), but I guess it was during the time, especially when religious and historical paintings were at the top of the hierarchy, and suddenly Manet (the so-called "Father of Impressionism") came out with Olympia and Le Dejeuner sur L'herbe and there was a naked figure lying on the grass--something so shocking  for the time that people immediately shunned him and talked about him. I think it's fascinating how these things change over time and how the definition of art is so fluid.. Anyway, back to my day. After class, my friend Will and I went to go pick up Stephen from the Amtrak station (literally a 2-minute drive from Duke) since he rode down from Maryland to come visit everyone (he's studying in Venice in the Fall and just arrived earlier today). He brought me a lobster stuffed animal (named "Lobby"--original, no?). Pictures now (only two for this day, unfortunately).

Two books that the lady I'm working with--Jackie Ogburn--had published and were sitting in front of the window!!

An awesome picture of Lobby clinging to the back of the front seat in the car

Thursday - Stephen left early in the morning, so my friend Drew and I dropped him off at the Amtrak station again. I had my Ethics class in the morning, and we discussed a lot about The Book of Job, which I'll mention later in my recap of Friday since we had a 15-person discussion section about it. After that, I took a nap and grabbed a quick bite to eat from the cafe--Bella Union--upstairs. Then I went to Stats class, where we learned about means, standard deviation, etc. Then, I headed to French class, and we talked about what it meant to be a Francophone author and about writers' identity when they are foreign to the place in which they're writing (ex: Chinese writers in Paris). We also discussed why Paris is the city of literature and about salons, language, etc. We just started reading La Joueuse de go for homework, so I'll be sure to update everyone about that. I'm in a couple of pages, but hopefully I'll get a better idea of what it's about as I keep reading. After class, I met up with my friend Sagar and Caroline and we studied in the Bella Union since it's a very relaxed good place to just meet up with someone or to get some work done. We worked for a few hours and then went downstairs to The Tower and grabbed dinner with 15 other people from Pegram for Caroline's 20th birthday!! The food was delicious, and we had red velvet cake after. Then we all went to hang out in the guys' room in Few Quad and stayed for a couple of hours before heading back to rest up for Friday.

A picture of the menu--it used to be called "Tommy's" & they have amazing sides and food!!

Friday - I had my first Stats lab, which was sort of frustrating at first because we couldn't log in to the computers, and the program was expired on the computers. But after a while, we finally got it to work, and the lab went by smoothly. We were sorting through data of CEOs of head companies from 1994 and figuring out things like how many graduated from Duke, which professional degree (MBA, JD, no degree, etc.) had the highest total compensation. The lab was really easy, and it was a great way for us to get acquainted with the JMP program. After lab, I went back to my room and relaxed before heading out again for my afternoon Ethics discussion section. It was great because it was a small group, and everyone had something to say and contributed. I left the room with a lot more insight into the book than I had when I entered the room and heard a lot of different things from both sides of the conversation. I distinctly remember thinking while I was there that I was so happy to be at Duke and surrounded by people who had so many ideas and disagreed (nicely!) about a lot of things, and that allowed us all to think about different angles of the book we hadn't really thought about before. The 1-1/2 hour discussion went by really quickly, and I'm definitely looking forward to this week's section. After classes, I headed to the Duke Store and finally got my NCAA champions shirt!!--for both basketball and lacrosse. Then I took the bus to East Campus and helped table for Club Tennis & Duke Journal of Public Affairs at the Activities Fair. It was pretty hectic with a lot of people visiting all the tables, and it was definitely hot. It was great, though, because Duke's radio station was at the fair, as well as inflatables, and an ice cream truck where everything was free! I ended up getting an ice cream sandwich and a Dora the Explorer popsicle!! At night, all the girls got ready to go out for the night since there was an 80s party (as well as an "Into the City" themed one, a toga party, and a black light party!), and it was a lot of fun because Caroline's two friends from UNC & Elon came along, and so did Gabby's two friends from College of Charleston & UNC. We had a lot of fun and came back kind of early since we were ridiculously tired.

Saturday - We slept in and grabbed lunch at Alpine Atrium then headed back and talked for a bit before meeting up with Caroline's parents for Tailgate. After lunch, as we were walking back, inflatables were set up on the main quad on West Campus since it was Sophomore Game Day, and Caroline and I ended up doing the race (inside one of the inflatables) and saw our friends there who decided to sumo wrestle in the fat suits and do some of the other games. After all that, Caroline, me, and Megan (her friend from Elon) went to the parking lot to meet up with Caroline's parents and friends, and we sat around relaxing and eating before the 7pm game against Elon (which we won 41-27!!). The game was really packed, and everything was pretty hectic with food vendors everywhere. At halftime, we met up with her parents again and had some more food, and Gabby and I met up and headed back for a bit since we were tired, then came back after the game to sing happy birthday for Caroline and try some of her mom's super delicious homemade pound cake!! Then all of us headed back, and we did some work, and Caroline and Megan watched Gilmore Girls for a bit before calling it a night.

Sunday - I woke up this morning and headed to East Campus since it was club tennis tryouts! We watched all the girls play and accepted seven of them for the traveling team, and the rest for the practice team. The weather was perfect, and the girls looked good. It makes me excited for the upcoming year! After that, I had lunch with Steph at Bruegger's Bagels, and it was absolutely delicious!! I had the Asiago Parmesan bagel with Honey Walnut cream cheese. Gabby and I are planning on getting a dozen after class tomorrow, since Bruegger's is right off of East Campus. After that, I came back and started writing this blog post--which I'm still doing! I'm about to head to office hours for Stats, though, since I just wanted to check one of my questions. This week will be ridiculously hectic, so I'll try to update often so I won't have it all lumped up into one. I don't have work tomorrow, which lets me rest more, but tennis practice starts tomorrow! Then I have rowing (Ahhh I'm so nervous/excited!!) on Tuesday and Thursday, and I'll be playing tennis with Steph on Wednesday. Then it's back to rowing on Friday and Saturday, and if I have time, I might be able to make it to the away match against Elon on Saturday (for tennis), as well. I'm also meeting with my FAClets for dinner and have a Duke Journal meeting and a chapter meeting on Sunday for Chi Omega. Ridiculous. I'll definitely keep you all updated on how my crazy schedule goes!! (& I'll try and have more pictures next time!!)