2nd and 3rd weeks @ Duke and Weekend Trip to Springfield, MA (Jan 26-29)

Well the second and third weeks at Duke is when things started to swing into action. Apart from finding my local watering hole where I go every Tuesday night with my Swiss flatmate Pascal and where I can get imported beers, and use my food points (maybe someone should suggest this to Anthony Spiegel??) I have been going to classes (I really suppose that I should) as well as making a number of new friends who are undergrads!!! I also sat my European Union deferred exam from Bond, which was ok, I was just lucky that I had Strategic Management on the Friday beforehand. I got both of these marks back and was very pleased with them!!!

A big highlight for me was going into an undergrad dorm, which at Duke, is just like it is in the movies, it was so cool! Also Americans are infatuated with us Aussies, especially the accent. If I had a dollar for every time I heard "oh I love your accent" I would be a very rich man and would not have to worry about the exchange rate and its effects on my savings. However most say that the British accent and the Aussie one sound very similar to which I reply "you're kidding me right? do I say you sound like a Mexican?"

Ok, so onto the major part of this entry, and that is my trip that I took to Springfield, MA on the weekend of Jan 26-29 to see some friends from WNEC (Western New England College) that came to Bond in 051! I decided to take this trip only 2 days before I was there because I got a really cheap last minute fare, so I decided "why not", I only live once! The flights were AMAZING as they contained aerial passes of Washington DC and New York City. It was SO AMAZING and SO BEAUTIFUL and I think now that it has truly sunk in that I am in America by me seeing these two skylines in the same day!!!

On the Thursday night, when I arrived I went to the WNEC v Norwich University Basketball game....which was nothing like the Duke v Maryland game, I spose this was Division III an Duke is in Division I, haha!!! I also had "Wendy's" for the first time, which was good, and REAL CHEAP!!! Furthermore, I also DROVE, thats right, I drove in America, and if I dont say so myself I'm pretty awesome at it too, haha!!! THat night we went to Paddy's, a local pub/bar which was AWESOME! That night EVERYONE was there so I met a lot of the WNEC people and according to Karen they all loved me, I wonder if it was becuase I'm Australian or because I can outdrink them all??? To finish off the night we went to an after party on campus and at 4am decided to go to McDonalds (such an Aussie thing to do) and in the end we spent about $30 USD at the drive through between the 4 of us (Karen, Meghan, Josh and I) with Josh and I spending the most of it, hahaha!!!

On Friday I basically just chilled with my mates and caught up with then before going out again: one dorm party on campus, one house party and then back out to Paddy's for another night of debautory! Tonight two interesting things happened: it took me twice as long as the night before to get in with my passport even though it was the same bouncer from the night before and I also introduced the cowboy shot to Springfield!!! I also did a very American thing that night after all the drinking had ended and went to Taco Bell, which was DIRT CHEAP and oh so good when you are Drunk.

On Saturday I actually did a lot considering how bad I was feeling. I went to see the Women's basketball match, which was cool, and they won in a hard fought game and then I had a nap to prepare myself for a BIG night out on the town which began with the WNEC Ice Hockey game which was awesome, even though it was a Division III College game, and I had so much fun!!! This was followed up by two dorm parties on campus and then another night at Paddy's. It was sad becuase I knew that this would be my last night drinking with these amazing people! I wont deny it, I got completly wasted tonight but only because it is SO CHEAP ($3.50 USD Shots and $5.50 USD Long Island Iced Teas), I was in heaven! I have definatly made some new drinking buddies who can keep up with me such as Greg (picutred with me), Josh, Megan, Jess, Sarah, Beth, Jake!!! After leaving Paddy's @ 2am (as that is when it closes) we went back to Greg's place and drank some more, as well as played Beer Pong, we were 1-1 that night, not too bad!!!

On Sunday, I'm not going to lie, I had the biggest headache known the man kind and well it took me a while to get up!!! After I finally did Karen and I went to the Basketball Hall of Fame (pictured above), which was pretty cool, but would have appreciated it more if I was in a better state of mind!!! I drove home in the rain after we had lunch with Jeff (an American at Bond in 053) and where I started to say my goodbyes to those that I had met that weekend and hit it off with especially Kelly (who I now love to pieces) as well as Ashley and Monica (who were at Bond in 051) and Jess, Jake, Justin, Tylor, Steph, Denise and so many others!!! It was actually real sad leaving cause I had such an AWESOME weekend and I will never forget it, Karen, Jill and all their friends made me feel real welcome and I hope to travel back up north soon and party with them all again!!!

After having a delayed connection in Baltimore (just north of Washington DC) I finally made it back to Raleigh-Durham Airport and was so glad that I was being picked up by Dan as it meant that I saved $35 on a taxi!!! It was also nice to come home to a clean apartment, but Pascal you could have cleaned my room a bit too, haha, just joking!!!!

I'm looking foward to my next trip in a fortnight to Baltimore/Washington DC, unless I decide to go somewhere in the meantime!!!!!

Until next time I hope you are all having a great time, email me with your updates.

Keep Safe

Chad

First Week at Duke

I think last time I left off I was in the library using the internet there to update this, well now I have the internet back on in my room so I'm happy :-D considering it has been 8 degrees and windy all day I deicded it was an opportune time to update what I have been doing! By now you should all have recieved another email from me breifly outlining what I have
been doing, but this is where you get the WHOLE story!!!

Classes began on January 9 (Monday) and well, it was definatly a culture shock having a seminar of around 50 people and then having the daunting prospect of having a 20-25% participation mark hanging over you in a class of this size. The classes really are like what they are in the movies, that is more a "discussion" type classes and if you dont know your material then, well, thanks goodness that hasnt happened yet, but it's only the first week!!!

One big thing that I did on Monday was go to Cameron Indoor Stadium, which is where the Duke Blue Devils play their home games, WOW, nothing like what i expected (check out the photos http://community.webshots.com/user/thechadmeister2) yet it was hard to believe that I was standing inside it ever since watching my first Duke game in 1997!

Tuesday was an interesting day: I bought my "Duke" gear for the Basketball game on Wednesday night (hoodie and trucker hat); I had a class where there was another "Chad", which NEVER happens; went to a real American Diner for dinner, which was interesting; had a local NC "beer", and I'm using that term very loosely, which reminded me of vegemite; and sadly I found out that one of my good internet chat buddies from California had passed away in a car accident in mid-December, we were meant to catch up when I was back over in California before I left! Here's to you Jarom, you are awesome and will be missed by us all!!!

Wednesday was the best day of the life! I had class in the morning and after a short nap and some food I headed over to Cameron Indoor Stadium to go to the Duke v Maryland game. I arrived at 4:30, even though the game did not start until 9, as I had to wait in line to get in. As I did not have a season pass I had to go in the "walk in line" who they let in if there are ANY spots left after those with season passes have gone in! I met some medical students in the line (PGs and UGs line up on different sides of the arena) who were pretty cool and so I hung with them and we did what you are meant to do while waiting in line to go to a game...drink beer and eat pizza!!! I was finally let into the game at 8:50, 10 minute before tip-off and OMG I have never seen so many people (9,000) squished into a more smaller space, which makes for an absolutely fantasitc atmosphere!!! I would try to describe what it was like but no words can do it justice, seriously, the closest I could come would be "intense". These students are more passionate about their team than Joe Taylor about Essendon, and I was finally a part of it, this is MY team!!! The game itself was AWESOME...Duke totally dominated and we get involved with taunts, cheers and other "Cameron Crazie" antics!!! After the game I met Dick Vitale (who is to US College Basketball what Bruce MacAveny is to Australian Sport Commentating), and again a moment I will never forget!!!

After the game I went to McDonalds (yeah we have one on campus, open 'til 1am every night) to get a drink as my throat was hoarse as. When I left the campus was covered with ground level fog and I took some cool campus pictures of it, again see my website.

Thursday and Friday were pretty uneventful as I found out that I had to take my deferred Strategic Management and European Union exams on Friday (13th) and Tuesday (17th) respectively, so I sort of studied for the Strat exam and took that no problems, now I just have to cram for EU on Tuesday given that Monday is a public holiday becuase of Martin Luthur King Jr Day!

Anyways I should be signing off for today, I think us exchange kids are going to a concert tonight, for only $5, so I should probably go eat and get ready.

By the way I now have a US mobile..its (919)-218-8604. Thats the number you dial if you are in the US so you have add on an international dialing code, and the country code, which is 1, in front of it to call me. So if you buy a calling card it should work out pretty cheap. I have also downloaded Skype which gives me 2.7c per minute calls to Aussie landlines so if you want me to call you tell me your landline.

Catchya on the flipside
Chad

Boston Adventures and Arriving at Duke

I really only spent 3 full days in Boston, but it was AMAZING, and I am totally in love with it and will definately be going back once or twice before I leave. So here is what I did.

On the Monday (Jan 2) I got the grand tour of Boston by some friends who were study abroads in 043, as well as Ryan, a good friend of all of them. Firstly I had to go to WalMart and by a jacket, I got a bargin on one for $23. We the started off the morning by getting a bagel from some ghetto bagel place in Needham (except i think they gave me a bagel with my cream cheese and not vice versa) and then proceeded to get a hot chocolate from Dunkin Donut's (OMG the best EVER!!!)! We then took the T-Line into the city and had a look around the City (Fenial Hall, Government Centre, City Hall, Boston Harbour, Prudential Centre, the Copley Centre, Newbury St, Park St, the Capitol Building, Boston Common, Cheers)!!! I had the traditional Clam Chowder for lunch, which I surprisingly enjoyed. To finish off the night we all went to the Cheesecake Factory for dinner and OMG it was totally amazing, the food was awesome and it was really cheap considering how much you got on your plate! Oh yeah, Bostonites, whats the deal with cemeteries in the city???

On the 3rd we had a snowstorm out where my friend lived (and where I was staying). It was toally cool, seeing falling snow for the first time, it was seriously like something out of the movies. Dan and his family couldn't understand why I was so excited. As there was a snowstorm during the day we were stuck indoors until the evening when I went and saw a movie with Dan and his two friends from his uni, Mike and Eddie (who were an absolute blast!!). We saw "The Ringer" with Johnny Knoxville, bloody hilarious movie!!!

On the 4th I actually had a decent sleep and a sleep in (the first since arriving) and went to the mall during the day. That night I went into Boston to catch up with Jeff and Bree (Study ABroad's from 053). After catching the train in from Framingham, a 45 minute ride, I met up with them at South Station and then went to "Halftime Pizza" for dinner (wow, MASSIVE pizza and a "small" drink that is a large in Australia, which only worked out to $6 a person) before heading to an NBA game at the TD Banknorth Garden. We saw the Boston Celtics v Charlotte Bobcats and it was a totally different experience, they dont really get into the game like we do in Australia, but it was still pretty cool, even if we were in the nosebleed section!

On Thursday the 5th I left Boston for Raleigh-Durham, NC, where I would be attending Duke. Flying over Raleigh I noticed that it reminded me a lot of Hobart...tiny, lol. I arrived at Duke, settled into my apartment and then went to WalMart, again, with Lila to get some blankets, sheets and other assorted stuff!!!

Friday, Jan 5, saw me doing Law School Orientation, which was pretty cool. there are only 5 of us exchange students here (Me and Lila from Bond, Jeff from Melbourne, Laurent from Belgium and Kristian from Denmark) and they all seem pretty cool!!! After touring the law school and getting our Duke Cards (ID Cards) and having lunch it was time for the library tour, and OMG, it is such like a cruise ship with 4 levels, 2 showers, lounge areas as well as individual study berths it seems like it could float away at any second, haha!!!!! For dinner we went to Laurent's apartment where he made spaghetti bolognaise, which was pretty good, topped with "imitation mozzerella cheese"!!!

That brings us to today, meaning that currently I am sitting in the law library using the entire campus wide wireless internet, as its playing up in my room, to update this. But i must say that I did have an awesome sleep last night, something close to 10 hours...which is what I definately needed.

Allright, time to sign off, believe it or not we have reading assignments due before classes start on monday, but they're not too long, so it should be ok. I'll probably write a brief entry after my first day of AMerican law school, haha.

Cya
Chad

Sunny and Hot in Melbourne. Raining and Cool in LA. SNOW in Boston

Hey everyone.....well I have made it to Boston and WOW, what a change, complete polar opposites to Melbourne, the Gold Coast and Australia in general!!!!!

First of all, my flight to LA was ok, not too bad...thanks being to 5 hours sleep becuase I got seated in the emergency exit row where there is like 2 metres of leg room!!!!! We celebrated New Years over Fiji and then I realised that that VB was the last aussie beer i would have for 8 months, oh god!!!! And for those that can follow me, there was some nice scenery on the flight!!! (such as Fiji and other pacific islands).

Got through Immigration and Customs fine and then I headed down to San Diego with Jason to spend New Years.....for those that dont know San Diego is about an hours drive south of LA so jason is automatically a Champ for picking me up, and driving me back this morning, Jan 1 (thats US time).

We drove through the OC, though I didnt run into Seth Cohen which was a real shame, haha, but it was a real nice drive down!!! NYE was spent at a House Party of one of Jason's mates, it was cool, just chill and what not and the highlight of the night is either me being mistaken for a Pomm in a soccer jersey when i was wearing the Wallabies jersey or being asked by Miles (who is hilarious by the way, whether I hunt crocdiles normally in Australia...my reply, "no, but I eat them regularly".

Flight to Boston was cool...we flew over the Grand Canyon and Colorado Rockies (now u know you are in a different country when you have to fly for 35 minutes over snow covered mountain ranges - p.s. i took photos of these)...the approach and landing in Boston was beautiful, gorgeous skyline and was met by Dan, Ryan and Megan (three good friends)...drive home to Dan's was unreal, I saw real proper SNOW for the first time so we stopped and had a mini snow fight and it was cool to see frozen lakes and cars covered in snow....and no grassed front yards, only snow. From what I saw of Boston tonight on the drive to Dans place, Boston is very beautiful and I cannot wait to go into the city tomorrow and look around with all the 043 crew!!!!!!

photos will go up probably when I get to Duke, but until then email me, it would be great to hear from you all!!!

Chad