It has been so hectic lately, and sleep is turning into somewhat of an endangered species this time of year for most Yalies. With midterms looming over our heads continually for the next month, students are stressed out to the max. Some of us take the conventional route and study until we fall asleep, while others use the famed ostrich-head-in-the-sand method; if they pretend like midterms don't exist, stress levels are kept low.

When you have so much to do, there is never time to get everything done, so you just have to make the decision on what to not spend your time on. My class that I don't spend time on is Calculus, because the calculus class I am taking is beginner's calculus and I have extensively studied all of this material before. However, I do have a calc midterm Wednesday night and I'm shifting into panic mode. It's not that I don't know the material, it's just that this week isn't the best week for a midterm. Then again, is there ever a good time for midterms?

Tomorrow morning bright and early I have a Navy PFA (Physical Fitness Assessment) that, if I exceed on, could allow me to miss one day of physical training a week, thus giving me extra sleep. I'm well rested and ready to go, so hopefully it all goes well. If not, well, a little exercise never hurt anybody.

This friday is going to be a huge celebration at Popeyes if we all get through midterms. I'll probably even get an extra biscuit.

Right now I'm taking a study break from working out calculus problems. My plan is to be in bed by 10 p.m. tonight since I have to wake up at 0600 for the PFA.

Another cool thing that happened today: Yale announced the largest endowment gift in history of Yale... Charles Johnson '54 donated $250 Million dollars to Yale for the purpose of building two new residential colleges. He owns the San Francisco Giants, and he is a former military officer.

I just heard reports of  a total of FOUR students on guard detail in the Saybrook laundry room. I suppose Saybrook isn't fooling around anymore.

I spent my evening at the Native American Cultural Center with my roommate chilling and studying. He works there and I go study there to get out of the suite.

Well, just another day in paradise. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

-Luke

There is now a sandwich called "The Poopetrator" in the Butteries (a late night cafe of sorts) at Yale! Here's the picture of it on the menu. I found the ingredients to be rather intriguing...

(Click to enlarge)

This "Poopgate"(allusion to Watergate) scandal is getting pretty serious. I mean, it's definitely a source of humor for students around here, but also tension. When I do laundry, it's like a full-scale military operation. We're not just talking a drop-off and wait kind of thing...it's more like a sniper mission in the jungles of Vietnam...smoke all in the room(from the steam pipes creating heat, of course) and me waiting silently for the Poopetrator to wander into the laundry room allured by the scent of my dryer sheets titled "fresh mountain air". The Poopetrator won't soil any laundry on my watch. No Sir. 

Anyways, today I went to Frank Pepe's Pizzeria Napoletana, a world famous pizza joint right here in New Haven on Wooster Street. I went with my roommate and another very good friend of mine who needed some good food and good times. Here's a before and after (the pizza was a pepperoni and mushroom pizza), with some other random pics thrown in:

I also would like to point out how great of a day for football it was. Yale beat Cornell and is ranked #1 in the Ivy League...hopefully on our way to beating 'that other school' in Cambridge, Massachusetts. And last but not least, the Dawgs beat LSU! When I got back from dinner I turned the game on with 7 minutes in the 4th quarter, things got intense. To give a bit of background, my roommates aren't avid football fans like people down South are, and they most certainly are not used to people screaming at football games like a Pentacostal during revival. So when I started screaming random things like "hold  'em boys", or "Go Dawgs!" or random noises of jibberish that come out when LSU converts on 3rd and 24, they were in shock... 

It was a great game, and it was a great day. God Bless the USA, God Bless our troops, and God Bless the Georgia Dawgs.

"If everything can go wrong, then everything can go right."

I had a sudden realization this morning - I realized the Navy gave me my middle name. Now let me explain my thought process: I have my father's middle name, Dennis. I wondered a few years ago why somebody would choose the name "Dennis" for their son, so I asked my grandmother why she named him Dennis. Her response was that she was new to America as a Danish immigrant and she didn't know many English names (and my grandfather didn't want his son to have a Danish name) so she asked the Navy Nurse at Balboa Naval Hospital in San Diego where my father was born for name suggestions. For some reason, the Navy nurse suggested the name "Dennis" as a middle name. When I was born, I got my dad's middle name for some reason. So in short, the Navy gave me my middle name. How ironic. (Now you see what I think about when I have free time)

I found out that the "Poopetrator" struck again yesterday! First off, this whole situation is just gross, but I never would have expected that Yalies could come up with so many references to feces as a result of the "serial pooper." Folks, there are literally students that are standing watch 24/7 on "Poop Patrol" to ensure the safety of laundry. Unfortunately, someone in Saybrook failed to stand watch and Poopetrator struck swiftly. Here's an email I interepted that was sent out today from the Master (the head faculty member) of Saybrook:

(oh, and you can click the pictures to enlarge them)

Today in Naval Science we were paid a visit by a Marine Lt. Col. infantryman that is here for a year as a fellow with the international security relations department. It was really cool to hear about his experiences and his perspectives on certain issues. After Naval Science I went back to my room, threw myself down on the futon and slept until it was time to go to Popeyes with the guys. After Popeyes I came back to my room, threw myself down on the futon, and slept until it was time for dinner. Pretty uneventful day, but it was nice. It's nice to  have the time to walk around campus and enjoy the campus. Now it's time to study for my calculus midterm (this coming Wednesday). Have a great weekend, and Go Dawgs (UGA, of course)!

Oh, and here's a picture of the Pierson clocktower (the clock is visible from the other side) that my Dean now probably suspects I will attempt to ascend:

-Luke

I simply cannot put into words how epic the last hour and a half of my life just was. To give a background on the situation, I have a five page paper due tonight at midnight. As of 9:00 p.m. I had not started nor could I even remember what the topic was on. I had some serious mojo going tonight, though, and everything fell into place. I wrote the entire five page paper in an hour and a half  at the top of Sterling Memorial Library whilst once again jamming to my epic 1980's rock playlist. It was by far the most EPIC academic experience of my life. Never before have I written so much (that actually makes sense) in such little time and cited my work and turned it in. If ever writing a paper can be exhilarating, it's in this instance. Now re-read the entire paragraph with intense music from any of the Rocky movies or TOPGUN and you just might get a glimpse of how I feel right now. This is the lonely desk area that awarded me such great writing fortune:

The best part is, it's not even 11:00 p.m. and I'm done with my work. I wasn't expecting to get in bed until at least 1 a.m. I'm so incredibly happy that I can get some sleep before Navy Physical Training tomorrow morning.

So now to the not-so-exciting rest of my day, for all the endurance readers that care to read on:

I woke up at 7:30 and met my bible study leader for breakfast  in Branford College, and then proceeded to my 9 a.m. furniture seminar. Then I got my one hour nap in between furniture and calculus. For calculus, I actually was able to pay attention...I didn't zone out once, which is practically a first in my life.

Then I ate lunch with a couple of buddies in Pierson, studied in the reading room in Sterling Memorial Library (shown below) and then picked up my paycheck, which was nice.

At 2:45, I had a meeting with my residential college dean and we discussed my four year plan. Nothing special, except he now probably suspects that I am going to illegally trespass my way up to the top of Pierson College clocktower. I have a thing with climbing to the top of buildings to get a good view, so I asked him "how often do people ascend the Pierson tower?" He responded that it is illegal to ascend the tower and will be considered trespassing. So that pretty much put the spotlight on me. But no worries, he's chill anyways. I find it very humorous.

Today must have been handout day...on my way to class I was handed a new testament by some nice old man, and then an animal rights brochure from some lady.

AND I SAW A BARBARA BUSH AND GEORGE H.W. BUSH LOOK-ALIKE!!!! I awkwardly snapped a picture of them just for you blog readers:

Oh, and yesterday was "free hug" day. It was inescapable. They had me and my roommate surrounded. We walked upon a street corner that we normally pass to go to dinner and there was a group of girls with signs saying "free hugs!" I tried to be that awkward guy that acts like they aren't there even though both parties know the other other is there...but it didn't work. A few seconds later I realized that there was a group of girls violently forcing (maybe not violently...) free hugs upon students at EVERY corner of the intersection. It was inescapable. I got a free hug yesterday.

Tomorrow is Popeye's day!!!! Every friday me and some buddies head over to Popeye's chicken for some fried chicken, sweet tea, and good times. It's our reward for making it through the week, and it is SOOO worth it. Anyways, thanks for reading.

What a productive day! I got my calculus problem set done, suffered through 2 hours of physical training with the venerable USMC Staff Sergeant assigned to our unit, went to all my classes, jammed out to some amazing music(always a bright moment in the day), had a great dinner, and got a 2 hour nap. So let me piece all of this together:

This morning is my day  to sleep in - I slept in until 8 am this morning, which is a nice change from the 0630 physical training on the other days. I woke up at 8, went to the main Yale dining hall (Commons) and loaded up on probably two or three pounds of scrambled eggs and egg whites. Gotta love the protein.

I had a scavenger hunt in my writing seminar, and I successfully navigated the daunting Sterling Memorial Library, which is a 15 story tower housing well over 4 million volumes. It sounds like a small feat, but I've learned to celebrate the small victories. High-fives with my classmates were abundant and plentiful.

But let's be honest with each other, the best part of my day by far was the physical training with our USMC Staff Sergeant. We did two rounds of the circle of death, and then we did what he called "Parris Island Suicides". So he set up 6 cones along stretch of grass the length of a football field; we had to sprint to the first cone, do that exercise (which happened to be Burpees, or I call them up-downs) 25 times, sprint back to the start, but OH NO, it would be too easy to go to the next cone, so we had to redo each earlier cone every time before getting to the next cone. By the time we got to the sixth, we were sprinting a football field, doing 25 diamond pushups, burpees, diamond pushups, squats, 100 seconds of flutter kicks, and lunge jumps. It wasn't the exercises that were so challenging, it was the pace. Oh, and I forgot to mention that the field was covered in broken glass from fans smashing their longneck beer bottles after games on the field. Pushups on broken glass gives you a new outlook on life, I promise. And now it gets even better.

SSgt. told us before the start that the person finishing last would get a nice prize at the end...well by the last person he meant the last seven midshipmen. I finished 3rd out of 24 Midshipman, but of course you don't just sit there and watch your shipmates get punished, you endure it with them ( which I was honestly 100% good with...I'm not the person to sit and watch anyways.). I ended up sticking with one of our Marine option Midshipmen who was having a particularly rough time. We finally got him through the entire gauntlet and then we were done. I did realize just how far down you can dig to help your comrades through a bad situation. Granted, this is just physical training, but I can definitely see how this transfers to the fleet. I mean, the Navy just had 2 MH-60S helicopter pilots die a few days ago in the Red Sea. Pilots need to be able to potentially endure many hours or even days of staying afloat in high seas. To be honest with you, it was great team building exercise. No regrets.

To show you what the afternoon looked like, I snapped a picture on my phone while walking away from the Yale Bowl:

For dinner, Ms. Peggy gave me her typical sweet greeting and I proceeded to eat a rather large amount of cod and peas/carrots.  Then I headed back to my suite and woke up about 2 hours later...it was the good kind of nap where you think it's morning when you wake up. 

As a side note to end this, I'd like to share a quote given to me by my Vietnam veteran U.S. Marine neighbor back home: "If everything can go wrong, then everything can go right." 

Goodnight, Y'all.

Today was truly a nice day. I woke up at 0600 this morning for some good ole Navy physical training. It's always nice when the Air Force ROTC unit is in the gym also while we are, because we get to do cadence runs. This morning consisted of plenty of intense exercise and then our Lieutenant leading us in a cadence run that was a fun kind of taunting of the Air Force. 'Twas a great start to a great day.

After PT I went to my american furniture history seminar,and that was loads of fun until my body realized I didn't have any caffeine and it was a pretty epic battle trying to stay awake during class. After my furniture seminar I went back to my room and accidentally slept through my calculus class. Woops. At least the nap was worth it, and today was a lecture on limits. I think I learned a valuable lesson: when my body is pushed to the limit of exhaustion, I should take a nap and never look back.

I also got some work hours in today putting up fliers around campus. Some may consider it annoying work, but if I'm getting paid $14 an hour to tack fliers up I'M not complaining. I found an interesting gargoyle/sculpture on the Sterling Law School building, so I snapped a picture to show you all:

I couldn't really decide if it's a military officer or traffic cop, but whatever it is, it's quite interesting. And yes, I looked just like the thousands of high school seniors that flock to Yale each fall and snap pictures of every possible object on campus. No shame there, the pic was worth the judgement by my fellow Yalies.

My buddy needed to go buy a hat from the Yale bookstore, so I decided to  tag along after dinner. At the bookstore, I found my future "ignorant old man" hat.  I decided to not smile in honor of all the stiff old men that probably wear hats like this one:

And now I leave you with the stereotypical picture of Harkness Tower just before dusk in Branford College:

Well, today was fun. This morning we had an Army Colonel lecture us in Naval Science about the operation of the US Army. I definitely came out having learned valuable information...the Col. just finished a command of an entire Brigade in Afghanistan and was the Officer in Charge of 3 provinces too. He's a ranger, so he had a lot of very interesting perspectives to offer. Definitely a cool morning. Then in my writing seminar my assignment got used as the example of how to properly form an argument (which surprised me considering I completely threw it together right before the deadline). That was nice, I suppose. I then went over to the furniture study on York street to observe my piece of furniture of the week...a boston side chair with caning. I know my day sounds pretty droll, but I think that's what made it so nice. For the first time all year I was able to come in after work and take a two hour nap, go eat dinner, then go to bed. Oh haha, funny story: I walked into Gourmet Heaven today to grab some lunch and two foreigners came up and were like "Army? No no no...you Marines!" I laughed and said "Nope, no way on earth the guy you're looking at will ever be a Marine. I'm Navy." One of the guys then said "Navy...Navy is white!" I said "Yes sir, in the summer...but we wear khakis in the fall an spring." He just laughed and walked off. I'm glad the navy whites have such a high standard that all our other uniforms get laughed at... haha. (all in good humor, of course.)

For dinner Ms. Peggy wasn't in Pierson, much to my dismay. Ms. Peggy is in charge of the Pierson dining hall check-in register, and she always makes my day whenever I see her. She definitely takes care of my food needs...on numerous occasions she has let me in after closing so I can snag some food. Gotta love Ms. Peggy.

So my high/low of today: My high is realizing that I only have 23 days left until my best friend and partner flies up here from UGA to escort me to the Navy Birthday Ball. That'll definitely be the highlight of my semester. My low was the sudden realization that I have to get up at 6 a.m. for Navy Physical Training in the morning. With that said, I'm heading off to bed. Night y'all.

Tomorrow a few other NROTC Midshipmen and I are having dinner with the veteran-students at Yale Law School, including an active duty Marine officer.  It should prove to be a thought-provoking discussion.

Why, isn't it just another beautiful evening at Pierson College at Yale? I certainly think so.

I woke up to this amazing weather this morning...the weather today was more pleasant than watching a Disney movie 20 times straight was as a 4 year old.

 Sadly, we sped back down to New Haven and didn't get the chance to see the Big Apple today.

BUT THERE'S AN AREA CALLED "YALESVILLE"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Today was road trip day! My roommate and I took to the winding roads of New England on a mission to acquire various home goods and to have a good time. I'd say we succeeded.

 Thug faces for the road...you have to play the part when driving around New Haven.

 And off to Hartford!!!!

 But wait - it's already autumn up here!!! This made the drive so much more aesthetically pleasing, I admit.

And after a long journey miles up the road to find a Starbucks ( it was my normal naptime, and I needed my mid-afternoon pick-me-up), we finally succeeded. Evidently google maps doesn't work very well up here... we searched for two different starbucks and found neither one using the map. Only when I strayed off the route is when we found the Starbucks. It truly was the greatest victory of my day. Right as we spotted the Starbucks, "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey came on the radio and it was simply an EPIC victory moment for all parties involved.

Today I walked up on a protest of Gourmet Heaven, one of the most beloved of all New Haven restaurants. Evidently the owner isn't paying the workers their wages. Too many loud and obnoxious people...

 This is the beautiful view from my desk!

 This is my common room, and since we dont have curtains, wedecided to use our flags as curtains...we now have a Canadian flag on the left window.

 This is the really pretty view of Old Campus right where my suite is.

 This is just the random arch outside my door that connects Old Campus to the rest of the world...and the crazy drivers and hobos of New Haven.

 I know it's hard to see much, but this is the furniture gallery where my furniture and American Life seminar is held every tuesday and thursday.

 This was my first day in uniform EVER. The Pic was taken at the back entrance of my residential college...Pierson College.

 And this was on September 11th, 2013...the first time I wore my summer whites. I have to say...it was really special to wear the whites for the first time on 9/11.

 This is James Madison's personal journal from the Constitutional Convention of 1787, and I was allowed to hold it and touch it and read it like any other book.

 This is a real Thomas Jefferson signature and it is in the receipt book that Jefferson kept for the Continental Congress in 1778. It is simply a national treasure, just like all the other things I got to touch and see at the Beinecke Rare Book Library. It's one of the very nice perks of Yale.

And this bad boy, my friends, is THE pen Abraham Lincoln used to sign the Emancipation Proclamation. I got to touch this pen too. It was simply amazing.

One month in.

So quite a bit has changed in the last month. It was only about a month ago since I made my trek from the modest town of Holly Springs, Georgia all the way up to New Haven, Connecticut. For those of you that don't know, New Haven is a considerably large city. It is home to numerous very large companies and has a thriving economy...even if the city is going the way of the dodo bird (and by dodo bird I mean Detroit).
       My life has literally turned upside down. I flew up to New York City, which by the way isn't anything like Atlanta. I  don't know if it's just me being a naive southerner, but when I go to NYC  I can feel the power of  the city. You can sense it. Unfortunately Harlem isn't the kindest neighborhood in New York, and I definitely had to put on my thug face while walking through Harlem.
       I kind of got screwed by the public transport system on my way up here and the bus broke down in the middle of Harlem, so I was forced to get off. This made my goal to catch the train on time darn near impossible. So I put on my big boy shoes and decided that nothing was keeping me from missing this train. I proceeded to straight out sprint three blocks in Harlem with two suitcases in hand so that I wouldn't miss my train. I got to the station with one minute before the train left, so I made an all-or-nothing mad dash to the platform and subsequently almost decked three very sassy women in the process. Right as the doors were closing I stuck my hand in the door then slid in the train. PHEW!
       So I arrived to my new home in New Haven and then left for my orientation trip to the Berkshire mountains in Massachusetts. I had the time of my life, although the first night I swear I wanted to cry...I might have even shed a tear or two because I wasn't able to say goodnight to my best friend/partner for the first time in over a year. But I got through it, and ended up having an amazing time. The people on my trip truly are the most amazing people...and yes, it's true...famous people and rich people do go to Yale. As a middle-class southern white public schooler I am definitely in the minority. And the fact that I'm a born again Christian sets me apart even more.
       But I have a great routine up here now, even if the NROTC program is kind of killing me slowly. It's such an amazing thing to know that three years from now I'll be leading sailors into battle or thundering into a war zone at mach 1.5 to ruin the terrorist's week. And I'm guaranteed a job after graduation, which is rare even at Yale.
       So this campus truly is the most beautiful campus in America, and UGA is a close second. My roommate and I have vowed to never get used to this campus. Never to forget how blessed we are to be here.
      One thing I have realized is sleep is definitely the most scarce resource up here. I do good to get 4 or 5 hours a night. I usually have consumed a 5 hour energy and multiple cups of coffee before 10 am. It really is NROTC that's pushing me to this, but it's all good...I just keep thinking of how worth it this will be once I commission and have the best job in the entire world.
     While Yale is amazing, there are some things it lacks: there are no biscuits, no sausage gravy, no Chik-Fila, no sweet tea (I have to go to Popeyes for that), and no "good ole boys". I really do miss Dixie, but I suppose it's alright up here.
     There has been a scandal going on lately called "poop gate," which is a reference to watergate. Basically, there has been somebody going around and pooping in people's clean clothes while they are in the dryers. It's disgusting. When it struck Silliman College (a residential college up here who refers to everything with the prefix "silli"...Silligym, Sillibrary, etc) they began to call the poopetrator the "Sillishitter", which is another amusing name. I just find it appalling and kind of amusing that something like this happens at Yale. Anyways, sorry for the super long post...I'll make the future ones much shorter and will include pictures! Thanks!
-Luke