Today was one of those days, haha. I burned my tongue at dinner drinking coffee, which isnt ever a load of fun. To make things better, my knee is all jacked up and I pulled a muscle so I'm hobbling around. And on top of that, I realized after dinner that I had been walking around all afternoon with my sweatpants on backwards. The good thing is that I was able to laugh about all of this. So good day.

Here's what I saw this afternoon on my way to math session:

It's someone in a Panda suit!

We werent able to go sailing today due to the rough seas and high winds. The winds were in excess of 25 knots and they didn't want us out there, so we sat on the pier for a while and chilled. 

And then I got a care package from the sweet ladies at the church back home!!! Whoop whoop!

So it was a good day. Another day living the dream. 

Here's your motivational picture of the day:

Because that should be enough to motivate any red-blooded American.

It was a great day, as always. I got 11 hours of sleep last night, which is arguably the best thing that has happened to me all year. I FELT GREAT TODAY!!!!!!  I was able to focus in class and get stuff done, which is all I'm up here to do anyways.

Another piece of good news today on the Navy side of things:
We got briefed that those Midshipmen that place into the top 10% of the warfare community (aviation, submarines, SEALs, etc) that they want are SAFE... meaning the Navy will give them their desired job. In addition, those Midshipmen that wanted aviation and scored an 8 or 9 on the ASTB (Aviation Selection Test Battery) all got aviation. So as long as I score well on the ASTB and don't screw things up I'm set for aviation, it seems.  WOOHOO!

Also, evidently Yale has a flight simulator that we can use to practice with. Once again, WOOHOO!

I have a 5 page paper, a 13 page paper, a 7 page paper and a calc midterm due next week. The good thing is that I can write papers extremely quickly. And calculus isn't my worry at the moment.

Every time I look at the picture above, I get motivated. I sure hope I'm not the only one that gets motivated by that picture.

God Bless America.

Man, it was a pretty brisk day today. So the cold is starting to arrive, and today I broke out my camo hunting coat. I definitely got lots of stares as I walked around campus to and from classes...I suppose very few Yalies are used to seeing people wearing camouflage and boots. I just grinned and kept walking. Haha.

It's funny to think that 48 hours ago I was back in Georgia with the family and the girlfriend, and now I'm already back in the groove of things. I went to office hours for my econ professor today and that helped tremendously. I've got my second Calculus midterm next week, but I'm not worried about it. I've been studying as I go.

Overall, a great day. No complaints. Tomorrow I have class and then work until 7:30, and then sailing on Thursday. I'll be super busy!

Well, after a much-needed vacation back down South to visit my girlfriend and family, I'm back up in New Haven. I spent a lot of time over in Athens with my girlfriend and I rested up so much.

From Sunday when I flew home all the way to Friday I had a splitting headache and was so exhausted. I kept on wondering what I could have done to feel this way...and on Wednesday I figured it out...it was withdrawal symptoms. The entire week beforehand, I had about 3 energy drinks and 5-12 cups of coffee a day. I understand how absolutely terrible that is for my body, and I'm in no way a proponent of energy drinks, but it was necessary. Today I had my usual coffee, and I'm kind of shaky...it's crazy how extreme amounts of caffeine can affect you.

ANYWAYS, classes are going well, and it's another good day in Connecticut. I got back to Yale around 1:45 a.m. this morning and crashed on my futon. I woke up at 7 and showered, got in uniform and headed off to class. In class, our Lieutenant handed back midterms, and said "Midshipmen, you were right on a question and my answer key was wrong. For being wrong, I owe you 17 motivational pushups." So while in his service dress uniform, he got down and did pushups as we all counted them out. Haha, it's just such a great class. Plus I did very well on the midterm. Things are looking up, things are looking up.

I have 27 days until I fly back down South for Thanksgiving. On a side note, I love flying into New York at night because the skyline of Manhattan.

Midterms are over for now. Last night was the Navy/Marine Corps Birthday Ball, and it was a blast. We met with lots of military veterans and active duty servicemen. We had everything from a flag officer to a Navy seal in attendance. It was so much fun! We had our ball at the Union League Cafe, which is the former homesite of Roger Sherman, the only American to have his name on the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and Constitution. I also met with quite a few Yale NROTC grads from 1968 and  earlier that are now CEOs and chairmen of corporate boards....and they're very eager to help out Yale Midshipmen. I suppose it's always great to make connections, and they're all just great guys that are so proud of their service in the Navy. All things aside, it was a great night with my beautiful girlfriend and shipmates. And we sat next to SSgt. and his wife, which was certainly a pleasure!

Today I took my girlfriend on a tour of Yale, and we ended up all the way past Science Hill and at the Divinity School. It was one the best days for a walk...the leaves are at their peak right now and the weather was perfect. 

My beautiful home of Pierson College

Scenic view of East Rock park from Science Hill

simply a pretty tree.

pretty girl with a pretty tree.

The Yale Divinity School entrance

A second picture to emphasize how pretty this place is. Well worth the walk.

UPDATE: It just hit me. I crashed and burned. Staying up too late and getting up early and going non-stop can really get you sometimes. But I suppose getting screwed on a test and knowing you're going to get screwed is preferable to thinking you did well and ending up screwed. Ah well, the midterm is now a sunk cost.

How I feel right now:

How I would act if offered a trip home at the moment:

Most important of all, how I wish I felt at the moment regarding the econ midterm:

Wohoo, one more day has come and gone. Today was a great day, I must say. The past six days have consisted of eating, going to class, studying microeconomic analysis, and consuming caffeine. Today was no different, except we had a meeting with SSgt. today to make sure our sword detail was ready and proficient for the Navy/Marine Corps Birthday Ball on Friday. I think we're very crisp and ready. It's kind of interesting for me because I'm the only freshman on sword detail, so I had to pick it up quickly. Like everything else in life, you just pay attention really well once, practice a bit,and you've got it. Nothing too complicated about military drill. However, SSgt is planning thing excellently...he might should consider  a job in wedding planning once he leaves the Corps.  He knows how to organize a ball, that's for sure.

You know, my roommate and I have gotten pretty cutthroat regarding this econ midterm. We have studied SO much, but we don't tell anyone. Whenever any classmates see us and ask if we've been studying, we respond with something like "Me? pshhh, not really...I'm just going to wing it." EVERY SINGLE PERSON has responded by saying that haven't studied either. You see, if we told people how much we have studied, they would freak out and study a bunch too so we don't set the curve. But my roommate and I want too set the curve, and this is a competition. Life here is academically cutthroat. ---just to give you a look at how seriously I take my academics. Also, my professor for my Macroeconomics course next semester WAS AWARDED THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE THIS WEEK! I'm taking a class taught by a Nobel Prize winner next semester in econ!!!!

Tonight for dinner, Pierson had breakfast foods. I walked in and saw the sign "biscuits and gravy", and got very very excited. Only to be disappointed. Look at what they consider to be biscuits and gravy:

(Click to enlarge this atrocity)

THEY USED BROWN GRAVY. Need I say more? Maybe I've just been spoiled with homemade biscuits and gravy growing up, but I would expect a gas station in a border state like Virginia to hold itself to a higher standard than this. Come on, Yale. You're better than this.

Tomorrow at this time my econ midterm will be over, I will be studying for my Naval Science midterm, and I will have my girlfriend with me for the first  time in over 2 months. Sounds like a plan. Now it's time for me to play Alabama's greatest hits album and shine my shoes while reading econ.

Tonight is an all-nighter kind of night. I just downed my energy drinks and now it's time to memorize everything for my microeconomic analysis seminar. My tactic? Study the material as if it's the most interesting topic in the world, and maybe...just MAYBE, it will make sense. 44.5 hours until the exam. Time to cram. I don't have to do good on the exam - I just have to do better than all the other kids. The curve is set at the highest class grade, not at the perfect score on the exam.

So by now I'm convinced being at Yale is bad for one's health. My roommates and I have now stooped so low that we now are pouring LOTS of coffee grounds in cold water (we have nothing to heat up the water with) and consuming. It's kind of like swallowing caffeinated moist sand, but it gets the job done. I mean, it's not bad, but we're all pushing 8-12 cups of coffee a day as it is. Staying up until 4 am and getting up at 7:45 for breakfast and then a 9 a.m. class makes you pretty desperate for anything that keeps you conscious.
 This week is arguably the most hectic week this semester. On top of a navy physical fitness assessment and multiple midterms, I've got somewhere close to a billion essays to write and lots of work to get ahead for next week since I cant make class next Monday or Tuesday due to extenuating circumstances. We've also got around 9 hours of sword practice for NROTC. To be honest, everything will have settled down in no time. No worries.
The good things about today?I haven't thrown up yet from consuming pure coffee grounds. The dining hall had raspberries today. I went and bought a gallon of chocolate milk to get through the week. I'm still awake. These things combined definitely put my day in the positive zone.

Ahh, days like today are the days that I live for. Such a great day.

So it's inauguration weekend. That means Yale is going ALL OUT to wow all the rich stuffy alumni that have made the pilgrimmage back to New Haven for President Salovey's inauguration. It also means some pretty strange things are happening on campus too.

First off, check out how Yale decked out Commons, our main dining hall on the outside and inside:

At least we know Yale can get fancied up when it needs to...

So today was road trip/shopping day, and it was successful. Me and my roommate went to Walmart and then the mall. We got all sorts of cleaning supplies and air fresheners and goodies so we can be good hosts for our company this week. It was pretty epic, as usual. 

Once we got back we cleaned up the common room and polished our hardwood floors and just cleaned up. Our room looks pretty nice now.

After we cleaned up the room then we got dressed up for the formal dinner in Pierson tonight and headed over for some grub. As it turns out, Pierson served up unlimited prime rib and all sorts of other goodies. TO be honest, this whole weekend has felt like the holidays, with everyone dressing up nice and all kinds of great food and music and happy people everywhere and colder weather. I hate to be that teenager that takes a picture of the meal, but I'm guilty...here's dinner:

Pierson even broke out the custom designed Pierson china plates. 

On the way back from dinner, me and my roommate came across these guys dressed as women...how strange...

It was just an amazing day...really hard to explain. Anyways, 4 days and 16 hours until my girlfriend arrives.

Day 11 of government shutdown: Midshipmen no longer get their Navy paychecks. To be honest, it's really not that detrimental to my monthly budget since I have another job on campus. What gets me upset is that we have dedicated and hardworking Americans being furloughed...with children to feed and bills to pay. That's all I have to say about that.

So sailing yesterday...that was probably the best sailing day I've had yet. I teamed up with a Mid that grew up sailing in Annapolis, MD and I was crew while he drove. It was so insane. we had 22+ knot winds and we were hiked out so far over the edge of the boat. We actually won the races yesterday too. It was so much fun to be cutting through the water that fast hiked out and hanging right over the water with only your feet in the boat. The downside? It was cold yesterday. Really cold on the water. I dressed for the cold and was fine except for my bare feet, but the other Midshipmen weren't as prepared. They laughed at how I dressed beforehand, but by the end they were wishing they were bundled up like me. Our Executive Officer, a Commander, saw my outfit, shook his head and walked off...I'd say my outfit was a success. Check out my pictures from sailing yesterday:

(Facebook profile pic worthy? My smile creeps me out a bit though.)

This is what hiking is when sailing (personally I think I looked much more fashionable):

Fall is finally getting to be in full swing now, and my residential college, Pierson, is no exception. Thursday morning I decided it was worth it to grab a picture of the big tree in our courtyard. I just love New England fall colors. 

Navy PT this morning was great. It was  good workout...definitely challenging, but not quite a killer workout. Why was it so great? Maybe because my Lieutenant blasted his "1980's Dance Party" playlist while we worked out. I really think that might be one of the best ways to wake up on a Friday morning.

Ahhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!! I only have 6 days until my girlfriend flies up for the Navy/Marine Corps Ball! While she's up here, I've got some items reserved at Yale's rare book and manuscript library, the Beinecke Library. We both love history, and I am pulling some amazing items:

-3 boxes of the U.S. President's collection... all types of handwritten letters and artifacts from George Washington all the way to Kennedy. 

-the pen Lincoln used to sign the Emancipation Proclamation

-2 boxes of the Lewis and Clark collection...handwritten maps and letters created by Clark while on the expedition.... aka the first maps of the continent from the Mississippi all the way west. The first western accounts of Yellowstone and the Rockies.. the letters and maps that President Jefferson had in his possession and read after the expedition.etc. SO cool. This was more important and significant than the Space exploration age of the 1960's!

-an epistle from the Apostle Paul dating back to to 3rd century. Basically a new testament from only 150 years after Jesus died. Isn't that amazing?!!!?!!!

-the Walt Whitman collection. He's just a cool 19th century american poet that my girlfriend and I really like. The collection consists of his handwritten first drafts of his famous poems.

-A 1623 first edition of Shakespeare's first folio. How often do people get to hold and read a FIRST EDITION SHAKESPEARE BOOK?

Sorry...I just kind of LOVE history. Knowing history kind of gives you advice on how to not screw things up as bad as people have before... and how to be as successful as people have been before.

And I just got back from our weekly Popeye's trip. It was a fitting end to the week. This morning I got into an argument with a South Carolina buddy about which state has the best barbecue, which was a refreshing debate compared to all the stuffy up-tight debates that go on around here. It's kind of a culture of controlled arguments (debates) around here. I just stay out of politics while up here. The thing is, when I'm walking around in uniform, Yale students take what I say as the Navy's opinion instead of my own, so I don't say too much about politics or foreign relations up here. 

I slept in until 10 am today.I felt like a champ. I made it through econ and writing seminar without feeling sleepy, then suited up in my Navy uniform and headed off to the Yale Bowl for sword detail practice. We learned what we needed to know for the sword detail at the Navy/Marine Corps Birthday Ball, and then we did what any group of young guys would do when given officer swords...we had epic swordfights when Staff Sergeant wasn't looking. He only caught us once, but I think he expected as much from us because he only screamed a little bit. The best part: at the end of drill he told me and the other 3 guys doing sword detail that we were to take the Naval officer sword back to our dorms to practice this week...which means I get to keep it for a week and officially feel like a six year old again...playing with swords and (I admit) we might have even made sound effects. Also, Staff Sergeant brought some M-16 rifles today for the marine-options to use (for the record we didn't have any live ammo...for all of you mothers out there that panic at the thought of automatic weapons in my hand) and as soon as me and a couple other Navy guys picked them up to check them out he turns around and screams some choice-words at us. I guess he heard me say "Crap dude, these things are automatic?!"
My roommate snagged this picture of me and the sword:

I actually dont think I feel so great about the way I look in Navy PT shorts. :)

Evidently with the government shutdown nothing is working properly. I still do not have my service dress blue uniform. Our ball is next friday night. Since our supply guy is still not back from being furloughed I am wearing a regular sized jacket and shirt. I need a long...the regulars have very short sleeves. But I'll make it work... even if I do look like I shrunk all my clothes.
This weekend is going to be insane!!!!!!!! Saturday is the inauguration of President Peter Salovey of Yale University, and this is the first inauguration in over 20 years. Along with that, on Monday we found out one of our bio professors just got awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. All of Yale is brimming with a celebretory mood at the moment. Yale is hosting the Inaugural Ball this saturday night, and then on Sunday Yale is hosting a huge block party on one of the main avenues...Yale has gotten lots of food and entertainment and it'll be a blast. A classy blast, but a blast nonetheless.
Here's a picture of one of the big tents they've put up outside my building:

Saturday my roommate and I are taking a trip to Costco to buy some stuff so I can get the suite ready to host company next week. My girlfriend flies up a day from tomorrow, so I have to polish the hardwood floors, clean the fireplace and mantle, and get some air fresheners. You know...just typical housecleaning. The very tragic part of all of the festivities this weekend is that I have two very important midterms and a Navy physical fitness assessment next week. So I need to study and rest... A LOT... this weekend.
My mindset? It's all about finding a happy medium...a balance of enjoyment and homework.

Lessons I learned today:
-Swords are fun. End of story. Even funner when you all talk like a pirate while using them.
-Don't mess with the Marine Corp's M-16s.
-No, I do not need the second helping of the "Tres Leches Cake" in the dining hall. One serving will suffice.
-Staff Sergeant has no mercy for pedestrians when he is driving.

Just lovin' life and living the dream.

Man, this is such a busy week. Midterms season is finally catching up with me...getting no sleep, doing navy PT regularly in addition to my own workouts, and doing an insane amount of schoolwork all result in a very hectic and draining life.

Yesterday I met with my personal  librarian and she definitely helped me find the sources I need for my 12 page paper on children that serve in the military.Today I went to furniture class from 9-10:15 and then came back and crashed in my bed. I've been going so hard  that I now always feel really dizzy and lightheaded from the exhaustion and workload combined, but hey - I just get naps when I can and keep moving forward.
I woke up from my nap and realized I slept through calculus....again. But I did wake up in time to head over to my residential college, Pierson, and see Ms. Peggy while I got lunch. I've been doing work ever since lunch, and I'm making some serious progress. My evening has consisted of a heavy amount of research for my paper on child soldiers...and a few fist pumps of victory when I succeed in my work. Once again...celebrate the small victories.

8 days until my girlfriend flies up for the Navy Birthday Ball! Tomorrow I've gotta head over to the Yale Bowl to practice sword detail with our Staff Sergeant... that should be fun!
Back to work now.

I slept until 1 pm today, and still only got 8 hours of sleep. The sad thing is, I stayed up that late last night and got nothing except one load of laundry done. So my day was fairly short.

I woke up and went to lunch, then I came back and finished a calculus problem set and revised an essay. Then I headed off to dinner with the Yale University Chaplain along with the rest of the Midshipmen in my unit. Dinner was great, and the Chaplain is an amazing lady.

I also submitted an appeal today to get my furniture class to count as my second writing credit for NROTC...thus making it possible for me to never take another english class again. Nothing against english classes, I just don't have room to take another writing class. I also found out that I can spend 6 weeks at the London School of Economics to get a certificate in econometrics and advanced economics this summer, which would also mean I will be halfway done with my Econ major before I start sophomore year. That would make finishing the Math major portion  of my schooling much easier to accomplish. Plus, having a certificate from London School of Economics would be nice. Yale would pretty much pay for everything, so why not?

It would be quite the summer... four weeks with the Pacific fleet and then six weeks in Europe studying econometrics. I'll sleep when I die (only slightly kidding). But seriously, it would be great to head back to Europe for a summer and this program actually works with my summer training for the Navy.

Oh, by the way: Yale is undefeated this football season...but so is Harvard! If we both end up having great seasons then The Game is going to be spectacular this year! Ahhh, football.

Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton made me late to work today. So Hillary and Bill are in town for a Yale Law School reunion and award ceremony, and their motorcade was parked right in the path that I take to go to work. I (being very stubborn and more than slightly annoyed that Hillary had the nerve to park her car on a student walkway) decided that I was going to go through all of it and take my normal route. After all, it's the route every Yalie takes to go to class... it shouldn't be blocked off.
EVIDENTLY my logic isn't good enough for the her security detail and the secret service because a few seconds into my crossing through her motorcade I was stopped by a secret service agent and quickly escorted off the premise. No issues and no permanent repercussions, but Hillary and Bill made me late for work. Here's a picture of part of the motorcade for President Clinton and Hillary:

It has been a great weekend. I've worked 16 hours  in the last day and a half running a conference for the Scandinavian Studies dept, and I also had some fun. Today I worked until 2, and then me and my buds headed off to Popeye's for our weekly lunch. We chilled and had a good time, then later we headed off to dinner where my roommate and I met up with a couple guys that live above us...including my friend from Milan, Italy. I cant really say what all we laughed about, but I haven't laughed so much in a very long time. It was one of those nights where you just laugh  until it hurts.

After dinner I went to the Navy office to help gather inventory on our supplies room, which got me a free cup of coffee (I'm always up for a strong cup of black coffee).  When I finished at the Navy office I started on my walk to the Native American Cultural Center, which is really just a nice new house that Native students chill at. As I've said before, my roommate is Native American and he works there, so I go chill there sometimes. My walk over there was rather eventful, though...
You see, tonight is a Saturday night on a college campus, which means inebriation is a fact of life. As I was walking down the street, I hear a group of drunk girls and two guys scream at me "Eric Fleming! Come here!"...and as you know, my name is most certainly NOT Eric Fleming nor did I desire to be mistaken for this poor soul.
They began asking for rather inappropriate favors from me and insisted my name was Eric Fleming. I kindly responded, "My name is most certainly not Eric Fleming." They were at  the stage of drunkenness where they are all stumbling around (and quite frankly they're rather harmless) and they have no chance of remembering any of this tomorrow. As they kept on asking favors of me I kept walking and kindly denied their requests. Haha, it was truly sad and amusing all at the same time. As I finally got to the Native American center, I bid my newfound friends farewell and proceeded to tell my story of how I became Eric Fleming for about 10 minutes. God help Eric Fleming...

I grabbed some sprite and sat down and chatted with the Dean of the Native American Cultural center(he was an intel guy in the Navy, so we bonded over that) and his family along with the native american students for about 1.5 hours and then came back to my room to do homework.

Yesterday I got a package from my girlfriend, which made me very happy :

Classes were great today... I did very well on both my Calculus midterm and my furniture research paper. The highlight of today was definitely sailing though. we had a great time out on the ocean racing together. On the first race me and the other midshipman I was sailing with took 3rd place. And then things turned into chaos...as usual.

Our Executive Officer has a huge sense of humor and loves to ride around in his motorboat with some random midshipman that he makes jump out onto a sailboat to capsize the sailboat. So sailing races turned into an all-out naval battle. I have to admit, it was a fun experience. We definitely had some close calls, but me and buddy refused to give up the ship. The first incident happened when another sailboat decided to swipe our port side and board my boat, but I ripped him away from the boat and set sail to evade him. The second time my Executive Officer decided to ride up in his motorboat and let another midshipman jump from the motorboat onto the mast of my boat. Me and my sailing buddy decided to do a hard tack and the main beam shifting threw him off my boat. The third time was when I looked out ahead of my boat and saw a midshipman in the ocean with no life vest,  so I sailed over to him.As I pulled him into the boat he decided to attempt to "turtle" my boat, which is capsizing it all the way upside down. We fought for  a little bit and then he decided he would rather have a ride back to the boathouse than have me and my friend throw him back in the ocean.

The Yale sailing team lets us use their boats and sails, and I just know they look over at us during sailing and think "and WHY are we letting a bunch of trigger-happy college guys use our boats?" as they see us simulate naval warfare and piracy in our little sailboats. Hey, I'm okay with having fun every once and a while. Anyways, here are some pictures I took at the sailing house today:

I just successfully completed my calculus midterm, and I think I did rather well. For the majority of the material I just thought back to calculus last year, which was the most enjoyable math class one could ask for, and used what I had already learned. I think I at least passed, which is good. I definitely feel much more lighthearted and happy now, and I'm psyched for everything else this week. Tomorrow I have my furniture seminar, which is more of just a challenge to stay awake than an actual class. Then I've got calculus. After that, I'll muster at 1430 to head over to the ocean for some sailing with the battalion. The good thing is that through trial and error I now can confidently rig a sailboat and sail in the ocean. Definitely a cool skill to have. 

Sailing is just now becoming enjoyable to me...some previous experiences this semester made it seem like more a pain than a hobby. On my second time out, I was paired with another Midshipman who had no idea what he was doing, and things went bad quick. It was an extremely windy day, and the seas were kind of rough. We successfully sailed about 2 or 3 miles offshore, and then we had an unsuccessful tack, which is basically doing a 180 spin in a boat. The main beam swung around (with considerable force, I might add) and nailed me right in the back of the head, and the boat capsized. Through all of this, my life preserver is one that is designed for a 3 year old and not a grown man. The life preserver's straps were also gone...I had been the last to the life jacket bin that day and consequently got the worst one. So by this point I'm 3 miles offshore, I'm recovering from being nailed in the head by a metal rod and my life preserver has come off of me. It's kind of a sink-or-swim scenario so I helped the other Midshipman get the boat turned upright and then we got back in...only to realize our tiller had fallen off and floated away. I spotted it about 10 yards away and went and retrieved it. After getting nailed in the head a few more times and having some more near-capsizing experiences, my Executive Officer rode over in his motor boat and decided we needed to be towed back to shore. So he towed us back to shore and ended our miserable sailing experience. I will say though, two people bond VERY quickly when thrust into these situations. Since then, I've learned a thing or two about sailing and actually enjoy it. 

Here's your (and my) motivation for today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjtSXJGxMNE  

It's a video of U.S. Navy F/A-18 low altitude training through the mountains. This video confirms that I will definitely have the BEST job in the world. I hope you all get as much motivation from that video as I do. God Bless America. 

With that, I'm going to bed. 

Midterm season. Enough said.

As much as I love it up here, there are certain things about the South that even New York City in all its splendor can't provide. Let me tell you all what you should be thankful for when it comes to living in the South:

-Good Barbecue. The other day the dining hall had "North Carolina Barbecue." It was hardly barbecue, let alone North Carolina barbecue. You can't get amazing barbecue up here. I do love how my friends from places like Los Angeles, Oregon, Arizona and Illinois assume that I'm a barbecue expert because I'm from the deep South. They're darn right. When you say your prayers tonight, thank God for the widespread availability of good barbecue. It's a blessing in disguise, so don't take it for granted.

-Slow lifestyle. Even for those of you think you have a hectic lifestyle, hectic in the South is extremely slow compared to living in a northern city (notice I don't capitalize north, but I capitalize South). The South does have a much more laid back lifestyle that is conducive to working a vegetable garden or rocking in a rocking chair. Not up here...although I am appealing to our residential college Master to get a set of rocking chairs for Pierson.

-Biscuits. Seriously though. Once again, biscuits just don't happen up here. The only place I can get something that mildly resembles biscuits is at Popeye's chicken. Get this - the other morning the dining hall had a sign saying "Biscuits and Gravy," BUT THERE WERE NO BISCUITS TO BE FOUND. I'm not even saying they were out of biscuits or I just missed them. They literally had no biscuits in the vicinity. Oh, and to top it off, only one person I have met up here has heard of a chicken biscuit. They don't even know what a chicken biscuit is up here, haha. It kind of makes me feel bad for them.

With that said, I found out last night that one of my friends who lives two floors up from me plays the banjo, and another one of my buddies sings bluegrass music. In the next few days we're gonna get together and jam some...I'll break out the fiddle.

Oh, and the Navy PFA went great... I got excellents, which is well above what officers need to get. In typical Navy fashion, the chain of command decided this morning that in order to opt out of the tuesday PT, we need to pass the test not once, but twice. Not an issue at all, I've just got two more weeks of waking up early for PT. The good news is, I still get my paycheck since obama decided to keep paying the military. Now it's calculus time. Have a great day, y'all.

-Luke