It's crazy how much I've missed this place without even realizing it - the library, the Regulator bookstore, familiar faces.

Books:
The Only Good Thing Anyone Has Ever Done - Sandra Newman

Durham, NC

So, here we are.

Our flight yesterday from Bermuda nearly didn't get off the ground because of the winds, a fitting send-off if there ever was one. Announcements over the crackly intercom gave us a blow-by-blow of the little-jet-plane-that-could's attempts to land on the runway in the midst of the storm, feeding the incipient panic and pandering to the American, ESPN-sponsored addiction to commentaries about everything. Even walking out to the plane across the tarmac was quite an exercise in not getting blown away. Thankfully, all was well in the end and the only other mishap was that Simon forgot that he was supposed to pick me up from the airport which meant I had to call him and wait for an extra half-hour.

Oh, and the flight attendant on the Philly-Durham leg really cracked me up:
"This is your seatbelt...I don't know why they make me explain this to you, does anyone honestly not know how to put on a seatbelt? Hands up anyone who doesn't. OK, good, next..."

"In the event of an emergency landing, lights in the rows will guide you to your nearest emergency exit. Of course, nothing ever happens on my watch, I personally guarantee it, and the only time you'll get to see those lights is if the pilot turns the key the wrong way and stalls the plane on the runway, I promise you. If the cabin should depressurize while we're upstairs, oxygen masks will fall from above you. Even if I don't tell you this, you will grab them, I promise you. You will grab them."

And on landing:

"We hope you've enjoyed your flight with U.S. Air. Have a good day, and enjoy the rest of your life. Or, if you don't enjoy the rest of your life, I hope you're at least making a lot of money."

Heh. I officially love U.S. Air. I even got my luggage.

Day 53

lori left yesterday at around 5 after our grades came out and anne hopped on an early plane this morning after staying up the entire night, leaving just 5 of us here on a very quiet and deserted station. was rowdy last night at the passin' wind though, where they had a small going-away party with a bottomless bowl of fruit punch and liberal R(s)OD(s)PFBSE and miranda randomly deciding to go for a swim at 3 in the morning and regretting it 15 seconds afterwards. and farewells to james and sam who have been eccentric, but truly wonderful instructors, and kelsey, who embodies the spirit of australia (which is drunkenness), and the cooks, who taught me that you can fry anything if you really put your mind to it, and nellie with her mufflers and scarves, and all the wildlife which i might miss but probably won't.

so, we fly, to reconvene in beaufort, north carolina in 10 days. i head to philadelphia where i have less than an hour to clear immigration and customs (not going to happen) and get to rdu and duke and 16 inches of snow.

good times. good times had by all.

Things I learned in Bermuda

* Cold is relative. "Tropical" sometimes is not.
* Never take for granted the importance of a permanent mailing address
* Smart, insipid people are everywhere. There are perhaps as many of them as dumb, insipid people, and the smart ones are worse because they talk more. Run for the hills.
* The Duke webserver is a pain in the a**.
* Stanford basketball needs to go to hell.
* Almost all of the world's coral reefs will be dead within the next 50 years.
* Or sooner, if the American public re-elects Dubya.
* The importance of pavements
* There is such a thing as "too much fried food".
* Cats bite. Hard.

Day 52

first water into wine, then loaves and fishes, and now everything fits into my suitcases with room to spare

Day 51

Looking at the weather forecast, it is currently snowing in Durham with a high of 37 F. Talk about out of the frying pan into the fire. Except sort of in reverse.

I've decided that I have a severe phobia of bad online writing, both on my part on the part of others. Like Chris, I cringe at aLtErNaTiNg CaPs. I don't understand blogs that report the mundane, and I have a constant fear that I'm reporting the mundane myself. There must be a name for my condition. They need to update the DSM for the information age.

by the way, once i finish this course:
i never want to see another spaghetti worm in my life
i never want to read another article about a spaghetti worm in my life
i never want to search for another article about a spaghetti worm in my life
i never want to hear anyone speak of spaghetti worms ever again
i am not interested in spaghetti worms even if they suddenly become a sentient species and take over our planet
i am not interested in spaghetti worms if they are on the cover of bridge magazine advertised as being the first non-human species to learn how to play the game
i am not interested in spaghetti worms even if i wake up one morning to find that i have become a spaghetti worm
i do not want to see or hear the words 'spaghetti' and 'worm' adjacent to each other in a sentence

spaghetti worms suck.

LOL

Day 50

it looks to end approximately as it began, in rain and longing and not knowing what comes next.

Day 49

Dragged kicking and screaming to Three Hills Shoals for our last diving trip (to make up for one of the ones we missed) - reason for massive protests being the presentation we have to do tomorrow and which most of us had not started on. Yuk.

I was having a chat with one of the few remaining Elderhostelites - she did her Masters in Duke in the summer of '39 and was enchanted to learn that we won the Maryland home game on Sunday by more than 20 points. She was also enchanted to learn that I'm a bridge fanatic, seeing as she runs a duplicate game herself back home. I fleetingly considered asking her if she was any good - although the answer to that question is usually precisely the opposite of the truth.

Anyway, they've all gone now, and the place is very quiet, and I sit in the Pink Room reciting silent incantations to myself, a biological catechism: asteroidea, holothuroidea, ophiuroidea, echinoidea...

Day 48

can i just say that i've been trying to download the sex and the city season finale all bloody day and that as of 9:41 p.m. it is only 77% done? i want my fast lan connection back, dammit. what are we paying all this good tuition money for?

Day 47

Things I will miss about Bermuda:
* the ocean view from my window
* free flow of coffee and tea 24/7
* Sopranos marathons with Geordie and Nathan (and free wine)
* all other free alcohol, regardless of source
* Kelsey and her endless stories (alcohol-related and otherwise)
* the Railway Trail
* long, free afternoons
* the secondhand bookshop in Hamilton. Oh hell, and the rest of Hamilton too.

Things I will not miss about Bermuda:
* having to haul my laptop downstairs to download torrents
* Bobby the cat, Peppermint the rabbit, and that damn smelly dog
* dying of cold
* 4-hour labs
* sack lunches - I don't even want to hear about ham sandwiches for the next 3 months
* missing Duke games (grr...)
* two words: Environmental. Policy.

Day 46

papers papers papers

Day 45

i couldn't very well leave bermuda without trying rockfish, but it was a bonus to have it paid for out of our activities fund. i was expecting something sort of swordfish-like, but it didn't come in steaks and was not as firm in texture. the fish was good, but the mashed potatoes that came with it were decidedly instant and the vegetables sad and overboiled. it was one of those things that had to be done though, and it certainly beat the hungarian goulash that was on offer in bbsr not to mention having to elbow ones way through 20 senior citizens just to get to the counter.

dream i had: where i walk into a restaurant in my army uniform and all the people i knew from 1 pdf are there even my MO and i'm obviously late or something because everyone has ordered their food already. it arrives, and everyone has ordered the same thing, which i gather is the house special - it's this huge crusty ball with stewed apples and cinnamon and caramelized sugar and some white creamy stuff mixed in and it's sort of smooth and flaky and sticky all at the same time although how i know that i'm not sure since i never actually taste any. anyway, i go to the counter to order my own food and i start walking past these seemingly endless glass displays with sausages and sandwich meats in them and somehow end up in what seems to be an emergency room or something because it's all chaos and dying people and nurses running around with drip stands. the place is vast - i don't even remembering seeing any walls - and the further i walk the more patients i see, most of them obviously in need of medical attention. i feel like i should be doing something, but i don't --

There was definitely more that I don't remember, but that particular bit stayed with me till morning. Just thought I'd share.

One of the (many) problems with Americans is they think too much about what they eat, which is why they have the worst cuisine in the world (and are proud of it). Take lamb, for instance. What's so terrible about eating lamb? "It's baby sheep." So? I can understand not eating something for religious reasons, or because the animal is endangered, but to abstain from something because of a concept? I don't know. Finicky eating is rapidly turning into one of my pet peeves. Don't like curry, don't like chutney, don't like 'strange' sauces, don't like tilapia - the list extends beyond the point of reason. "All I want is to go to Applebee's and have half-price appetizers." Smack. It seems criminal to hanker after something so culturally generic and ubiquitous, like Singaporeans who go overseas and then say they miss the Wheelock Place Borders. Am I being too judgmental? I think the amount of work we have due next week is making me excessively cranky.

Day 44

The strong winds have returned with a vengenance, though that didn't stop us heading out to Walsingham Pond to collect specimens. Phyla of the week: Bryozoans, Hemichordata and Chordata (minus subclass vertebrata, of course). Hurricane Fabian decimated a lot of the pond wildlife last year and not a whole lot of it had returned. On top of that, the water was colder than anything I've been in in my life - and all for a science I don't even particularly care about. Sigh.

Day 43

Take the Death Test