Life in North Carolina

So earlier this year I spent 4 months in North Carolina. How was it? Incredibly fun. I mean, being an exchange student in the US gave me (in many ways) the best of both worlds, foreigner and local!

One of the first things I did was buy a car. It was surprisingly easy to get a pretty big car for not so much money. And it was easy to sell it too. (In case you're wondering, she's a 1999 Ford Explorer, and appropriately, we named her "Dora.")

North Carolina's Outer Banks

It has been a loong while since I've posted here, and, boy has a lot happened since I cut off last year. In short, I arrived in London and got straight to school, stayed through the holidays, met lots of great friends, had a raucous New Years, then flew to the US in January for my exchange program in North Carolina. That is where my story picks up, and today's post is about a day trip that I made with some friends to the Outer Banks.

Just so you know, here's a map of North Carolina:

North Carolina has on its licence plate "First in Flight," representing the fact that the first airplanes in the world were flown here. And that's where we went on our trip, to Nags Head, on the state's northeastern coast. It was a 4-hour drive, so that meant starting off early! And for us students, early means 9-ish am!

And off we were! First stop: Waffle House, the ubiquitous chain of diners all around the South. After all, what's a mini-road trip without huge amounts of greasy food?!

As we left Raleigh, I introduced my friends to one of the most fun things to do on a road trip: The Chinese Fire Drill. Basically, whenever the car comes to a complete stop, the driver declares "CHINESE FIRE DRILL," and everyone immediately gets out, runs around the car, and returns to a random seat. This means that someone randomly ends up the driver. Thus, we all got turns to drive.

From South Carolina to Duke to Eat at Joe's

Day 19: Wednesday, 8 June 2011
Danielle had left for work and Andy was still hanging around the house when we left in the morning around 10:30. We stopped for a small breakfast at Venus, a nearby diner with a very un-Southern decor but very Southern employees. Before leaving South Carolina, we made sure to gas up the car (the gas here is the cheapest along our route).

Driving along the 95 in South Carolina, you are bombarded with signs for South of the Border, a kitschy roadside collection of tacky restaurants, gift shops, and attractions. Our hosts recommended that we definitely stop by there, and so we did. It was pretty empty, and a weird sight to see in the middle of the Carolinas. We drove on and missed the "welcome to North Carolina sign", so we drove back and stopped for a picture. Ueli drove us to the NC welcome center, where we picked up a map and got another photograph. Then onward to Durham, which took only about 2 hours. The freeway traffic was less consistent and slightly more frustrating to cruise along.

I had planned to visit Duke University in Durham, because I will be studying there this next spring as part of my LSE degree. When we arrived in the city, Ueli and I had a few minutes to kill so we briefly stopped by the East Campus of Duke University, which is the emptier side of campus, reserved mainly for freshmen. Then I drove us to the West Campus and looked for a parking space, which I found at the botanical gardens. We rushed to the admissions office to make our tour, walking furiously through nearly 100-degree humid heat. My camera battery was nearly dead so I plugged it into an outlet at the office. We then joined a tour group as it left. We had two guides, one of whom was a rising senior and was pre-law. I felt that I should have been giving him a tour/advice!