The coldest winter since I’ve been at Duke, when will it end? I still remember those pictures I took last march when i stayed on campus for spring break; I was wearing jean skirts and short-sleeved polos. It’s the last week of february and the temperature is still hovering at an icy 30. There are those brief hours each day when the sun has been out long enough to raise the temperature into the 40’s, and if we are lucky there’s one day out of the week that tricks me into thinking that spring has finally come. But the next day we would drop right back to the painful 20’s. Nevertheless, this rollercoaster weather might still be preferable to a steady stretch of unrelenty coldness. At least when I’m just getting sick of bundling up, I have get one day of skirts (with tights).

I had the first test in…are you ready? nine months. Yup, i counted. And it has been nine months since I took my last test. Possibly the longest stretch without tests in my life since I was 6.

Now that I’m done with the first midterm, I’m moving onto to stressing about something else. For what is life, especially life in college, at Duke, without the obligatory stress? So I’m currently stressing about housing. Yes, that perenial little game that we all have to play, though I’m finally not required to play it anymore but really it’s just that the rules have changed a bit. In any case, I have decided to stay on campus; it’s my last year of college life afterall, might as well make it last while I can. But that means I’m submitting myself to sheer luck, the whimisical lottery system employed by Duke RLHS. There’s no way to game the system, though believe me I have tried. There are 20 2-bedroom apartments, 40 2-bedroom suites, and 140+ singles on west. I have weighed the proximity to classes, laundry, eprinting stations, and everything else on west campus versus having my own kitchen, bathroom, apartment living and being close to the majority of my friends (including not living in a single, which can get lonely at times). I have officially 45 minutes  left to change my mind and switch to a single on west, but once again, I’m going to take a chance and try my luck. What’s the worst? That I’ll end up in a 1-bedroom apartment. I suppose even then, I will find a way to find a way to make everything ok, or so I keep telling myself with as much optimism as I can muster. Like many other things in life, i will never know if the other choice would have been the better one. Oh well. It’s just housing. It’s probably not worth the hours I’ve poured over this, wavering between central and west, blocking and not blocking. 

I hope all goes well.