Do you have a Boyfriend?

Well I have encountered a new situation here that I am not really sure how to approach. No one I run into here to is LDS, unless I run into them at church or inside of my house...I was at the pool when a man approached me and started making small talk. The conversation went a little bit like this

Pool Man: "I can definitely tell that you are from around here, its your accent. I could listen to southern girls talk all day long"

Me: *laugh* "Oh, where are you from"

Pool Man: "Michigan, I am just here visiting my mom for the week." "So, how old are you"

Me: *uncomfortable laugh* "I am 24"

Pool Man: "Oh wow, I thought you were younger than that. I am 27"

Me: "blaa blaa, small talk"

Pool Man: "blaa blaa, small talk"

Pool Man: "So do you have a boyfriend?"

Me: "Yep"
And then I proceded to tell him about Shantel!! Oh my goodness!

Pool Man: "Oh, what a lucky guy. What does he do?"

Me: "He is just starting law school in the fall"

Oh dear, at least I had on sunglasses so he did not see my blackened eye and think that Shantel was abusing me! :) I am really not sure how to go about this type of conversation here. Until I do figure it out, maybe I will just have to stay faithful to my most dear relationship with my Shantel... And hey! Someone thinks that I am picking up the southern accent. :)


         

US National Whitewater

This post is dedicated to my sister Jamie :)

Yesterday we went whitewater rafting on the official man made river of the US Olympic Team! It is the larges man made river with up to class IV rapids! It is just south of Durham located in Charlotte, NC. 

Our first ride was with an inexperienced guide who seemed to miss every rapid and get us stuck on every rock... :) I had some impressions that maybe a man made river could just not be as intense as a natural one. THEN we had a very hard core female guide who had been running the river for years. Oh wow, we surfed on class IV rapids, got throws all over the boat and very nearly thrown out of the boat several times! It was so great! What was not so great was that me and Dereck hit heads... really hard. 

I am excited to expalin this one in my job interview tomorrow...

But we had a great time! We also did some of the high adventure rope courses, zip line, mega jump, and rock climbing!

Kiss my Grits

Well, more cultural adventures! Last night we went to Dame's Chicken and Waffles. 

I guess this place is a Durham must see. I was a little skeptical about eating fried chicken atop of my waffle. But served with a side of yellow squash and onions I was sold!

Fried chicken with sweet potato waffle!

Durham Bulls!

Last night the ward went to a Durham Bulls baseball game!! I guess that they have fireworks at every home game!! How fantastic is that. :) 

We got VIP passes because our bishop owns the bank that you can see across the stadium. We sat on the first row behind home base! We were surrounded by rednecks heckling! Oh I adored every moment. A southern educational moment: when people refer to just "Carolina", they are referring to either North or South Carolina, whichever one they are from. They say just Carolina demonstrating the superiority of their home state over the other. People have a LOT of pride where they are from.

The native gentlemen from the ward call me Mary Katherine, because it is very un-southern of me to just go by Katherine. Things are definitely getting better. I have never met a more social, kind, accepting, and opinionated... group of people in all my life. I am going out tonight with some friends to get waffles and fried chicken. Should be a good time. Love y'all so much!

The Best of Times and the Worst of Times

I knew it would be hard moving to a place where I did not have any acquaintances. It is just funny the things that I struggle with throughout the day. There is a different kind of loneliness when you are so far from anyone you know, in a place where you are not familiar. What increases that feeling of loneliness is when you have nothing to be doing, no job, no business or no school. You are just in a strange place and have no one or nothing to do to lessen that strange feeling.

The past two days, that feeling has been looming over me. But at the same time, it is just a period of transition. The people here are so kind and nice! I think they understand that I must be alone, because they invite me to come to events with them and they take on being my friend. I went to donate platelets today with a native North Carolinian who also showed me the bus system and how I would get to the UNC Hospital if I got a job there. He also got me some parking validations for when I interview there.

Apparently every Thursday here we have a "cook out". I made the mistake of calling it a barbecue and I was informed that in North Carolina, a barbecue means that you are cooking a whole pig over an open fire. :) Tonight for the cook out we grilled everything from peaches, tomatoes, mushrooms, North Carolina hot dogs which are bright red!!, EL Fudge cookies, and anything else that tastes good with grill marks.

It was a surprise to me how nice it is that there are so few members of the church out here. At every small gathering I go to, all the same people are there. It is impossible not to get to know everyone! The boys from North Carolina laugh whenever I use my southern phrases and they give me riff for being Weber State Alumni. Apparently in the NCAA tournament in 1999, Weber State beat the University of North Carolina out of the tournament in the first round, an unprecedented event. College basketball is kind of a big deal out here. :)

Things are getting better every day, I just have to remind myself that this is just a transition period and I have felt more lost than this before in my life... I just can't remember when. :) I love you all so much!

Duke University

I had to use a GPS to find my school... you might think that a major university would not be so hard to find. The school is tucked serenely inside "The Duke Forest". The trees are so thick, you cannot see anything unless you turn into campus. That's pretty much standard for all of Durham though.

This is what my commute looks like every day. Kind of wild, while Durham does not have mountains, it certainly is very mountainesque.

The campus buildings have a Gothic style. I felt like I was walking through the forests of Europe discovering old castles. 

 

 This is the Duke Chapel where mass and school welcoming is held. I heard a rumor that in the basement they have a small archive where they have an original printing of the Book of Mormon. It is definitely on my summer list of adventures to explore and confirm such rumors.

 

My new home! School of Nursing :)

 

And there is the "Duke Gardens" which swallow the entire center of campus. It is acres of beautiful forest and gardens with little trail that runs though. 

And of course, my actual home. Copper Mill Apartments. 

 

North Carolina!

Oh Boy! It was another long day of driving! I had to stop in Nashville, TN. I was driving in morning traffic and it made for a good time...

I stopped by Vanderbilt University which had an electric feeling just being on campus. 

And just across from campus, I found this treasure. It is called the Parthenon, I guess it is a to scale replica of the one in Athens. :)

Athena... Goddess of Nashville

Oh then back to the drive... I-40 winds through Tennessee for days! But my excitement could not be quenched! Even after 9 hours of driving... on the fourth day into the journey...

I arrived in the evening where 3 strapping boys and 10 minutes later my car was unpacked! It was a North Carolina miracle! We then went out to eat at Chubbies. I was told by the manager of Chubbies that I could not order a kids meal because I was an adult... I thought that was ironic because the manager looked like he could be in my seventh grade Spanish class. :) 

It is sooo magical here, but I am too tired to expand properly upon the matter. :) I love you all so much!

The Journey: Part 2

Yesterday was a fun mid-west day! I stopped by St. Louis on my way out of KC. 

The Gateway Arch: Gateway to the West! (or the east in this case...)

Driving through the Kentucky was beautiful, but I was getting a little tired and journey worn.

I stayed the night in Adams, Tennessee. It was the most amazingly scenic place I have ever been! I turned off the highway to a small road, I then turned off that little road to an even smaller back road. From the even smaller back road I turned onto a one track dirt road that went way back to the beautiful untouched green hills. Oh!! There was a little clearing the the trees that stood a little house with a wrap around porch and small vegetable garden.

 April gladly welcomed me into her home, even though our relationship was obscure at best. She was my old visiting teachers mission companion's mother. :) We sat out that night on the porch and watched the lightning bugs dance in the yard. Magical!!

The Journey: Part 1

Oh wow, it has finally happened. The cross country journey!

Yesterday morning I set off early and stayed the night in Cozard, Nebraska.

I guess I will not dwell too much on this part of the journey... :)

Then this afternoon the glorious happened! Kansas City!!! I got to see my Jessika and Daniel! They are living in Riverside, MO while Daniel is going to medical school in Kansas City.

While I was there we...

 

Visited the brand new Kansas City Temple!

Ate dinner with the Dinosaurs!

And played hookey at the maternity store... :)

Jessika is 6 months pregnant! I just ate WAY to much dinosaur.

Flag Day Picnic

Here are some pictures from the Flag Day BBQ we had the night before I left! These are the things I will miss the most about Utah...

See you in December Baby!!

Graduate School

It is finally happening! I am starting a blog! Just kidding, I am finally moving to Durham, North Carolina. Tomorrow morning I will be packing my car to drive out east. The process has had some ups and downs. Lets review a few of my favorite...

#1 Video Interview of Georgetown

Wow, I always thought I would make an exceptional movie star, but this first video shoot taught me my own on screen lack luster. It took me 2 hours to shoot a 2 minute interview! Bless Jamie for staying with me!

 And after the first take turned out so awful and fourteen hours of unsuccessful video editing, we did round two!

A huge shout out to Ryan and Fight the New Drug for letting me use their studio to film!

#2 In person interview at the University of Utah!

 #3 SKYPE interview with Duke

As many of you know, Papa Crane does not have the internet. Well this interview was eventful because I had planned to SKYPE at my sister Jamie's house while she was teaching school, but I failed to remind her that she should leave me a key. I ended on her porch steps setting up my computer. The wind was blowing soooo hard and not wanting Duke to think that I was homeless, I set off for Christy's house. I made it just in the nick of time, this photo was taken just a minute before I received the SKYPE call. 

Here I am sitting in front of the kitchen cabinet where there is a blanket hanging over it to give it the "professional" look!

#4 The Criminal Background Check

Well, last, but certainly not least is the background scare I had from Duke. Once I had decided to go there, I naturally turned down all other offers. Soon after that I received word that my  background check had been flagged for "underage drinking" and "public intoxication". You can imagine my surprise! However after a little paperwork and clarification, it seems that my actual criminal record was satisfactory!

And so in the words of James Taylor

"In my mind I'm gone to Carolina.

Can't you see the sunshine.

Can't you just feel the moon shining

Yes, I'm gone to Carolina in my mind." 

:)