Boy from Kentucky Update

So, it's been about a month since classes started and, while I cannot say that I've completely adjusted, things certainly seem to be improving. I'm starting to get the readings under control, which is quite the accomplishment given that there are an insane amount of readings to do. Had my first presentation this week and with the exception of my not having made enough eye contact, the scary French professor had little to say in the way of criticism. Enough about school though…

It's been quite the interesting first month of school. Durham is a lovely town, with the obvious exception of my car having been broken into and my GPS having been stolen. I did get to exercise my ingenuity, though, by fashioning the awesome cardboard window featured below.

The car thing is particularly annoying given the fact that I don't really drive that much in town. I have been taking the bus to campus most days, which has been an eye-opening experience. For all the stereotypes about Kentucky, I don't know that I've ever really see what poverty looks like, but some days on the Durham buses are pretty depressing, particularly because I take the bus to Duke, which is kind of a rich little island in the middle of the not-so-rich sea that is Durham. So far nothing terribly eventful has happened on the bus, except the day where some guy was preaching about how we should refer to Obama as our king, that the king had finally come.

I went to the Gay Pride Parade with some pretty awesome people this weekend, following a wine tasting as a great little wine shop in town. The parade was fun, albeit a little short (though longer than Lexington's nonexistent one) and had many interesting floats, including…

…an Alice in Wonderland float…

…a Duke float…

…a conspiracy theory float complete with UFO (there's a joke there somewhere about anal probing)…

…and, of course, a float of gratuitous nudity.

It was a fun day, with lots of interesting people to be the objects of my people-watching.

Basil is doing pretty well. I leave you with evidence that she's still in good spirits, which is to say relatively crazy.