Visit to Duke

This weekend, we went down to Duke for Brad to attend an informational session about the cross-continent MBA program to which he applied. We flew out bright and early on Saturday morning and arrived in Raleigh-Durham around 9:00. It was a bright, sunny day, but there was a chill in the air. We didn’t do much research about how to get to Duke or where to go, but we found our way to a place where got a map and did our own tour of campus! It is a very beautiful campus that reminds me a lot of Princeton because most of the buildings are white stone and look very old. Spring has definitely sprung down there. The dogwoods were absolutely GORGEOUS! (I would post a picture here, but I forgot to take the camera. DOH!)

We walked over to the Fuqua School of Business, which is where Brad will be spending most, if not all, of his time when he is attending the school. It is a HUGE complex, with a large building with classrooms and offices, and then a separate building with a hotel and executive campus for the executive students. It’s a very nice facility and I am glad I got to see it so I could imagine Brad there if he ends up going there! All the athletic fields are across from the business school, so we went over and checked out the baseball field and the football field. And we saw the outside of the basketball arena…..we didn’t figure it would be open with March Madness and all.

We then went and checked into the hotel and figured out where we should go to catch some basketball games. Duke was playing in the early game, so we were hoping to go somewhere to watch the game around the campus, but we couldn’t really find anywhere. Plus, the students were still on Spring Break, so it was pretty dead! We ended up going to Chapel Hill (where UNC is), which is only about 20 minutes away! (Who knew they were so close to each other!!) We found a sports bar and watched the Duke game. And all the people in the bar were of course cheering against them!!

We went back and took a nap and then headed out for a yummy seafood dinner at a place called George’s Garage. (It was a lot nicer than it sounds!) Since Brad was still recovering from the flu, we decided it probably wasn’t the best idea to party like we were in college again, so we went back to the hotel and watched some more basketball!

Sunday, we got up and went to the Shoney’s breakfast bar (right next to the hotel!) It was YUMMY! I haven’t had Shoney’s in a long time. They have the best French toast sticks and buttermilk biscuits. Then, we headed back to UNC to walk around campus. They have some really beautiful sorority houses! Then we ended up going back to the same bar to watch basketball and then headed back to the hotel so I could catch a cab to the airport and Brad could get ready for his info session.

I was the last stand-by person to get on the earlier flight, thank goodness!! It was nice to get home at 6:30 rather than 10!!!

We shall see Brad’s impression after today. The program is primarily on-line learning, and then there are 8 weeks of on campus learning. 6 of those sessions are at Duke, 1 is in Europe and 1 is in Asia. He is very excited about this program, and he should hear in the next couple of weeks! So, keep your fingers crossed.