Hey Now, You're An All Star!

Last Friday night, I went to Duke with several of my friends to see Smash Mouth play at the outdoor amphiteatre there. Along with much of my generation, I was in love with Smash Mouth when I was younger! "All Star" was actually the first song to which I memorized all the words. My brother played competitive travel baseball for a long time, and after they won important games one of the boys' older brothers would play that song his boom box (remember those?!).

I've played soccer at Duke before, but the fields are on the edge of campus, so I'd never been on main campus before. I'm not sure what I expected - obviously it wasn't going to be full of trash or something - but I have to say (grudgingly) that it was much nicer and prettier than I had imagined. I'm not really a fan of Gothic architecture, but I can appreciate the handsomeness of the buildings (though maybe not the gargoyles). I also don't think an university can truly be an university without brick pathways [instead of asphalt], but I'm pretty biased. 

Being on campus felt like I was at the fair. Partly, I'm sure, because I'm not in school anymore, and being on campus somewhere other than UNC felt a bit foreign to me. Duke is also a private school, but I guess I never put together the consequences of that -- that alcohol is allowed on campus. Even the fraternities were on campus. This just boggled my mind and I could not get over it.

Smash Mouth sounded... okay. I think the lead singer was kind of drunk by the time the concert started (at a whopping 7:15pm) and he seemed a little bit creepy. They weren't super young when we were in middle school listening to them, and they are not young now.

We still had a great time! The weather was perfect, so it was a great evening. I had to crutch a total of about two miles to get to and from the arena, but my friends are the best so they helped me through it and we made sure to take several breaks.

On the way back to the car, we stopped into the Duke Chapel. After studying abroad in Italy, I have a healthy appreciation for beautiful cathedrals, and I could definitely appreciate this one. Gothic architecture may not be my favorite, but it sure did look beautiful at night. And the organ was just gorgeous!

It was a wonderful evening. See ya later!