Carolina

[nibot]

"You should come here because our girls are at least twice as pretty as those in the Yankee land." Prof. then grabs a random guy by the elbow and repeats the question, asking the guy if it is indeed true. He agrees.

"They say that God must love Carolina, because he painted the sky Carolina Blue." Prof. on the subject of the UNC school colors - white and sky blue.

Foods: Bar-Be-Cue, Cheese Grits, Sweet Tea

It is true that they've been at least six times as nice to me here as anywhere else, and the campus is at least four times as pretty. The weather is fine, and Chapel Hill is a beautiful town. The grad students are happy and fun, and the atmosphere is buoyantly progressive. The professors are very kind, their work seems good. They were very well organised about showing me around. Today the director of graduate admissions took me on a personal tour of Chapel Hill and Durham, from 9:30 to 2 in the afternoon. There are nanotubes, general relativity theory, molecular beam epitaxy, nuclear physics. I think I could be a star here.

Now I'm at Duke (er, that's "Dook", as in "Stanfurd". As a prospective Tarheel, you know...), whose campus is only more beautiful than UNC's in the degree that it's manicured, and perhaps the stone instead of brick, the gothic architecture. (As for Duke I think the saying "Behind every great fortune there lies a great crime" holds true — this place is built on tobacco money) But it is wonderful here, too, full of people dressed up in dresses and tuxes being trailed by photographers wandering the Duke Gardens; prospective frosh flocking to a barbeque and outdoor music. In the depths of one of the buildings I finally found Taylan (taylan), now I'm going to hang out with him. And hopefully get some studying done for Math 140. eep!

The state mammal of North Carolina is the Eastern Grey Squirrel. The bird is the Northern Cardinal; the insect, the honeybee; the tree, the Pine; the flower, the Dogwood (also a tree!). In fact, the state rock is granite, the state dog is the "Plott Hound," and the state fish is Sciaenops ocellatus. But where does the name "Carolina" come from?

Comments

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

Named after King Charles. Back when they used latin names for things. Just as Virginia was named after Queen Elizabeth. And Georgia after King George. I have no idea where Rhode Island came from, and I think Maryland was named after the wife of King Charles. Pennsylvania was William Penn, and the other original 13 states are all either native american names or New X where X is in England somewhere.

[tjernobyl.livejournal.com]

Rhode Island may have been named after the Greek island of Rhodos.

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

Possibly, though I don't know why the "Plantation of Providence and Rhode Island" would be named as an island if it wasn't one. Unless "Rhode Island" is actually just one of the islands in Narragansett Bay, and we've shortened the state name to just that part.

randomness

[roxymartini.livejournal.com]

i like the wriggling flowers in your user icon.

[nibot.livejournal.com]

That's what I thought! I kept saying "Charles, in Latin!" and they all said "But Carolina is a woman's name!"

[easwaran.livejournal.com]

I believe "Carolus" is the Latin for "Charles", but since they're naming a territory, it has to be feminized. But "Carola" would probably be the feminine, so it looks like the "ina" is an ending that indicates it's the name of a place. Just like all the places that end in "ia" in English.

[schmatz.livejournal.com]

How do you tell a Dogwood from other trees? By it's bark! Yuk, yuk, yuk. Seriously, Dogwood bark is weird and scaley, and when there aren't any of the obvious flowers blooming, the bark still makes for easy identification.

[roxymartini.livejournal.com]

"You should come here because our girls are at least twice as pretty as those in the Yankee land."
well, girls from any other bit of "yankee land" are about twice as pretty as girls from berkeley, then, if that professors statement is true, the girls will be at least 4 times hotter than anyone you could find in berkeley. and probably blonde too!

*waves white flag*
i plead "no contest"

[ragnus.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the same multipliers apply to guys as well.

[roxymartini.livejournal.com]

i dunno about the yankee vs north carolina multiplier, but the berkeley vs yankee land one certainly does, generally speaking.

but if you're into skinny nerdy guys that haven't seen the sun in years, berkeley's got the prettiest guys there are!

[ragnus.livejournal.com]

awwww, poor tobin.

[roxymartini.livejournal.com]

poor tobin? why? because he's one of the prettiest guys there are?
(=

what can i say.

[squarkz.livejournal.com]

heh, coming from a state where nearly everyone is scandinavian, "yankee land" is indeed pretty good-looking.

[heike.livejournal.com]

And when you get cut you bleed State red. :p

I've only driven past Duke, but I used to live in Chapel Hill, and it's hands down the best place to live in the Triangle. Durham has a gutted downtown which is eerie to walk around in. In Raleigh you have to drive everywhere, and even next to State there's not a real college strip.

[yattaboe.livejournal.com]

and the state beverage is milk. or at least it was when i was in the 7th grade. now it seems more like pbr. unc's campus is beautiful, and it's not as dreary as duke's in the winter, not so monotone. and as a town, there are so many good things about chapel hill. this doesn't include parking but... parking at a lot of university-towns seems to be a bitch.

[xaosenkosmos.livejournal.com]

I totally forgot that you almost went to UNC when i was there. You would, in fact, have been a star there. The physics department was a little dysfunctional, but mostly Got Things Done (i ran unix machines there for about a year, before moving to ibiblio).

(The women at UNC weren't bad to look at, but not many people on that campus were much to talk to.)