Camp Out 2006

Camp Out begins!

A really really burnt marshmellow.

Saturday Sept. 16. Sooo Tired.

After 6 am Sept. 17. Cleaning up the camp sites and preparing to go home (but not before knowing the results of the lottery).

Sunday night at my place trying to divide up the games. Our group of four got two tickets!

Went to Camp Out 2006. This is the yearly event where graduate students "party" for 36 hours straight in order to be entered into a lottery for basketball season tickets. The way it works is graduate students tent up (or the richer MBA and Law school students rent RVs and UHaul trucks) and randomly wait for whistle checks. Each camper is allowed to miss one whistle check. More than that and you are disqualified. After 36 hours, those who are qualified are entered into a random lottery and the winners are given the opportunity to pay for the $150 season ticket.

It's pretty crazy to go through all that for the chance to be able to pay. The past couple of years I was decidedly against the concept of camping out. But this year, with prelims behind me, I thought I might give it a try. After all, the Duke experience would not be complete without Camp Out, and going for 36 hours straight with basically only 2-3 hrs of sleep is something that can only be done while you are young. Turns out Camp Out is a great way to meet other people, especially those not in your department and the usual cliques. At the end of the day, I had a good, albeit tiring, time.

And I got tickets!