On Friday 11/13, another season of college basketball began, which is something that I look forward to every year. I really enjoy watching college basketball the most out of any sport because I have been playing basketball since elementary school, and it is cool to see all the different schools and the various traditions that each school has for game-day. I personally believe that the Duke Blue Devils have some of the best fans in all of sports, with their fans calling themselves the Cameron Crazies, since they are crazy about their Blue Devils and even do crazy things such as camping out for the annual game against cross town rival North Carolina. The Duke fans set up tents outside of Cameron Indoor Stadium months in advance through an event called Countdown to Craziness in order to ensure they get good seats to watch the Duke North Carolina rivalry game, even though the weather may not be ideal during the waiting period. The Duke students will camp out through the cold days and nights, and remain outside instead of going back to their dorms, which shows their passion for supporting the Blue Devils. Another crazy thing the students and the fans do is paint themselves blue, wear crazy wigs dyed blue, and even make a lot of noise during the game and even reach out when the visiting teams are in-bounding the ball.

On Friday 11/13 Duke opened up its season against my hometown college team the Siena Saints, who got the chance to do something that has not been done, at least not since 1985, by playing the defending national champions and the runner up the Wisconsin Badgers in the first two games of the season. Even though the final score was not close at 92-74, it was still cool to see how a team from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) would do against a team like Duke, one with a history of success that won five national championships. Siena actually kept up with Duke for a good portion of the game and actually led Duke 15-13 early on in the game, but foul trouble got to Siena and their best players had to sit on the bench to avoid further foul trouble and the risk of fouling out of the game. Even though I was not home at the time of this game, I have no doubt that people back home were looking forward to the match-up to see how Siena would handle the defending national champions, and even take advantage of the chance to go a see a game at the historic Cameron Indoor Stadium. It seemed that behind the visitors bench there were a good amount of Siena fans that made the trip down to Durham, NC from the Albany area in order to watch their Saints play the National Champion Blue Devils.

Last February I made the trip down to Duke to visit my sister who was at the time a senior at Duke, and was fortunate that there was a home game that weekend against Syracuse which I attended. I can speak from my own personal experience that going to any Duke game is awesome, and the Cameron Crazies  environment is really awesome to be a part of, as the game was sold out, with a rowdy and pumped up crowd. It was awesome to be a part of a big time game, especially at a big time school like Duke, which is something that I have never experienced before going to small school where athletics are not much of a priority. Duke ended up winning the game, and went on to win the National Championship last season which made the experience even more rewarding for me, as I can now say I got to see the 2014-2015 National Champion Blue Devils play one of their regular season games against their newest conference rival Syracuse.

Even though Siena did not win the game I'm sure the fans appreciated the opportunity to visit one of the most historic sporting venues to watch one of the premier programs in college basketball play their team, the Siena Saints. As it was a nice step up for me, I'm sure it was for them to be able to experience the atmosphere at a school that values athletics as much as Duke does.

 

What I watched, saw, listened to week of 11/9

On Monday, 11/9 I watched Monday night football

Watched NHL

On Tuesday 11/10 I played tennis and watched some NHL

On Wednesday 11/11 watched NBA

On Thursday 11/12 I attended the student booster club meeting and watched Thursday night football between the Buffalo Bills and the New York Jets

On Friday 11/13 I went to work from 5-9 and watched opening night of NCAA basketball and watched the Siena Saints vs Duke Blue Devils Game played at Cameron Indoor Stadium in Durham, NC

On Saturday 11/14 I worked 9-1 and after attended the last Marist women's Volleyball home game against Siena

Watched college football

Watched NBA

Watched NHL

On Sunday 11/15 I worked, watched NFL, college basketball    

What I watched, saw, listened to week of 11/2:

During the week I watched some hockey

On Monday, 11/2 I worked and watched Monday night football between the Indianapolis Colts and the Carolina Panthers at Charlotte, North Carolina

On Tuesday, 11/3 I attended a workshop through the Emerging Leaders Program and played tennis

On Wednesday, 11/4 I attended a webcast through the National Society of Leadership and Success

On Thursday, 11/5 I played tennis and watched Thursday night football between the Cleveland Browns and Cincinnati Bengals in Cincinnati, OH

On Friday, 11/6 I went to the Brooklyn Nets- Los Angeles Lakers game with my friends

On Saturday, 11.7 I worked for the whole day and watched a little college football at night when I got out of work

On Sunday, 11/8 I worked and attended the end of the women's volleyball game against Canisius which Marist won in a 5 set thriller, attended the women's basketball scrimmage against Holy Family, and watched NFL  

Last Friday, 11/6, my friends and I went to New York City to watch the Brooklyn Nets play the Los Angeles Lakers at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. We all decided that we wanted to do something fun that we don't usually do, which is attending professional sporting events. We first had to consider our options as alternative plans would have been to attend the New York Knicks game as they were playing at home in MSG the same day against the Milwaukee Bucks, attend a New York Islanders game, attend a New York Rangers game. The Islanders had a home game that Sunday 11/8 against the Bruins which we could have gone to, and the Rangers did not have a home game that weekend so we would have had to go to that game another time. A major factor in our decision in which game to attend was the cost to attend each event, with tickets to a game at MSG being more expensive solely based on the fact that the venue is Madison Square Garden, one of the best sporting venues in the world. Additionally, we had to take into consideration which teams we all liked, as one of my friends is a big Islanders fan, while I and another one of my friends are big Rangers fans so attending an Islanders game would not have been as fun for us and attending a Rangers game would not have been fun for my other friend who is an Islanders fan and another one of my friends who is a Pittsburgh Penguins fan. By going to a sporting event of our team's rival would not have been as enjoyable as a result of the fierce division rivalry the New York Rangers, New York Islanders, and the Pittsburgh Penguins have competing for the Metropolitan Division title. As a couple of my friends are Brooklyn Nets fans, they suggested going to the Brooklyn Nets game since the tickets were cheap and their teams was playing at home. My friends and I took the Metro North train down to Grand Central Station then took the subway to Brooklyn, which conveniently stops right in front of the Barclays Center.

Even though I am a New York Knicks fan and not a Nets fan, I went to the game just for the experience, as I had never been to a professional basketball game before. I have attended several college basketball games but had no idea what to expect attending an NBA game. It turned out to be just like any other game, and was slightly disappointing as I don't think the home fans are as passionate about their team as the home fans of a college basketball team. For example, Duke students and fans are so passionate about the Blue Devils that the students even begin to camp outside Cameron Indoor Stadium, in order to make sure they get the best seats to the biggest game of the year, when crosstown rival University of North Carolina (UNC) comes to play Duke. Additionally, a lot of students even paint themselves blue just for a couple hour game. The Duke fans are very passionate and are rightly called the Cameron Crazies, as they literally do crazy things like camping out to support the Blue Devils. I truly believe that the Crameron Crazies at Duke are the best sports fans in the world, as I have never heard of fans camping out for a game months in advance in order to support their team against its arch rival. Additionally, the Brooklyn Nets fans did not do a lot to bring the energy level up that college students often do by creating chants for their home team and coming up with creative ones for the visiting team as well.

Other than being disappointed with the fan atmosphere, the game was very exciting as it came down to the wire and a bad in bounds play that turned the ball back over to Los Angeles that won the Lakers the game in the final seconds. I was very surprised that there were actually more Lakers fans at the game than Brooklyn Nets Fans and the game was played on their home floor in Brooklyn! If I didn't know any better by the big Brooklyn Nets logo on the center of the floor I would have thought the game was being played in the Staples Center in Los Angeles. When Kobe Bryant and the Lakers scored there was thunderous applause and when the Nets scored the applause seemed to be a lot less quiet. Even though my team was not playing in this game it was still cool to be able to say I was finally able to go to a professional basketball game, and if given the opportunity I would attend more.


 







 

What I watched, saw, listened to this week:

On Monday, 10/26 I watched some Monday night football between Baltimore and Arizona and worked

On Tuesday 10/27 I played tennis and watched game 1 of the World Series between the New York Mets and the Kansas City Royals at Kansas City, Missouri. It was a thrilling game that lasted for 14 innings where Kansas City brought in the winning run in the bottom of the 14th inning on a sacrifice fly to take a 1-0 lead in series

On Wednesday 10/28 I had Spanish class where I was first introduced to Isabelle, had pre-departure meeting, then went to language social and watched game 2 of the World Series later that night where Kansas City won 7-1 in a game they broke open

On Thursday, 10/29 I played tennis and followed Thursday night football between the Miami Dolphins and the New England Patriots. Also had a student booster club meeting that night.

On Friday 10/30 I did my weekly radio show, went to work, and caught some of the World Series Game 3 in New York, New York at Citi Field where the Mets won 9-3 in a game they broke open

On Saturday 10/31 I went to a scholarship reception in the morning for brunch, then after I attended the Marist-Butler football game and got to watch the game from the press box. Since I was already in nice attire for the scholarship reception I decided that for my Halloween costume that I would be a lawyey

On Sunday 11/1 I went to work until 1:15 then went to the Marist women's soccer game against Siena in the first game of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) tournament where Siena won 1-0

After the soccer game I watched week 8 of the NFL    

This past week I spent some extra time and more than usual preparing for my study abroad trip next semester to Madrid, Spain. On Wednesday, 10/28 Isabelle Carrasco the resident director of the Madrid program for Marist, came for a week in order to meet all of the students going abroad to Madrid and to meet future students going abroad to Spain. On Wednesday morning, she came to my Spanish and gave a brief talk about the Madrid program, what it is, what the students do on the trip, and a general overview of the program all in Spanish. This was a good test for me to see if I could keep up and understand a local Spaniard while she was talking. Isabelle technically works for Marist, but lives in Madrid and works through the Marist study abroad program and helps all of the students from the minute they arrive in the Madrid airport. She gave a great description of the program in my Spanish class and announced that later that night there was going to be a language social in the library, where anyone who is interested in studying abroad can attend and hear from other students who have already gone abroad to help them decide if the experience is something they are interested in, and check out the new language lab in the library that was just renovated.

After my Spanish class I had another pre-departure meeting which Isabelle attended, along with a fellow student who had gone to Madrid for a whole year, and both were able to give me and the other people in the Madrid group good advice on what to pack, where and how to travel once we are there, and even about the student visas, which is a requirement for the program. This was the most helpful and informative pre-departure meeting I have had thus far, by providing me with a better understanding on what life is like in Madrid. At the meeting I was also informed that getting around Madrid is not that bad, and that best piece of advice I received was that I will get out of this trip what I put into it. I thought this was great advice because it tells you that in order to have the best experience as possible you have to do as much as you can to make it the best experience, by putting time and effort into planning a budget, where you want to travel to, etc.


Later that night, Isabelle, along with the other language professors at Marist, and one of the professors from the branch campus in Florence, Italy called Lorenzo de Medici, attended the language social that Isabelle had mentioned earlier that day in my Spanish class. The event was hosted in one of the vacant meeting rooms on the third floor of the library, with food and light refreshments. It was great talking to Isabelle and getting to know her, especially since I will be in Madrid for a whole semester and want to be able to learn from her as much as possible. Even though I spoke mostly English to Isabelle, before I left the language social, I was able to lean a new expression from her, called "vale" which is supposed to mean ok, or it can mean "yeah I agree with you." Additionally before I left she also provided me with the challenge that as soon as I arrive at the Madrid airport, I have to speak only Spanish from that point on until I arrive home. I am more than up for the challenge and am looking forward to all that I am going to experience studying abroad.