1. Monuts
- Admit it, you still check the Monuts website occasionally to see what new flavors or creations you’re missing out on. I personally can’t wait to be reunited with my favorite dinosaur fun facts, the ultimate sign of upcoming gastronomical pleasure.
2. (First Floor) Perkins
- Where else are you guaranteed to see your best friend, most recent hookup, and person in your bio lecture who’s always falling asleep?
3. Basketball
- As someone who has FaceTimed my parents while they stream games from their iPad at 4:00am London time, I understand (and embody?) the love of Duke basketball. Nothing makes fans sadder than watching the Crazies in the crowd and desperately wanting to be hexing alongside their blue brethren.
4. Football
- Since football is only a fall sport, it’s hard to journey across oceans and miss out on the new Duke tailgating culture and support our recently dominating team.
5. Wilson
- Gyms abroad just aren’t the same. They don’t have the same equipment; instructions are often in a different language; and quite frequently, waiting for one of the two ellipticals takes longer than passport control.
6. Warm Weather
- For those of us studying in places where shorts aren’t in the locals’ vocabulary, we miss the heat of Durham in the fall. After converting the temperature to Fahrenheit, we realize just how lucky we had it back at school.
7. The Gardens
- One of Duke’s greatest assets is its magnificent campus, especially its award-winning gardens. Sitting on the grass with a picnic or just taking a nap while the sun beats down on your face is one of the unique experiences that’s hard to come by in large cities abroad.
8. Their Friends
- This one seems pretty obvious, but being in a bunch of different cities throughout the world makes you really appreciate the amazing friends you’ve made at Duke.
9. English
- Sure going to another country and learning a language sounds like something all millennial gush and rave about, but there is nothing like giving your brain a rest and not having to convert every phrase and joke in your head. Also, humor just doesn’t translate, so you often get a lot of blank stares… Just me?
10. Food Points
- Ordering in sushi right to your door and not having to pull out real money is something most Duke students can’t wait to return to. Food is expensive abroad – we all miss pretending the money isn’t real.
11. Divinity Refectory/Pitchforks Grilled Cheese
- Food seems to be a pretty common asset Blue Devils miss while they’re abroad. There are few things more satisfying than that gooey grilled cheese from the Div School or the late night grilled cheese with avocado and bacon from Pitchforks – er, Café Edens.
12. Free Food
- We get hungry abroad. And food is expensive!
13. WaDuke
- This one should be a given. Spending food points on some of Durham’s most delicious entrees is one of the greatest perks of being on campus. Looking at underclassmen’s Snapchats from the WaDuke makes me drool as I consume my sandwich in a box.
14. The Crane
- The part of Duke’s campus we all love to hate – the crane. Maybe it’s not the crane exactly we miss, but hearing and making jokes about its presence is part of our daily routine that friends abroad don’t seem to understand.
15. Netflix
- Some countries do have Netflix, and of course there are ways to watch this heaven-sent miracle while abroad, but VPNs often slow your computer down, and foreign Netflix isn’t the same.
16. Spotify
- Unless you’re a big spender shelling out the big bucks each month for premium, you’re stuck using YouTube to listen to music in the morning.
17. Drunk Pizza
- Pizza in Europe isn’t considered the Holy Grail you drool over in your Uber home from a club. Pizza eateries are often full-blown restaurants that take some level of sobriety to order.
18. The barn
- How many other people can say they’re going to a barn party tonight?
18. Harry Potter Reading Kid
- While we may not have sat out every day listening to the next installment, he’s something special to Duke who we all hold dear in our hearts.
19. The Chapel
- Like the Gardens, the Duke Chapel is one of the iconic and beautiful sights we’re lucky to witness daily as students. Living outside of a city center, the commute to class doesn’t quite have the same visual charms.
20. Free Alcohol - Even if it is Crat
- Actually having to pay for alcohol is something I don’t like getting used to. Walking home with an empty wallet after two beverages is starting to take its toll.
21. Red Solo Cups
- These dinky little Dixie cups or construction level cups of steel are not the same and only make us miss frat-sponsored beer pong.
22. Saying You Go To Duke And Having People Actually Know What That Is
- I don’t know how many times I’ve told people I go to Duke and gotten blank stares followed by the response, “so not Harvard?” Students abroad tend to think that the only universities in America belong to the Ivy League. And being a huge Duke basketball fan, it breaks my heart when people don’t know about our 2015 championship.
23. Swinging Benches On The BC Plaza
- One of Duke’s greatest assets is its beauty during the months with good weather. Scoring one of the swinging benches on the plaza with friends or to do homework is Duke magazine photo worthy.
24. Durham
- Durham has become our new home away from home. There are so many amazing restaurants, venues, parks, markets, you name it. And it’s always fun to joke around with friends about how Duke is in the middle of nowhere, Durham is actually a really fun city with loads of things to do.
25. Shooters
- As much as we all hate to admit it out loud, we all really miss Shooters. Foreign clubs and pubs and bars and discotecs are great, but at the end of the day, the mechanical bull and cage are what we call home.
