Inside K-ville: Entry 1

In the upcoming weeks—all the way up until the Duke-North Carolina game on Mar. 6—staff writer Chris Cussack will blog from inside Krzyzewskille as he lives through the tenting experience. Stay tuned for regular posts, photos and inside information covering Duke Basketball's most famous student tradition.

Over the next six weeks I’ll be keeping you updated on the ins and outs of K-ville from Black to Blue to White tenting -- or, what I call the story of a Southern California native coming to terms with what "winter" really means.

We’ve entered only the second full day of tenting and already it feels like I haven’t been indoors in weeks. Saturday night started with a whimper, as only seven groups were courageous -- err, insane -- enough to fight the Durham weather with nothing save a tarp over their heads. And, as we discovered in the morning, it turns out one member of our own group decided to increase the degree of difficulty by using no sleeping bag, leaving only a small blanket between her and the 40-degree night air. As awful a night as she had, hers wasn’t even close to being the worst.

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Try waking up in the early morning darkness to your tent mate’s projectile vomit hitting you in the face, creating a splash zone rivaling Shamu’s, as was reported by another group. That’s a real double whammy. I hope that strain of the flu can’t be transmitted mouth-to-mouth.

Today almost reached the same level of entertainment, however, as we fought against tornado-watch level wind and rain for hours before finally receiving grace in the wee hours of the morning. I owe huge thanks to whomever made the decision to use rocks in the landscaping around K-ville because they now have been moved to anchor our tarp. Other groups weren’t so resourceful, and tarps were strewn all across the lawn when we returned in the morning.

My computer battery’s dying so I’ll have to save more for later, but suffice it to say that if the next 42 days continue like this, this had better be one hell of a game.