I need to go to a different continent to get any snow on this blog. On the plus side, I have pretty good access to this continent, so I've got some more snow for ya. If you look at our spring tour, you'll see I'm hitting several college campuses (is the plural of campus campi? maybe Campari?) well, here's the list (not all me, thank goodness) http://www.intraxinternabroad.com/locations - I did some work in case it looks like I just hung out and ate food. First thing I did on this trip (like Colorado in December) I found more snow in North Carolina. Here's snowy NC State University. 
Then for the first time since I graduated (1992, for any keeping track), I saw my alma mater Virginia Tech play basketball and it happened to be the #1 team in the country, Wake Forest. Nice timing - for the 3rd time in history Virginia Tech beat a #1 team in basketball and I was
there. Sometimes you're just on a roll. Next thing you know my home town Pittsburgh Steelers won yet another Super Bowl.
Then I went down to my grad school alma mater South Carolina. It was a wonderful homecoming. I must confess to being a bigger fan of Virginia Tech sports and I go back there more, but my 2 years at Carolina were maybe more fun than my 4 years at Tech (OK, all 6 were good, but it was more concentrated at Carolina). The graduate business school at South Carolina treats me very well and they even highlighted this blog in the alumni magazine. So going back to South Carolina was wonderful. Good for work, good in general.
I was going to meet up with a guy I've known of since high school but only recently got around to liking - he's a prof at Carolina. Unfortunately he was sick this trip, but I'll be back. So the tour was good and I realized - just as I would find vegemite within a day or two of arriving in Australia - that I really wanted some grits when I was in South Carolina. I had grits every day thereafter. If you live in the South, you take Waffle House for granted. If you don't, you realize that easy access to grits and hash browns that are splattered, smattered, smothered, covered and diced is a luxury to enjoy. Anyhow, 15 years after graduating from the place, I still enjoy going back to the University of South Carolina.
Moving on, I drove down to Charleston - arguably one of the most beautiful cities in America - and continued on to Savannah. Wow. I just love this section of the South. It is hard not to love the place. Charleston and Savannah both have so much history and beautiful architecture. Not a bad couple of places to wander around, either.
Next in line I saw Florida, Florida State, Auburn, and Alabama. No complaints about Florida and FSU, but I must say I liked the Alabama schools better. Tough to say exactly why - good folks at all the schools - but the Alabama schools were almost universally helpful.
Here are some images of Toomers Corner (popular spot in Auburn- decorated with toilet paper) and the Delta Zeta house at Alabama. Why are you taking a picture of a sorority house, amigo?
Good reason: my Mom was a DZ at Alabama many, many, many years ago so I took a photo of the current version of the place. Toomers Corner is where Auburn fans celebrate big wins. They saved their toilet paper by not winning many football games, so they are using their stored up celebratory rolls on other sports wins. Folks around here love every sport, but none as much as football. The dollar goes a little farther here: I put a quarter in the parking meter and it gave me an hour. In San Francisco, a quarter buys you enough time to legally put in the next quarter.
Virginia Tech was wonderful as ever and the University of Virginia - our mortal enemy - was pretty darn good too. I might start liking those guys if I'm not careful. I got Alex a Tyrod Taylor (VT) jersey. At least nobody else at the Steelers Super Bowl party was wearing a Virginia Tech jersey. The students at Tech - who had no idea I was an alum or in any way worthy of extra effort - were simply the most polite, thoughtful people I met on the trip. Much like Carolina, the people at Tech certainly make alums feel welcome. Great to go home again.
Good times in the South. I think I'd still rather be in Queensland or Western Australia (or Darwin or the Barossa or Southbank or Darling Harbour), but it was great to go back to the South and see all the highlights.
