BENGARLAND!com

I went to Raleigh, NC this weekend to check out grad school opportunities at NCSU. The first thing I thought of when I pulled into Raleigh on Thursday afternoon was 1997-1999, when I used to go visit Liz. Not much in Raleigh was familiar besides the little strip of shops near the university. But even there, most of the stores had changed. I still remember the loop, and roughly which direction I needed to go to get to her old place. 7 years later, I can close my eyes and walk through that apartment again. I remember when several of us piled on her futon and took a picture (it’s still around here somewhere). Ah, memories of crazy times.

Shortly after arriving, I met up with Michelle Schroeder. She’s the agroecology professor who taught part of the course that I took this past summer in Costa Rica. She graciously hosted me at her house, arranged meetings, showed me around, and kept me well fed. I met her husband, Tomas, and her baby boy Miguel (who loves the number 8). What a great family!

Friday morning we went to the university and I took a look around…

[Unfortunately, due to the weather, I didn’t get any pics]

NCSU’s agriculture programs are phenomenal. It’s astounding to see the difference between NCSU and UGA. There really is no comparison, and it makes me excited at the prospects of going there next year. The experimental facilities at NCSU are top-notch. They have a Phytotron, for god’s sake. And teaching greenhouses that are better than the research greenhouses at UGA. It’s actually kinda funny (in a sad way) how pathetic UGA seems now. [insert witty ghetto reference here]. I had no idea. Unfortunately, the weather was rainy and grey on Friday, so there wasn’t an opportunity to go see the CEFS site, but if it was like everything else, I know I would have been impressed. Yes, it’s a 2,000 acre sustainable agriculture research farm (!!!).

I feel like I could accomplish a lot and learn a lot there. Michelle is working on a project to explore the functions of micorrhizae fungi in the soil as related to cover crops and organic strawberry production. It sounds very interesting and mycology is something I’ve never really learned about before (at least in any depth), so it would be a great opportunity to discover new things on a personal level as well. My friend (and farmer) Jason once told me that “The most important crop here in the farm is the soil. If you don’t have healthy and productive soil, nothing else matters.” I’m keeping my fingers crossed that everything goes swimmingly over the next few months and that I end up being her grad student. We see eye to eye on many levels and I’m sure we would make a kick ass team.

As much as I like Athens and UGA, I’m ready to get out of here.