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Campout Chronicles: Life at Boeheimburg 1 day from Syracuse-Duke

My first shift in Boeheimburg Thursday started at 4:30 a.m. After a night at The Daily Orange I was exhausted and ready to pass out. I didn’t care whether it was in my tent or in my room, but I had too much work to do.

Shockingly, it was somewhat challenging to come up with Public Service Announcement ideas for hydraulic fracturing while focusing every bit of energy I had to simply stay awake.

After classes, I came back to the Dome around 8 p.m. for one of the most fun nights I’ve had at Gate E. The campers got free hot chocolate, free mugs and Otto even paid a visit. He was determined to force-feed everyone four or five cookies each.

We gathered around for pictures with Otto and a few news cameras filmed the somewhat chaotic fiasco. Someone started the cheer “’Cuse, ‘Cuse, ‘Cuse…” which is actually more difficult to cheer than you think.

Next came the “Let’s go Orange!” chant, but no one could clap when the time came because we all had mugs in our hands. I’m sure the awkward silence accompanied by laughter made for great television.



A few new signs were held up for everyone to see, which brought loud cheers from the members of Otto’s Army.

A cameraman stuck around and a few people did some light-hearted interviews. We were all harassing each other and making fun of everyone’s answers to questions.

A couple people thought the boom for the camera looked like Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski’s hair so they started a Twitter account, @CoachKToupee.

There’s only one more night until the game. Thirteen days of camping outside of the Carrier Dome are about to come to an end. I was actually a little disappointed to leave at 11 and not spend the night last night.

We’ve all become a family. We may be crazy, but everyone student should camp out at least once during their time at SU.





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