Visit to BYU-I

Nate and I drove out to Rexburg, Idaho to visit BYU-Idaho this past weekend.  I picked him up from school at 1:00 on Thursday and we drove for nine hours to Mountain Home, ID and spent the night. We made it through all the mountain passes without encountering any snow, which made me very happy, but there was dense fog in the Blues and for about half an hour we couldn't see anything more than a few feet in front of us. I'm so grateful it was warm enough that there wasn't any black ice! I'm not a very confident driver in snow and ice and I was a bit worried about the road conditions. We drove four more hours Friday and arrived in Rexburg a little after 12:00, just on time for our visit which was scheduled for 1:00.  After checking in to the local Super 8 Motel, we headed up to the school.  

As we walked into the Manwaring Center to meet Trevor, Nate's student ambassador, Emma Starnes came running up, yelling, "Nathan!" and gave him a huge hug.  Trevor was quite impressed! We chatted with Emma for a few minutes, and then went to the introductory meeting with about 8 other new students, and then on a tour of the campus.

Walking towards the Manwaring Center with two student ambassadors.  It looks like they are holding hands, but they're not.  The girl said she hadn't even been asked out on a date yet, quite amazing since I've heard that dating is the #1 hobby of BYU-I students.

The John Taylor building.  The front part is a beautiful chapel, where we had our introductory meeting.  There are eight or nine Stakes of students at BYU-I, so obviously they don't all get to meet in this chapel.  Most meet in large classrooms that double as chapels on Sundays.

The BYU-Idaho Center, which looks like a mini Conference Center.  It seats 15,000 and is beautiful! They have devotionals here every Tuesday.

 

Walking down to the lobby of the BYU-Idaho Center.

While on our tour, we ran into Grace Knight, who also gave Nate a hug, though not quite as enthusistically as Emma.  Trevor was doubly impressed!  The tour was very interesting.  We got to see most of the buildings on campus, including some interesting hidden spots like the hydroponic tomato green house, a mini natural history museum with stuffed animals ranging from badgers to hippos, a geology museum, and a tropical plant hot-house. The student ambassadors were both very friendly and helpful.

After the tour, we went to check out the apartment where Nate will be living during Winter semester.  It's a converted house, and his apartment is on the back side in the basement of the house below.  It's kind of old, very small, and doesn't have much furniture...one couch and no table or chairs.  There are two small bedrooms each shared by two guys, a small bathroom, and small kitchen/living room. Nate seemed fine with it, which is good since he's already signed the contract for the semester.  He hadn't seen any of his friends' apartments yet, but once he did, he said he would be moving into a different place for Spring. Theirs were much nicer. 

 

I dropped off Nate to hang out with Emma, Grace and Alex Nowjack, then drove around town and up to the temple.  It sits on the hill overlooking town, so you can see it from almost everywhere.

The front of the temple

Looking down over campus from the temple

Looking out over the town

I drove around for a while, and once it started getting dark I noticed the temple glowing at the top of the hill, so I went back up to take a few more pictures.

The next day, we picked up Alex and went to see a movie. Afterwards, Nate went to lunch with Emma, and I went back to the hotel. 

Then later in the day, I met up with Nate, Emma, and Grace to watch Alex's waterpolo game.  It was an exciting match.  Alex's team lost by one point in the last few seconds of the game because one of his team-mates got a red card for flipping off the referee, so the other team got a free shot. 

I took them out to dinner at Opa! Rexburg Grill (a Greek diner) after the game, and it was so much fun to sit and talk with them about their plans for the future.  They're such great kids.  Grace wants to study nutrition and food sciences, Emma wants to be  a writer, Nate plans to teach history, and Alex hopes to coach swimming and teach English.  If Nate and Alex both end up being high school teachers, they could teach American Studies (a combo History/English class) together at Bainbridge High.  Kids would say, "I have Van Jack for Am Stud."

 

Nate is really excited about going to school at BYU-I.  He really liked the atmosphere.  I did, too.  I'm happy I got to see where he will be and get a feel for what he will be doing. 

 

The drive back home on Sunday was long (14 hours!) but relatively uneventful.  Nate drove for a few hours, but I'm such a control freak that I felt more comfortable when I was driving.  Once again, we didn't run into any snow on the roads, but there was a slushy downpour over Snoqualmie Pass that wasn't very fun driving through.  I was glad to get home safely!  Now we just have to figure out how to get Nathan there in January...