Last week, Dave and I brought Gabbie to her first college move-in. Since she is going to college across the country from where we live, things were a little more complicated as far as getting everything there. Since Dave’s parents were here for Simon’s Bar Mitzvah, they stayed with the boys and Dave, Gabbie, and I flew to NY, where we rented a car and drove up to UMass Amherst. Here is Gabbie and all of the bags at the Kansas City Airport before we checked in!
Our flight was delayed by an hour, but we made it to NY with all of our bags.
Dave went and got the car and picked us up. It’s about a two and a half hour drive from NY to Amherst. We stayed in the UMass Hotel, which was quite convenient!
Gabbie did early move-in, which was convenient and eliminated a lot of stress in my opinion! She participated in an early orientation for Jewish students with the Jewish on campus organization and that also helped with her meeting new friends. But first, we walked around campus and got the lay of the land. The tall building is the library.
This is Gabbie’s dorm building:
She’s a the top of a huge hill, which should make her strong with walking up it every day. This graffiti wall showed me which way to go.
More campus views:
We picked up her key and got ready for the hard work.
Unpacking and organizing was only slightly stressful on my part. We headed to Target for all the things we couldn’t pack. It was an expensive trip for sure.
A bit more decorated:
There was a parent and student BBQ at the orientation and we met some people, some of whom I had met on Facebook, so that was kind of fun. Dave and I walked back while Gabbie had a student only activity.
This is the business school – it was cool looking so I took pictures of it even though Gabbie is not a business student!
We wanted to go to the top of the library but it was closed, so these pictures are from the top of the hotel:
It was raining when we left in the morning but I needed a picture of the sign!
Gabbie seems to be having a good experience so far. She has met people, likes her roommate and another floor mate they’ve been hanging out with, and is friends with some of the girls she met at the orientation. She had the official freshman orientation too and classes started on Tuesday.
She is taking a science class called Science of Craft, which will be about various processes including blacksmithing, brewing, and more. Two Journalism classes as well as a freshman seminar. And she had chosen a class about the history of antisemitism, which sounds really interesting to me, but it’s an upper level class with many assignments and she wants to switch out of that one. She will find out today if that is possible.
Apparently it’s quite hot in MA at the moment and the parents on the Facebook group are worried about their children in their non-air conditioned dorm rooms. I’m sure soon enough they’ll be worrying about snow and ice on campus!
Wishing Gabbie a great first semester!