SVU Visit!

So, I spent Spring Break visiting the place I will call my home away from home, Buena Vista, Virginia! That is a little town of about 6,000 people and the site of Southern Virginia University. I went to visit the campus, sit in on a few classes I might be taking and finally to meet the football coaches and team and workout with them!

The SVU Main Hall

I arrived on a rainy and foggy Monday afternoon and met the guys I was bunking with. One prospective missionary (who just got his call to Honolulu - yay for Tyler!) and one RM that went to Mexico. Both really fun guys. Monday night we went to a makeshift family home evening with some girls. We met up in the main hall and when one of the girls saw my face she immediately said: "I haven't seen you on campus ever. Are you visiting? What is your name?" I was pretty amazed that she was that blunt and forward, but it was refreshing. She recognized that I was not a student there and wanted to know what I was doing. The FHE was fun. We played Mafia and had banana bread muffins. It was great.

Tuesday was cool because it was my first day sitting in on some classes. I also had my first workout with the football team. Dang it was tough. The ab workout at the end was intense, man I was in pain for a while afterwords. After the workout I pretty much just hung out with the guys I had been meeting.

Wednesday consisted of a tour and more classes. It was then during a class that I realized something: this would be the most bittersweet Spring Break ever. I got out of my own classes only to travel across the country to sit in on some one else's classes. I was enjoying myself but I was still in class! DOH! Anyway, I had a football team meeting followed by a service project the coach volunteered the players for; moving books for the library from one storage area to another.

Thursday I woke up at 6AM to go lift with the team and avoid the majority of the players that would rather sleep in and workout at 2. After lifting I put on my sweats and went for a stroll in town, it was pretty cool. I saw some really cool houses. I LOVE the wrap-around porches of the South. I saw a cute house on a street corner that had a porch that stretched from one side to the other. It was way cool. After walking around I pretty much just hung out in my dorm room and read an economics book. Around noon, my mom arrived from Baltimore and the football coach gave the two of us a tour of campus, it was fun. He grew up a few hours from the school and has this awesome Southern drawl accent. I loved it, it's pretty funny. Later, I had another full team meeting followed by a defensive squad meeting. It was pretty cool. After the meeting my mom and I drove across the highway to Lexington which is like 5 minutes away and a town of about 30,000 I think. It is the home to Virginia Military Institute and Washington and Lee University, the school that was started by George Washington himself. It was pretty awe inspiring. The main hall at Washington and Lee looked like a brick white house on steroids. It was HUGE! Note to reader(s), definitely check out their website to see pictures and read about the school.

Cute corner house in Buena Vista

Washington and Lee Main Hall

Frat House - Even the frat houses look tight!

Friday my mom and I took off for DC and stayed there until Sunday. On our way we stopped at Monticello, the residence of Thomas Jefferson. Wow it was amazing! His house was INCREDIBLY high tech for the era. It was pretty cool. Friday night I finally ate BRAZILIAN FOOD! Yay! After 7 LONG months I finally made it to a Brazilian steakhouse. Oh it was great. And I felt so stuffed afterwards. Mmmmmmmmm. Saturday we started our day by going to the Library of Congress and then the Supreme Court building. We made our way around the Presidential Mall to the Jefferson Memorial, something I hadn't seen before. Sunday was fun, we slept in a little and then just drove around and went to the Arlington Cemetery and then to Georgetown University, that was another sweet sight.

Monticello

The Library of Congress

Inside the library

Another shot from inside the library

The Supreme Court Building

The Jefferson Memorial

Inside the Jefferson Memorial

Arlington National Cemetary

The flight home the the worst I've ever had. Because of the wind in California (my aunt said that the beach was terrible in Cali, something like 100 mph winds!) there was SO MUCH turbulence! Landing was quite the ordeal, but it was pretty dang smooth; kudos Senhor Piloto.

I'm glad to be back though. I need to keep working hard in school so that everything will begin to fall into place.