Washington University Move-In Weekend
Details (and photos) after the jump.
First things first: reconnecting with the Millers. David - my "brother from another mother" from Jackwood St. - helped move me in to WashU in 1990, and now we're moving our kids into the same dorm!
Then over to Julie's to pick up the boxes we shipped to her house. Julie was on my freshman floor, and was arguably my best friend throughout college. It's amazing to reconnect with her, and she's promised to be "the Catholic aunt that she [Melanie] never knew she needed" while Melanie is in St. Louis.
Next: meeting the roommate and her parents. We went to Zia's "on the Hill" for toasted ravioli and chicken parm, followed by a Ted Drewes run for the full St. Louis experience.
Friday was move-in day! The school made it incredibly easy, with professional movers taking everything from the car to the dorm. The girls, with their moms, unpacked and set up the room. The dads assembled furniture in the anteroom.
Speaking of reunions, Sara Reed stopped by. Sara was on the Scripps Ranch High School field hockey team with Melanie, and is who Melanie stayed with when we visited WashU last year.
Friday night we double-dipped for dinner. First was WashU Hillel for their Bear Beginnings Shabbat Dinner which featured a greeting by Chancellor Andrew D. Martin. This was fun as it was the first time the kids were coming from the dorms to meet up with their parents. You can see the nucleus of a friend-group forming.
We ducked out of that early (when the kids left for their 8pm floor meetings, and not before cupcakes, of course) and went to Katie's Pizza & Pasta Osteria with David, Jodi, and Ben - their middle child who is junior at WashU and a wealth of information about school, social life, and St. Louis dining.
Saturday was we made a second Target run in as many days, and as Melanie wanted pizza we ate at Katie's again (and Ted Drewes again). In between, we took a walk around campus with Julie. There was lots of reminiscing, and we had a chance to peek inside the business school. We definitely didn't have facilities like this in the 90s.
All in all, it was a great weekend. Melanie is excited, sad, eager, and overwhelmed. But she has friends and is in a place where she can thrive. It was hard to leave her — and Saturday night everyone's nerves were a little frayed — but it was made infinitely easier by how happy she is and how quickly she has settled in to campus life.