Return to the Midwest, part 2

In early September Tom and I flew out to St. Paul to help Lydia get settled at Macalester. Lydia had gone out a week ahead of us to participate in "Macward Bound," a pre-orientation hiking program. Small groups of kids spent 5 days back packing, hiking, and camping along the Superior Hiking Trail, in northeastern Minnesota near Lake Superior.

As a result of doing this, by the time we arrived with the other half of her stuff, she was already living in her dorm room. Her roommate, Jia, had arrived from China while Lydia was off hiking, and they had fun rearranging furniture and fixing up their room.

Orientation was great, again reinforcing the value of high quality small liberal arts colleges in the Midwest. And it turns out both the President and the Provost came from Lawrence! The convocation was impressive, as students marched in carrying flags of some of the 67 countries represented in Mac's student body. The first years followed in their orientation groups, which given Mac's Scottish heritage are called Clans.

They kept us all busy on Friday and Saturday. By the time parents were invited to leave on Sunday morning, Lydia's room was all set up, she had her books (when we bought them and the woman rang up the sale, she said "Oh my!." Turns out we were her biggest sale so far that day at $520, and that was buying virtually all used books. As she said, although some book prices have come down, math, science and language tend to be high. Lydia's taking calculus, geology, German, and history (which required 8 books) so it added up. But we were glad that she was set up.

Tom and I then took the bus to the Minnesota State Fair, the largest state fair in the US, known for serving "everything on a stick." There's corn on a stick, hot dogs on a stick, and even hot dish on a stick, alligator on a stick, and deep fried candy bars on a stick. We kept our eating to a minimum. The main reason we went was to see our friend Sean Emery, father of one of Lydia's Smirkus friends, perform. We met up with my Lawrence friend Kathy Teegarden, who lives in Minneapolis, and had fun until the crowds got too big and we headed out. I think all college orientations should end with the sad parents being sent off to see a clown!