Off to College!

Solomon is off to college! Charles and I dropped him off at UCI on Monday, The University of California at Irvine, to be more formal about it. For our friends and family in Minnesota, it is a lot like going to UW Madison when you live in the Twin Cities. UC Irvine is about 6 hours from where we live in the San Fransisco Bay Area.  UCI ranks in the top 10 of Public Universities in the US. It comes out 35th overall. It is a large public university with lots of opportunities, but also does very well for things like safety and student experience. Irvine is within an hour of Los Angeles and 15 minutes from the ocean. We are very happy with where Solomon ended up.  

On the trip down we listened to Planet Money podcasts, and then a new book by one of it's contributors, Money: The True Story of a Made-Up Thing by Jacob Goldstein. It prompted lots of good discussion, as well as being quite entertaining and informative.    

Angeles National Forest was particularly beautiful. I'm not sure if we were technically in it when I took this, be we did get to see a gorgeous sunset there. 

Solomon's current plans are to major in economics and minor in statistics. Thanks his hard work on many AP classes, he is just shy of sophomore status. Not bad for a kid who missed almost his entire junior year due to a concussion (he tripped while running full tilt). Ok, enough bragging.  On to the move-in. 

It is 2020, so of course nothing is normal. UCI's dorms are open and the dining halls are open, but all classes are online. EVERYONE gets a single. Social distancing measures abound. Covid tests were the first stop when checking in.  Assuming those tests are negative, students will spend the first two weeks quarentineing in a socially distanced pod of six people. If they are positive, there is a special covid dorm. With one of the top 10 hospitals in California, I am sure they will get them medical care when needed. Everyone has a covid go bag, similar to a go bag for earthquakes and wildfire.  (After hearing about a student at NYU who was only fed juice and toast once a day, Solomon was sure to pack plenty of protein bars in his.) UCI seems to be handling all the logistics of covid very well, so those protein bars probably won't be needed.  

Solomon may get to learn Tolkein's Elvish after all.

Moving in went surprisingly well. After Solomon's covid test we had some time to drive around campus. I asked Solomon to pose by a statue of the school mascot, the anteater.  We read the plaque and discovered that anteaters can be HUGE! We are talking seven feet for the largest species.  We got his room set up within a couple of hours. The furniture all got moved around, making a double work as a single.   

The quilt he designed with his grandmother is on the bed, the pillow from our church in Minneapolis made the cut.

Charles found the beanbag chair surpirsingly relaxing after doing the heavy lifting with Solomon. They bunked the beds and stored the top matter underneath, leaving a metal 'canopy' as Solomon called it.

Once Solomon was all moved in we made one last Target run for some pantry items and one or two things we forgot. 

Solomon's RA, Maria, wrote a welcome message to everyone in her zot pod.

One last meal together. At the end we all lingered, not quite ready to leave.

After dropping Solomon off I convinced Charles to take a detour to the nearest beach, a 15 minute drive away. Corona Del Mar is beautiful, I hope Solomon gets there soon (biking it is 30 minutes).