Rexburg, ID.
Brigham Young University - Idaho
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| Crossroads cafeteria at the Manwaring Center Students here know how to play a good pian'er |
I'm stopping in the town of Rexburg for a day at the BYU-I student center. Between here and the west entrance of Yellowstone is about an hour and a half drive. There's not much civilization in between, so I'm making camp here until Friday, the 15th when the park opens its west gate.
I was planning to see the Targhee national forest on Thursday, but they don't open up its roads for the spring until the 15th either. And It's set to rain on the 14th and 15th. We'll see. Maybe the weather won't clear up, but maybe a few extra days of rest will clear up my six-day throat cold.
A new concept of study?
There are rooms off a corridor labeled "Practice Room". I dungettit. At first I thought they might be for musicians, but they're just rooms with three chairs and a square table. I don't see how it could be used for anything other than studying.
Maybe they re-purposed the music building and didn't change the signs? Or perhaps is it some devotional buzzword to revolutionize the concept of studying?
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| Practice, for Life Liberty Love of Country |
Mixing work with play
Right next to the Practice corridor is the recreation lounge, with ping-pong, billiards, and table hockey. The loudest of the three, table hockey, is also the most popular. LOL. Hardly a cease in the action when I was practicing, from noon to 11 p.m. They also have a bowling alley on the same floor, but they restrained themselves from putting that next to the study rooms as well.
Student body
Seen many a parent playing table hockey against his child. Dunno if it's people from the neighborhood coming in, knowing the University is on exam week, or if the parents are employees? Maybe students? A young couple with a stroller or hugging a toddler are common to see. There's also a large children's section in the university library.
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| Student janitor dusting the glass panels |
God's Got This
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| img |
Maybe they are already on summer vacation, their class not requiring a final exam. Maybe they are exceptionally gifted, or at least compared to their academic demands they are. But maybe... is it possible? Perhaps there is some power of faith at work!
Speak English?
An elderly man walked directly to me near the bookstore and placed an arm on my shoulder. He actually complimented my English! I thought it was a joke at the time... but now I wonder if maybe he didn't fully appreciate how young I was when I came to this country, when I told him I'd been a U.S. citizen for a very long time. Once he confirmed I was Chinese, he told me his story.
It was rather strange for him to arrest me, without asking consent, but sometimes old people do that when talking to kids. Plus, white people of a more conservative mindset may take for granted the right to overstep personal boundaries with a minority that would not be possible with a good breed. Perhaps he had been a priest early in his career.
He told me about his years teaching English to college students in several parts of China. The enormous population of China left an impression on him. He recalled the number of students both in the large city and the rural town. They far exceeded the couple thousand enrolled in an average size American college.
He resolutely told me how he instructed his students, 'No Chinese. Only English from now on in my class.' When they started, he said they were unsure of themselves and their language skills. (That's fairly typical of most Chinese - it's a product of the culture... but I didn't tell him that.) By the end, he said, they felt confident that they could speak English.
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| Legendary leadership |
Maybe he saw the inspirational quote (pictured above) and felt he deserved admiration for bringing salvation to so massive and timid a population.
Mascot
Oh, yeah and Cookie Monster at Walmart. <3 :heart:
The next time I screw up really bad I'm just going to tell everyone "chill, God's got this".
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