Malibu or Bust

8-19-2014  -  Day 5: Malibu! We have arrived.

Believe it or not, this is the first time we have set foot on this campus. The decision to attend school here was made sight unseen. We visited all of the other schools that #2 Smithling was accepted into, except for this one. Crazy, I know... Talk about blind faith! This decision was made with a lot of prayer and careful consideration, and there was much input from people who have either attended school here, or who currently work at Pepperdine. Once we got to campus, it became very clear that this was indeed the perfect location for our daughter to be for the last two years of her undergrad education. 

Liesey is living in a four-bedroom apartment with three other transfer students. There was a posse of student helpers who unloaded both vehicles in about 15 minutes. It took a little longer than that to get boxes unpacked and get stuff organized.

After the majority of the boxes were unpacked, we drove down the hill to the main campus. We climbed many, many, many steps from the parking lot up to the undergraduate campus. No, I didn't count how many steps there are, but it is now obvious why Pepperdine students and staff are in great shape!

This is the view looking from the undergraduate campus (Seaver College) up the steep hill to where Liesey's apartment is located.  Look in the upper 1/3 of this photo to see the graduate school and the upperclassmen/graduate student apartment buildings. Yes, her apartment is that cream colored stucco building with the red roof... Ha! Ha!

And this is the view from outside the apartment building, looking down at the campus and the Pacific. I feel "so sorry" for our student. I simply don't know how she will be able to study with this kind of visual distraction.

8-20-2014  - Day 6: More new student orientation (NSO) activities were on the agenda, but three of us ducked out early to enjoy some time on one of the Malibu beaches, literally a few minutes away. The actual new student gets an "A" because she stayed for all of the NSO sessions.

We had originally planned to gut it out until the very last NSO parent-oriented activity was crossed off the list, but we decided that the trio of Texas bound travelers should get an earlier start back east. The new, revised plan would have us leaving about seven hours ahead of our original schedule. 
We had done our part:

1. We escorted the NEW student to campus.
2. We helped her get her apartment set up.
3. We made trips to Ikea, Target(2x), Home Depot, Ralph's, and a couple other places that I just cannot remember.
4. We attended the appropriate number of "NSO" events. Ugh!
5. We had FUN! 

"They" say that parting is such sweet sorrow; however, for us this was a joy-filled farewell. We are confident that our girl is EXACTLY where she is supposed to be, doing what God intends for her to do. Who can quarrel with that?!

Yep, I think she's gonna like it here!

Pepperdine is in our rearview mirror -- literally and figuratively speaking.  Only 1,450 miles to go.