Trip to Syracuse

Preparing for Syracuse, The trip & Adjusting in the room....
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Last year, being Ashley's first year of college, she litterly packed her whole room up and took it with her to school. The jeep was so jammed packed that you couldnt even see out the rear window. Yea, pretty bad! This time, I think she may have improved a little bit, for as you can tell there is room to the ceiling of the jeep. =) Still a LOT of stuff, but every year should get better... so they say!

Something about these type signs...in knowing the distance between each of the cities.
(Just a bit blurry, I know!)

This is Ashley's new dorm building from one of the parking lots. Personally, I think it's pretty nice as you make your entrance. To the right as you walk in... there is a decent size lounge area with seating and a huge flat screen & then a eating area with tables and high stools. The layout and design in this building is definitely a BIG upgrade from the building she was in her freshman year. I was a bit impressed, to say the least. Unfortunately, I didnt get any pictures of the entrance to show.
So, this year Ash is staying in a suite with 8 girls. There are 4 rooms within this suite, an open room - for sitting, hanging out etc.. obviously, it doesnt look attractive right now.. without anything in it/set up yet. This is the room to the right of the hallway picture. Now, the hallway picture.... bottom left corner is the door to enter the suite. Directly across the entrance is one of the 4 bedroom doors. The one in the middle of the hall is Ash's, which had those names posted as she walked in. Just imagine, at the end of that hallway that is pictured, to the left is another bedroom, to the right opens into that sitting room, and across the way is the last bedroom and bathroom.
Here's some bathroom pics! 2 stalls/sinks and 1 shower. The 1 shower may become the biggest issue in the mornings with 8 girls.
And, here is an unfinished project of her room. The first picture is how it looked when we walked in... beds up against that far wall, the desks at the foot of the beds and behind the picture shot are 2 closet cabinets and 2 decent size dressers. Our problem was.. finding a way in which everything would fit without blocking access to either one of the desks or one side of the closet. We rearranged things so many times, concluding that it just wasnt possible without making the beds into bunkbeds. Mom, finally hit on something... like she always does and we managed to figure it out. All drawers have enough space to open now, desk chairs to be pulled out,etc. It definitely was a chore. Obviously, with Ash's roommate not coming in until Sunday.. we wanted everything as fair as possible for her too.

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One of the biggest differences within the room was the walls. Last year's walls were cement blocks painted.. where as this year.. it's actually sheetrocked, freshly painted with no nail holes & the wooded furniture is in much better condition.

So, by the time we finally figured the arrangement out, Ash had a track meeting at 4pm and had to leave. Unfortunately, we left everything in a mess for her to organize later. Normally, we would have stayed and helped her set up completely, grab something for dinner, buy all her books she needed, run to walmart for anything else- food, necessities for the room, ETC but we left not knowing how long she'd be at her meeting. She then found out that she would have to do her first cross country run run today too.

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All in all, she is there for another year.... it just didnt seem possible that she was back already.