Sophomore Year at Vanderbilt has Begun!

I’ve just returned from taking Liam back to Vanderbilt University where he began sophomore year as a Trombone Performance major at the Blair School of Music yesterday. I love Nashville, it is so full of nice people and great restaurants, everywhere we went we had great conversations with friendly folk.

The only negative from Liam’s freshman year was his roommate. In retrospect, I should have butted in last November and asked the head RA to help Liam try to negotiate with his roommate, but that’s 20/20 hindsite. What I DID do is talk to the head of housing at the end of the year, and he had Liam come in for a quick chat; this ended up in Liam being placed in a single in the newest of the Vanderbilt dorms, Warren and Moore. With this complex they’re trying to create smaller communities within the larger Vanderbilt family, and so each of the 4 halls within Warren and Moore have 1/3 each of sophomores, juniors, and seniors.

Liam has a single:

Logan designed this poster (a play on the Alfred Hitchcock Presents artwork) for Liam’s birthday last May:

This bed is “loftable”, meaning it can be placed anywhere up and down those head/footboards. In order to have a view out the window from his desk, the bed had to be high enough for 1-2″ of the desk to slide underneath.

All sorts of storage under the bed! That foldable footstool was $12 from the Container Store and making the bed, as well as getting in and out is a breeze!

His kitchen/laundry room!

The floors are some sort of industrial strength tile that looks like maple!

Command strips  and hooks are AWESOME! I used a 5 pound hook for the bathrobe and jacket, that bathrobe is REALLY heavy, and it made it through the night just fine!

The ceilings are SO HIGH! Just lovely!

Here’s the view out his window (yes it rained on the day we moved him in. And then, there was the humidity….)

His “When are you done with pictures” face!

Here’s the lounge just outside his door:

Here’s his window from the outside!

There are 2 big gothic style dorm buildings that form a square, connected by a more modern building that has lots of meeting spaces, and food options:

They have a supermarket area open 24/7, lots of the rooms in these dorms are 6 singles in a suite that has a kitchen area in each one (minus the stove), so the students can do their own cooking there if they want.

But there’s also meals made to order 3x/day. Liam has enjoyed both the breakfast (banana french toast) and dinner he’s had here so far!

I love how the windows are juxtaposed with the rafters!

Here’s the grounds in front of the building, I love all the green!!!!

Liam and I had a great time getting his room set up so he can live and work in comfort, and have some friends over too! Of course, we took time to explore more of Nashville’s awesome foodie culture, including Maple Bacon 100 layer donuts:

(That’s his serious, I can’t believe I’m gonna eat this face!) Of course, it was delicious! And now, he’s off to a great start as a sophomore!