Rexburg

Three weeks. Three whole freaking weeks in Idaho. This is the longest I have been away from home, & even then I was with family or at a camp when I was gone. Not now, oh no. Now, I'm all by myself {sort of}, living in Rexburg, Idaho. I have four roommates, three [well, now only two] classes and a heck of a lot more free time than I imagined. I usually spend it at home, watching Friends or Criminal Minds or whatever else is lying around, but I do go out often.

Usually when I go out it's with Rebecca Malott and her husband, Travis. We'll find a couple more people to take with us, like Andrew, Mark, or Kevin and we watch movies or drive down to Rigby Lake and swim. I'm a lot tanner now than I was back in Florida, which amazes me. Of course, it'll only last until winter, which is just around the corner. Rexburg is infamous for its long winters, another reason why I'm hoping I can move to Provo, Utah in the next three weeks.

I've only been here in Idaho for three weeks {like I said earlier} and I've already gotten into trouble. Thanks to my adventurous friend Melissa and Amanda. They decided to take Kellie, Sam, and I over to some abandoned town in the middle of a bunch of fields. Of course, back in Florida such things do not exist, so I was naturally stoked to go.

After about a fifteen minute drive, we parked at a little gravel patch of the side of the road where some trees and a lone swing stood. Apparently years back a little child {the owner of that swing} died when he ran out in front of a car. Now the swing sits there, haunted. The five of us gravitated towards the swing like tourists to Disney, and took turns getting our picture taken.

It was pretty cool. After our little photography session, we trekked through the back of a near-by field to a dirt road which lead up to some super neat abandoned houses. With our cameras at the ready, we shot everything. It wasn't easy though, we had to walk through weed up to our necks, and {sometimes} heads, but the end result was worth it.

While we were there, we ran into another group who was taking senior portraits with some girl. They brought in this awesome yellow and green chair and just left it there while they went to get the girl changes so, I made sure to get a good shot of it. The whole feel of the little town was simply amazing, and I can't help but wonder who lived there back when the buildings weren't so dilapidated.

After a bit of walking and picture taking, we decided to head back. This is where the story gets interesting. About half way back down the dirt road, a guy on a four wheeler came riding up to us. He asked if we had permission to be on the property {no, of course not} and informed us that we should get of and that there was a deputy parked towards the front. We hastily agreed and continued on our way. Much to our dismay, not thirty seconds later, said deputy came speeding up the dirt path, stopping only feet in front of us.

He stepped out of the car and approached us, asking whose car was parked at the front and what we were doing here. Melissa said it was hers and that we were only here to get pictures. The officer then said that we were on private property, to which we rebutted with the fact that we had not seen the sign since we had cut through the field. Apparently, in Rexburg, walking through a field is ILLEGAL. It's known as a criminal offense! So there we stood, all five of us, criminals.

He quickly took down our names, birth dates, and drivers licenses before walking back to his car and calling up the owner of the plot of land. We couldn't help but stand there and laugh at the horrid luck we had. So many groups of kids from BYU-I had come here before, yet we were the ones who got caught.

Once the owner came, the officer spoke to him for a good five minutes before sending him on his way. Luckily, he had talked the owner out of pressing charges and decided to send us beck home {not before he clarified for me what exactly a 'field' was}.

Since then, I am proud to say, have not walked through another field; however, I'm scared to freaking death to walk anywhere but the sidewalk. I don't even walk on the weeds in the cracks of the concrete.

Needless to say, I am enjoying my time here at BYU-Idaho. It's a lovely school and the scenery is breath taking. I would love to live in a place like this, only with a little bigger of a population.

xo-

Bailey