Moscow, we're here (no, not Russia)

Because my career requires 150 credit hours of college to sit for the CPA exam, I need to attend graduate school. After a number of acceptances, we decided to attend the University of Idaho in Moscow. We didn't know much about the town or campus, but felt good about attending here and they gave me a scholarship.

We pulled in this last week and were very surprised. Moscow is a town of about 21,000 people situated in rolling hills right on the edge of the Idaho-Washington border. It is green and beautiful. Campus has an ivy league feel with old, ivy covered red brick buildings. And since the Washington State University is eight miles away, shopping is much better then we expected. We even have a mall with a Macy's and a Bed Bath.

We found a nice little apartment about two blocks from campus. It has two bedrooms and has a beautiful hillside view of campus. We love it. Add to it that people have been extremely friendly. We are very happy with our situation.

The town is fun. People often travel by bike and they have a farmer's market downtown each Saturday that sells produce, breads, and other artisan wares. We went and bought a pound of snap peas for $1.50. An hour later, they were no more.

A funny story about the farmer's market. We have been told that there is a bit more of a hippie influence in the area. While you can see it in the occasional person, we did get a kick out of a sign at the farmer's market. It notified us that the produce was organically grown, but that the market couldn't advertise that because the government passed a law requiring licenses for 'organic' businesses. These laws made it easy for big producers like Wal-Mart to obtain licenses, but very difficult for small businesses. The small time producers refused to buy into a system that forced them to share cherished values with corporate giants like Wal-Mart.

Although we didn't enjoy driving the moving truck through the canyons on the way up, we really love it here.

The view out the front of the house. Yes, those are hilly fields.

The view out our back windows. You can see campus as it climbs the hill. The golf course is off the back of the hill along with the arboretum/botanical garden.

The living room.

The kitchen.