Enjoying The Belmont University Campus

While attending the BlogNashville conference the weekend before last at Belmont University, we had some time in between sessions to take in the beauty of the campus.

We’ve lived in Nashville for several years, but we haven’t really spent any time at Belmont… until now.

I must say, it made me want to be a student all over again — especially on a non-traditional campus such as this.

I went to Indiana University (IU in Bloomington), then Texas Tech University (TTU in Lubbock)… both are your traditional, old-school, humongous campuses.

At those universities, you’re pretty much “just a number” and you spend your college days as one of thousands trying to stand out in a crowd and make something of yourself.

Sometimes I’ve wished that I’d gone to a smaller, private school like Belmont where my voice was more likely to be heard, and I wouldn’t have been as likely to get lost in the crowd.

I know, I know, the grass is always greener on the other side.

Anyway, back to the beauty of the Belmont campus…

Belmont University’s Charm
Belmont’s campus is quite charming. It’s tiny. It’s quaint.

There are a lot of outdoor “sitting places” (which could also be used as study locations I’m sure). There are wrought iron benches and tables strategically placed between classroom buildings and residence halls.

Likewise, there are several larger, semi-isolated “gathering spots” outdoors. These make for fun places to just hang out, or study, or conduct small meetings.

Size Is Everything
At schools like IU and TTU, the classrooms and facilities which make up the “campus” are spread out over several blocks — if not MILES. On the other hand, at Belmont, everything is contained within a small square radius.

The Belmont campus is located within a quiet little Nashville residential community.

As a result: there’s a lot of peace and solitude. At the same time, you’re surrounded by natural beauty and landscapes…

Lots of trees. Not a lot of roads and cars. Yet, it’s still close to downtown.

Trendy Hillsboro Village
The streets surrounding Belmont University are lined with trendy little cafes, coffee shops, and restaurants.

I can’t address the Belmont nightlife, as I haven’t exeperienced it myself. But I always hear people talking about “going to Hillsboro Village” on evenings and weekends, so I’m guessing it’s a fairly hip place to wine and dine.

I would guess that the trendy little strip becomes quite active at night. The place we went… PM’s serves beer, wine, and such.

Though if this grafitti-laden stop sign is any clue (it’s located on one of the side-streets as you enter Belmont), then perhaps the consumption of certain beverages is not welcomed here…

Look, Up In The Sky…
…It’s a bird, it’s a plane…it’s FIVE planes and they’re spelling something in the sky!

It was amazing to watch them, as they each shot out precisely-timed bursts of white smoke in order to spell out some message.

Unfortunately, each time they did it, the first part of the message always dissolved before the last part of the message was completed. So we never could grasp exactly what they were trying to say.

We figured it was something techy, since we usually caught the “.com” clearly. Plus, this was happening directly over the Belmont University campus — the site of the largest gathering of computer geeks who were likely to blog about it!

Blake even managed to capture a picture of it over at his NashvilleFiles blog.