How do you explain Rexburg?

[Sleeping in EQ]

A colleague just now asked me about where I studied before I came here (to the University of the People’s Republic of Monsanto) and so I’ve gotten to explain a bit about BYU. My colleague went to an expensive, Lutheran-sponsored liberal arts school. We were having a great conversation and then she asked me “Aren’t there kind of other BYUs? Like in Idaho or something? (As it turns out, she had a H.S. friend go to BYU-I/Ricks) And then I found myself having to explain Rexburg, at least on some level.


In the hidden corners of my mind I was thinking that Rexburg is like:

Children of the Potatoes

Bob Jones for Mormons

An enclave, run by religious zealots who are also John Birchers. This is not a place you want to fill up on gas, much less, live.

The unholy child of Footloose and the Dating Game, conceived in an apartment with a tennis racket in the window, and after a fireside.


But what came out of my mouth was:

It’s less academic than BYU and has a lot of the ‘small-town conservative feel’ for a college town. It’s a smaller school so people often know each other, and there's lots of intramural and group activities. They wear their ‘churchiness’ on their sleeves more. The Californians who go there usually hate it.