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<p>EnoughAlready - My son was in the Glee Club for his first two years (2008-2010), so I am sure that he knows your son well. He left when Jim Marvin left and it sounds like your son did as well. He did not join the Kroks until spring of junior year, so this is his first year with them and he is loving it. We get to enjoy his round-the-world tour through his blog, which is fun. They are in Asia now and are being treated like demi-gods. He also knows both of gadad’s daughters.</p>
<p>Personally, I did not enjoy the graduation week as much as I thought I would. We found out shortly before we arrived that the Kroks would be leaving Thursday night at midnight. Later it was moved up to 9:30. As a result, the “packing-up” which would have occurred on Friday had to happen before Thursday (and we were arriving late Monday for the festivities). As of Tuesday morning, one trunk had been packed and one box full of miscellaneous stuff. He had bought the largest boxes he could find (and I am sure the parents would recognize the problem here). We were putting everything in storage, so I had arranged a minivan to move the “small” stuff. We made one trip to the storage facility with the aforesaid locker and one or two boxes (now of a more reasonable size), but that was all that could be accomplished before the Family Dinner on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, most of the rest of the room was moved with the help of one of his roommate’s dad, but the two of us missed the Family Picnic.</p>
<p>Quite frankly (no pun intended) I was not interested in Barney Frank’s thoughts and had never heard of the commedian, so I missed the Class Day speeches in order to take a shower prior to the Master’s Reception. The reception was nice, but we had to hurry out in order to make our dinner reservations with family and friends. The dinner at Upstairs at the Square was great, relaxing and not at all hurried (for the first time since we had arrived).</p>
<p>I was prepared (having read the comments of prior attendees here on CC) to arrive early at the gate for graduation and we were there by 6:15 a.m. We got good seats and enjoyed the Morning Exercises, especially the student speeches. The House ceremony was okay, but the House Master did not really say anything about the students other that a short sentence or two that the students had written themselves. That was disappointing based on what I have heard about other House Masters. The Afternoon Exercises were actually more of an alumni meeting and had little to do with the graduates (other than they are now alumni and can start giving to the college). We left after the Pitches and Kroks sang. I was not that interested in the speaker. We had dinner at the Rialto with family and friends again and it was just as relaxing as Wednesday’s dinner except that our son had to leave so early.</p>
<p>All in all, I would skip the Family Dinner and not have great expectations of the Family Picnic. Both occasions were essentially cafeteria food (other than the beer and wine at the dinner). The Class Day speeches and the Afternoon Exercises are dependant on the speakers and would judge them accordingly. (Last year’s was much better in my opinion.) Do not miss the Master’s Reception, the House Graduation or the Morning Exercises (but get there early and be prepared to sit for a long time). When we were finishing up the moving on Friday, I asked one of my son’s blockmate’s dad when he had gotten all the sun (he was quite red) and he said he was on Widener Library’s steps for graduation because he arrived at 7:15 a.m.</p>
<p>Most CC parents know that you need to make hotel reservations now for next year, but you should also know that you need to make restaurant reservations early too. Some of the fancier restaurants are taking reservations now for next year’s graduation. I would only be concerned about graduation night or possibly the night before. Our son thought we could just make reservations on the Monday we arrived, but we made them a month or longer in advance and had to take the time slots available. Needless to say this can also be a problem if you don’t know how many people will be in your dinner party.</p>
<p>Lastly, plead with your kids to get some packing done before you arrive. Of the six blockmates in my son’s suite, AFAIK none of them had packed at all prior to Tuesday. Of the six, only one was out of the suite before Friday morning. The rest were still packing on Friday and the Mom’s (usually) were doing most of the packing. And one of the results of all the last-minute cleaning was that an amazing amount of stuff was simply thrown out or taken to a “recycle” area near the house.</p>