<p>Checking in with my cyber friends. We are loving fall break with Bluejr and his roommate!! They have a great, respectful, friendship and we are having a lot of fun watching them interact, and getting to know the rm better. The Yom Kippur dinner went off without a hitch and we all had a lot of fun! Our family learned a lot and the rm seemed really taken that we celebrated with him. I was able to talk to his mom on the phone that evening after her guests leftâŠwe both cried feeling so lucky our boys found such nice roommates and families. Sometimes you just get lucky!</p>
<p>Bluejr is sick againâŠso off to the Dr. Hoping itâs bacterial so an antibiotic will knock it out. I was hoping to get his flu shot this weekend but I guess that will have to wait.</p>
<p>Happy Monday everyone, and I hope everyone enjoying a long weekend is savoring the extra day off!! :)</p>
<p>I am loving theses great fall break stories - kinder, ohiomom and blue you all are making me smile! Kinder - how cool that your D is making such great connections with kindred spirits!</p>
<p>Dâs break is this weekend - I pick her up at the airport Friday night and she heads back Tuesday night. Iâm planning menus and shopping destinations: although sheâs making a few plans with friends to see the high school fall play (great timing with her break) and hang out with the theater kids, and will be spending some time with her dad, we should have a nice amount of time to spend together. So excited!</p>
<p>Iâm glad to hear all the visits are going well. I have had both Dâs home for past few days. They got a chance to see a lot of family during Yom Kippur and spent a fair amount of time with friends, but weâve managed to have some nice family moments. Both girls are very busy and happy. D2 admitted that she feels stressed about all the work coming up, but sheâs been working hard to keep up with things and should be fine. Weâll see both of them later this month for parentâs weekends, so it wonât be too hard to say goodbye.</p>
<p>BI, it was really nice of you to have a Yom Kippur dinner for your sonâs roommate. They sound like a great match.</p>
<p>Kath - Iâm glad to hear that your son is perking up.</p>
<p>Does anyone know what the timeline is for finding summer jobs/internships (particularly in the area of CS)? Iâm sure that the schoolâs career services office could tell him, but wondering if I need to give a nudge this early or if it can wait a bitâŠ</p>
<p>mathmomvt, I think Christmas break is when many kids start the paperwork for summer internships and jobs. My daughter usually worked on it over that break and would have something nailed down by the end of January. She was not looking for CS though, so I donât know if that makes a difference.</p>
<p>Speaking of break, D just gave me her dates for winter break. I just made the flight reservations. OUCH! I know others have already said it, but make those flights now if you have not already.<br>
Iâm so glad so many of you had nice fall visits with your kids.</p>
<p>What is this fall break of which you speak?! I donât remember anything like that from my own US college days. S has âOctober studybreakâ coming up next weekend. He does have quite a few major work deadlines this week so perhaps that is meant as a âbreakâ to go home rather than a study break?</p>
<p>Fall break for Bluejrâs school is technically âReading Daysâ which are two days off from class, making a long weekend so the kids can study near mid-terms. Since we are a state school many, if not most go home. Bluejr doesnât have any mid-terms. Heâs a pretty together student so I tend to believe him. His grades are all fairly good and his choice of major within the eâschool is competitive so heâd be a fool to blow-off studying in favor of a couple days home. Iâm fun and all, but⊠In other words, no exams this time. His roommate has one that heâs been studying for here and there.</p>
<p>Regarding internships, Bluejr was just contacted last week to submit his resume to a national corporation who is recruiting/selecting now for summer interns. He has a contact who is looking out for him and has given his resume to the selection committee. We have our fingers crossed that it will work out. Also, I follow his schoolâs eâschool career ctr on twitter and there is a lot of activity now with job fairs and recruiting. So, it looks like for engineering at least the time is now.</p>
<p>Samuckâcheck your childâs school website for their academic calendar. It will show you their breaks. Every school is different. My DS has an entire week off at the beginning of November. It all depends on the school. Iâm sure many stay on campus or do things with friends if coming home isnât feasible!</p>
<p>Well, D finally did get the exact schedule for Thanksgiving, and it seems someone had been overstating their commitments last week. Phew! So now we can book her trip.</p>
<p>Iâm glad people have had good fall visits. My Ds had a fun weekend, and I think it was good for everyone that they could do that. I think my visit will help (itâs not Parentsâ Weekend, but itâs as if I were coming for that), too. Iâd like to see her in her element. I think things continue to be better for her, but the adjustment continues to be a little rocky.</p>
<p>The wonders of the internet: when your child texts you that theyâre at one of the âoccupyâ demonstrations, you can google and see pictures of them. Or at least their back. </p>
<p>Good thing that my parents couldnât do that with me. :D</p>
<p>Had company for the weekend, old friend whose son goes to school in our area, his girlfriend came to visit as well, was fun to have a lot of people around even though house is not totally unpacked!<br>
D3 is doing well, ran out of money and asked me to send her some but I am waiting for account information. She wants to come home next weekend to see new house etc. Have gotten different advice from friends and her siblings. She is a bit homesick so would coming home make it worse or better, any advice???</p>
<p>Both of my daughterâs schools have fall breaks. I donât remember these from my day either. D1 has Monday and Tuesday off, and D2 just had today. Fortunately, both of them are close enough to come home.</p>
<p>Emmybet: Iâm glad to hear that your D can come home for Thanksgiving!</p>
<p>EAO: I vote for letting your D come home next weekend. A lot of kids get homesick at this point in the semester. Itâs probably even tougher for your D with the move from overseas.</p>
<p>Thanks Momjr, I think that is good advice and she definately said she is having trouble getting used to all things American even though she is one! She said she would make her decision later in the week. It will be nice to see her, we miss her a lot as well! She is about 5 1/2 hours away although by train I think its much closer.</p>
<p>Fall break sounds nice, hope you enjoyed the extra long weekend with your daughters!</p>
<p>My heart goes out to all the parents who have children who are having a difficult time. It must be so hard to be far away and to hear them upset and struggling.</p>
<p>My Dâs school has 4 terms that are 7 weeks each, so they have a real Fall break next week. She has finals this week. Unfortunately, she still has practice next week, so she may only be able to come home for the weekend.</p>
<p>Parentâs weekend was this past weekend. We managed to go to a game and to a really wonderful concert with the men and womenâs choir. We walked to a local restaurant for dinner. Along the way, D said hello to about have of the students. Once in the restaurant, she knew many other people. It was good to see that she had met many people at school.</p>
<p>Many parents did complain that the Parentâs Weekend was too close to finals and many students told their parents not to come, since they had to study. On the parentâs fb page, the school explained that there were only 2 home football games when the weather is nice (aka not snowing), so they planned both Homecoming and Parentâs Weekend when they could schedule them. They did say that they will try to make the date better next year.</p>
<p>Spent time skyping with D tonight. She is doing fine - heard lots of great stuff, some frustrations, things sheâs learning, in class and out. It was nice to do the video chatting. We talked a lot about plans for my trip, plans for Thanksgiving, etc. It is different when these kids become your âfaraway friends.â It has a good side, though.</p>
<p>ShawD spent the long weekend with a family friend. Took a taxi to the 7 AM bus on Friday and attended Yom Kippur services Friday night and Saturday and stayed there until this afternoon. Theyâre quasi-family and the instructions to ShawD are âIf you are hungry, check the fridgeâ except of course on Yom Kippur.) They have a daughter three years older who is a great role model, with whom ShawD spent the weekend. She was having a terrific time.</p>
<p>She got 1/2 a credit for participating in a psych experiment. She said it was unclear what the point of the experiment was. All the questions had to do with condoms. She was disappointed because she could have gotten 2 credits for a study this weekend in which the subject population was females who are comfortable walking in high heels. </p>
<p>All seems to be working well. We wontâ know until the first batch of tests comes through.</p>
<p>ShawSonâs school has a full week break for Thanksgiving as students come from all over and they are providing people time to get home and back from the other coast, for example.</p>
They have a great, respectful, friendship and we are having a lot of fun watching them interact, and getting to know the rm better. The Yom Kippur dinner went off without a hitch and we all had a lot of fun! Our family learned a lot and the rm seemed really taken that we celebrated with him. I was able to talk to his mom on the phone that evening after her guests leftâŠwe both cried feeling so lucky our boys found such nice roommates and families. Sometimes you just get lucky!</p>
In other words, no exams this time. His roommate has one that heâs been studying for here and there.</p>