<p>Scoutsmom~Thank you for shading light on the whole thing. How tragic.
I miss you and your down to earth approach…Please post more often. Glad to hear all is well with your wonderful son. I still remember the night of the Lottery results at your home :p</p>
<p>Yalemom~Hope he makes it to 
May be a friendly reminder would help :)</p>
<p>Highhead & Yalemom–I’m guessing your students will make those early travel plans. The lure of home will insure they don’t miss that alarm (if the ever go to bed at all!). </p>
<p>Scoutsmom–Great to hear from you. Stop in more often!</p>
<p>Tragic events at Yale. </p>
<p>I went to both Princeton and Harvard so was never a big Yale fan, but I wouldn’t worry about the losses in the game (as opposed to those in the parking lot, which are really distressing). You don’t go to Ivy football games for the quality of the football. Full stop. The event itself is fun, but the game is a bit of a sideshow.</p>
<p>Last night I attended the wedding in Sao Paulo of a Brazilian client – the son of a well-to-do family whose company I’m advising. He married a young woman from an apparently really rich family (owned a bank?). The wedding hundreds of invitees – I was told 1200 were at the reception, though it didn’t seem like quite that many, but the wedding itself was in a large and beautiful basilica (much bigger than a church). It must still be a pretty sexist society – indeed only the sons but not the daughters of my client are in the family business. The number of trophy wives and girlfriends in what seemed like 10" high heels was pretty remarkable. You actually could have run a beauty pageant or found models there. I am sort of an amateur anthropologist – I’m always trying to understand the customs of various places and was contrasting this wedding to others I’ve attended. But somehow the pageantry and the display of womanhood were what stood out – the men were, incidentally, not nearly as striking as far as I could tell.</p>
<p>Scoutsmom, ShawSon did the sleeping/eating thing his first year back for Thanksgiving and Christmas vacations. Some kids are really learning to manage the workload their own way and need to/are able to put in really grueling hours in doing so. They just need to sleep. We were happy to accommodate.</p>
<p>Hi All…
We saw that email as well. Thanks for posting Scoutsmom–I had thought about doing it. I am glad the U has counselors available for the U community. Don’t know where our student was in relation to the incident as with 50k attendees there was much going on as one would expect at any stadium.</p>
<p>Our student’s flight is this afternoon…catches the shuttle to the airport at the Gate. Less than 12 hrs!! Whoo hooo!
I had asked if there were any special meal requests–nope…just “good home cooking”. I am guessing sleep and food are on the agenda. On Thanksgiving when we call extended family, I know everyone will want to speak to kiddo.</p>
<p>Shawbridge, like you, I ponder the differences in culture etc…the way traditions or hospitality play out. I am a big people/culture watcher. Your job and travel offer you great opportunities for that! Lucky you.</p>
<p>**3 3 3 days (or less) to Thanksgiving break **</p>
<p>:) The turkeys are running for cover as some of the kids will be landing today! (If they set their alarms and make their early shuttles and flights! - :eek:) :)</p>
<p>(Based on kids touching down at home on the Wednesday before TG. Some kids may get the full week and will land at home sooner.)</p>
<p>Thank you AvonHSDad for the countdown! We are very excited to have D home for a few days…she has been sick and burning the candle at both ends. As a mom, and even though she has been to the clinic, I need to see her in person to check it out. My guess is that she either has or is getting bronchitis and will need a z-pack soon soon… I expect that she will sleep the weekend away…Her one food request is grilled steak and broccoli rabe…so that is what we will be having the first night she is home. Can’t wait.</p>
<p>one other interesting observation, fog fog. There were several hundred men there. All were wearing suits. Only one other man (other than me) was wearing a suit with stripes. There were solid black, navy (I think), charcoal grey, light grey, etc. I’m trying to figure out if this is for weddings, just Brazilian, or all of South America. I honestly can’t remember whether my Brazilian or South American clients wear suits with stripes or not. Because I want people to engage with me, I try not to do things that put them off – so, regarding dress, I don’t want them to have dissonance between how I dress and who they think I am so I dress to their image of who I am (US management guru/professor type or Wall Street type). Flight attendants, who are pretty good at guessing whether they should speak to people in the foreign language or English usually guess wrong with me. So this is a new one to figure out. Not a biggy, and I didn’t mind being noted as different last night, I am curious.</p>
<p>VAMom, you’re absolutely right, he made the shuttle (and without a wake up call from Mom- it would have been 3 am my time and I slept right through the night) and is landing in an hour, just leaving for the airport now, so excited!</p>
<p>Hope Highhead and Proudmom’s kids were early risers as well!</p>
<p>Taking off down south tomorrow to pick up DD from college. She is telling me that quite a few of her classmates have taken off already, even though they have class on Mon and Tue. Anyone else noting this phenomenon. With what college costs these days if I were the parents I’d be taken aback (to put it politely) :)</p>
<p>I haven’t posted in some time… DS1 has been happy and busy at school. He flies home on Tuesday evening. So proud of him because he took the initiative and booked/paid for his Super Shuttle to and from the airport on his own. I told him to stuff his duffle full of dirty clothes and we would wash them here. When I was away at college I would drive home to visit with a full laundry basket instead of suitcase! DS requested Spicy Shrimp with pasta for dinner on Wednesday. We will of course do our big TG dinner and play the rest of the week-end by ear. I can’t wait to have my whole family together again! I will truly give thanks this year!!!</p>
<p>D called this am from the Mass Pike - the bus was running ahead of schedule! She set her alarm for 4:45 and got up on schedule, despite having gone to bed after 2am. Ah, to be young. It is nice but strange to have her home. So far she is being sociable and talkative, but she’ll probably crash in a couple of hours and we’ll find her dozing on the couch watching cooking shows.</p>
<p>My kids are all home! My daughter (grad student in TN) and youngest son (freshman in VT) both came home to PA on Friday. My daughter flew to Philly and spent the night there. My son got a ride all the way home and arrived close to midnight. Saturday I took the train into Philly and met up with my daughter and her friend. We went out to lunch and friends Mom met all of us for lunch. So nice! I haven’t seen the friend or her Mom for several years. The girls have met up in various parts of the world, including one Christmas when both were working in Asia, but we Mom’s hadn’t seen each other at all. We then went to see Billy Elliot. Daughters friend got us cheap seat tickets, but it was still enjoyable. So far more chattering then bickering and it’s nice to be together again.</p>
<p>When I saw my d last weekend, she asked me how she was to get to the airport this Wednesday morning to fly home. I told her to either use the link to the shuttle I had emailed her or to call a cab. I also told her the shuttle is cheaper than alone in a cab, and the cab is both more convenient and more reliable (the shuttle apparently gets lost a lot between the UG and grad campuses).</p>
<p>I suggested she find someone else flying at the same time, share a cab, and have the better reliability with the same cost as the shuttle.</p>
<p>Her next question was how was she supposed to find someone to share a cab? </p>
<p>How did I get such a smart d with absolutely no common sense? Isn’t there almost a whole campus full of students flying home? Just ask friends, floormates, classmates, kids in the dining hall, all sorts of people who may want to share a cab!</p>
<p>As it turns out, her friend told her there is a FB page specifically for Tulane kids wanting to share cab rides to the airport, they post when they are going, what intersection they are leaving from, and how many they want to share with. </p>
<p>Where’s the easy button in my kids head?</p>
<p>Bajamm-thanks for the laught this afternoon. I sometimes wonder as well regarding common sense with some of the questions my son asks. He just came home Friday night and I am so happy…</p>
<p>Shawbridge…that is interesting. We have lived and traveled overseas a good bit and after being overseas at a stretch at a time, we really blend in. Usually they address us in someting other than English…
We note dress, deportment, carriage etc…It’s all quite interesting.</p>
<p>Bajamm…too funny. We used to put up signs on bulletin boards around campus.
FB makes is so much easier.</p>
<p>Kiddo made shuttle and first flt. Waiting at gate for connection. We got a text this am from kiddo asking about boarding docs etc. The flt home is on one carrier, the flt back to the U is on another. The new app that puts the codes on a smartphone makes the whole security process and boarding a snap.</p>
<p>Kumitedad-- my ds will miss one class on wed so he can get home in evening rather than late night. I think he’d stress out if he skipped three days of school!</p>
<p>Bajamm–lol your dd’s comments could have come from my ds. With all todays technology how did we manage to survive back in the dark ages and they can’t figure out how to share a cab? </p>
<p>There’s an app or facebook for everything these days. When visiting ds campus I can track the campus bus on my phone as it travels its route around campus! What will they think of next?</p>
<p>Glad your students are arriving home safe and sound. Enjoy the family time.</p>
<p>Sent from my DROID2 GLOBAL using CC App</p>
<p>bajamm, common sense and IQ do not seem to be perfectly correlated. Both of my kids have both, but a couple of my siblings do not.</p>
<p>I’m happy for those of you who have your kids at home already - can’t wait until Wednesday but my fingers are already cramping from being crossed … praying that younger DD will get up in time for her 5:30 cab to the shuttle station. </p>
<p>Older DD was home for a couple of hours this weekend with her BF - bringing home the clothes that she will need for her 6-week break. On Wednesday, she will be bringing BF and his twin to our town so that their folks can pick them up and she had realized that she did not have room for her stuff plus theirs. It was a nice little visit, we all went out for lunch and then they went right back to campus to continue studying for the rest of their finals.</p>
<p>Hooray for all kids coming home What a wonderful feeling :)</p>
<p>Both kids U have shuttle service to Airport running before breaks they sign up on line and voila.Some kids skipped Monday/Tuesday classes to save on airfares. I can not blame them!</p>
<p>Kumitedad~Safe travels down South tomorrow</p>
<p>minnymom~nice to see you Happy spicy shrimp dinner ;)</p>
<p>I agree that common sense or street smart is by no mean related to IQ. Since a young age, both sons have had to travel across the pond on their own. They learned to manage at an early age, forged their character for sure.:)</p>
<p>Shaw~Good anthropological observation Stripes belong in the board room :rolleyes:</p>
<p>Have a great night all 
</p>
<p>So fun to check in and hear about the various ways our kids are traveling back home. Planes, trains, cabs, shuttles, automobile.</p>
<p>DS followed us home last night after the Mizzou victory over Texas Tech. All 180 miles with his headlights in my rearview mirror. After church, he participated in an Eagle Scout ceremony for twin Scouts from our church. We are now enjoying tomato basil soup together while watching football.</p>
<p>I’m getting bits and pieces of more information about the Alumni Student Board kidnapping and initiation as he retells the story to friends. The current members put “costumes” on the inductees. His was a bike helment spray painted gold and a gold cape with a black “M.” He is supposed to sign the cape with his years (2011-2015). Apparently it goes to the “smart one.” He is so animated when he talks about the new people he has met already and their plans for the coming year.</p>
<p>Happy Thanksgiving to you all. So fun to have the extra noise–and laundry–in the house.</p>