<p>DD’11 is home too! It took her 2 hours longer than she thought to get home from Binghamton.</p>
<p>DS11 is home til Saturday morning. He has a lot of plans for a short amount of time… helping DS14 with short essays for Common App supplement, socializing with friends, writing a paper, shopping for shoes, suit alteration, look over summer internship information with us,work out, family Thanksgiving… yet wants to catch up on sleep. I don’t think its all going to happen!</p>
<p>Sally22 - Thanks for the additional restaurant recommendation. We didn’t get to St Andrews until nealy 1230 and spent our time at the British Golf Museum and then at the St Andrews clubhouse where we shopped for Christmas gifts and golf souveniers. We got to walk the beach as well as two of the holes on the course. By the time we had lunch there we decided to leave to try to get back to Edinburgh before dark as my left side driving is limited and daylight is preferable! My DW and I agreed that we need to spend a full day there next fall when we will be back in the UK so we can explore the town as it is so quaint.</p>
<p>RenMom - We did our own thing but saw some of the Rabbies tour info at our hotel. We toured the Palace and the castle as our official tourist activities. We had a great little hotel just 3 minutes from DS’s flat and a short walk to the Royal Mile and the Grassmarket where we visited several pubs and shops during our stay. We also spent time in town at the Christmas Market festival and shopping and dining on Princes, Rose and George Streets. We didn’t make it to Anta, however.</p>
<p>I strongly recommend a couple of days for anyone considering a trip to the UK and Scotland in particular.</p>
<p>We also made a two day trip to the Glasgow area and stayed at Loch Lomond one evening where we celebrated DD’s 18th birthday (it was a week early but it was with her brother). I hadn’t been to Glasgow in neary 40 years and was amazed at what they have done to further develop and revitalize the center city area. If anyone wants to visit a beautiful part of Scotland (the lowlands just north of Glasgow) I would recommend the Cameron House Hotel and resort at Loch Lomond. They made us feel like royalty with their service and accomodations. And the facility is right on the lake and the scenery is beautiful.<br>
Now, back to our regular program including final RD apps and scholarship essays!</p>
<p>Happy December everyone. I will update my countdowns tomorrow.</p>
<p>Avon - Don’t blame you on driving back in day light. The Fife roads can be tricky with the twisting and turning! Sounds like you had a great trip. Glad you enjoyed Glasgow- quite often overlooked. I know we have talked about our families both being from the West of Scotland area. H and I both went to Uni in Glasgow ( Strathclyde) . We try to spend a day in the city when we are back. There is ALWAYS construction and roads being dug up, which frustrates me to no end. Such sad news over the weekend from Glasgow, I fear the death toll will continue to rise. The Glaswegians seemed to have rallied and I am not surprised. </p>
<p>My brother lives in Helensburgh and they enjoy and frequent Cameron House Hotel. I think my nephew worked there one summer.</p>
<p>Sounds like you had a great week! Now, I am feeling homesick : (</p>
<p>Sally - sorry to make you feel homesick. The helicopter accident was horrible. I couldn’t believe we were just in the city that afternoon before the accident. We had considered an overnight in a hotel in Helensburgh but decided the Cameron House was the perfect location and it turned out to be. We would like to visit again in the future, possibly during the summer, and take some side trips to Stirling, Ayr and Hamilton (DW’s ancestral home).
My great grandparents were students at Strathclyde back in the 1878-1880 era. What a small world it has become. And the roads in Fife were twisty and narrow going to St Andrews. Our GPS sent us the most direct route which included one country lane bypass that was about one and a half lanes wide with hairpin turns around stone fence walls and with many ups and downs. We got through it OK but it seemed barely a couple of times. :eek:</p>
<p>Wow,
AvonHsDad–sounds like you had a wonderful trip! We are still considering visiting DS this spring in Panama, but I think I’d have more fun in Scotland (even though I can scuba dive in Panama!). Good luck to your DD on her college apps. We will be doing that next year with my DS2!</p>
<p>Enjoyed DS’s short visit for Thanksgiving. But he will be home again in 2 weeks. Hopefully we will have more details on his trip by then. He knows the day he’s flying out as the University has arranged travel, but we don’t know anything else, including where he’s flying from. He just doesn’t see the necessity of finding such things out as somehow travel for him just magically happens (ie someone else make the plans). Well, surprise–how is he getting to the mystery airport if he doesn’t know where it is??? Hope his shoes have good soles on them–it might be a long walk! 
Needless to say, I told him he better find out pronto because plane tickets or hotel reservations will need to be made!</p>
<p>College girl update: 2 finals down , 3 more to go!</p>
<p>D has buried herself for finals. She called for a brief 2 minutes yesterday while walking to a review session. Big exam is Wed. Another next week (way less stressful according to D). She’ll be home next Tuesday!</p>
<p>Very quiet out here. Kids are busy with finals and parents are busy getting ready for the holidays ?? D finished her most painful final yesterday. Didn’t know if she did as well as she would have liked. Two more to go early next week and then she’s home. </p>
<p>She’s debating about next semester’s schedule - she has an opportunity to work as a research assistant in a lab. She already is working as a teaching assistant too - so she’s thinking about taking on the research, but dropping one of her classes to make more time. She also has to study for the MCAT - and most importantly, do all the planning/organizing for the Relay for Life (that takes over her life!). Just thinking of all she does makes me exhausted :)</p>
<p>D1 is coming home today! Last final was Tuesday. So refreshing this year that she is staying in the college town for a few days to unwind. Last year she couldn’t wait to get home! She is so much happier this year.</p>
<p>My S had 2 finals today and 2 more next week, but he is sticking around campus through next weekend to work on a group project for next semester?! He wasn’t forthcoming with much detail on that.</p>
<p>He had an on campus interview for a summer internship with a software company and said they would be contacting him to set up a follow-up interview at their facility. I hope it is in January when he is still off school. He had bought a book on coding interviews, but said he may need another book as they mentioned software development, which he is not experienced in. We all have our fingers crossed around here!</p>
<p>Sally22, that sounds a lot like my daughter. She struggled with various issues her first couple years, but now has really matured in her junior year. Her grades are much better and she is much more relaxed. She finally found a housing situation that suited her: a single in a women only dorm - and she is much more able to get her work done.</p>
<p>So whose kids are traveling in the Northeast today? My son was supposed to drive home from Northern VT to PA today, but the forecast is for snow, snow, snow! He’s got to pack up all of his stuff by noon (High temp is supposed to be 14 degrees!) and is currently planning to stay with a friend until it’s safe to drive, which might be Monday. 
Two weeks ago when he was here for Thanksgiving, it seemed like a good idea to have him drive up and back. Ugh. Normally, he would just take a bus or train, but because he’s going abroad in January he has to totally pack up.</p>
<p>kathiep, good luck to him. It was supposed to start snowing overnight here in Pittsburgh, but so far we have nothing coming down.</p>
<p>Of course, 20 minutes after I said that, it has started to snow!</p>
<p>It has been coming down steadily since around 6 AM here in northern Ohio. There are about 3 inches of new snow so far today. Not a good day for traveling. Safe travels to those who must be on the roads or in the skies today. DS flies home from Europe and his study abroad semester next Saturday. I just hope all of this weather has cleared the east coast (Newark) by then!</p>
<p>I picked up ds in NJ today. Roads were fine after all the snow yesterday. Hope everyone else made it home safely!</p>
<p>D took her last final yesterday. In order to get time off from her pizzeria job during finals, she had to work a longish shift after her final yesterday and a double shift today. She will go to the pizzeria’s holiday party tomorrow night, then start driving home on Tuesday.</p>
<p>It is 16 hour drive, so she will stay at a friend’s house along the way and then arrive home sometime on Wednesday. She asked which was cheaper, flying or driving. I told her driving, but we would buy her a plane ticket if she wanted it. I also told her that the only guarantee that she would have a car when she wanted one was if she drove herself home. She decided to drive. It is just such a long drive to do alone. I hope the weather behaves.</p>
<p>My daughter graduated yesterday with a B.A. in Mathematics from SUNY Binghamton!
Woot woot!
She will be going to Columbia University Teachers College to get a Masters in Secondary Mathematics Education starting next semester.
She graduated Cum Laude (although she was on the cusp of Magna cum Laude and she still has some finals to take) and with Mathematics Dept. Honors.
She graduated early due to many credits from IB diploma in high school.</p>
<p>We left early on Sat for Bing to avoid the brunt of the storm and that worked out well.</p>
<p>Booper. That’s amazing!! Congrats to the first on this thread to graduate. Wishing her much success as she starts her Masters.</p>
<p>My d is also working on her Masters concurrently- and trying not to graduate from undergrad. Her scholarship is for undergrad only. She can apply it towards her Masters classes as long as she doesn’t graduate. She has a PE credit to complete which she will leave till the spring semester of 2015.</p>
<p>Wishing everyone safe travels over the holiday period. Looks like the NE is going to get hit again.</p>