<p>D comes home tomorrow night - will be great to have her home for a week. Should be really good for her too - a chance to get some TLC and some home cooking 
She has a pretty full schedule planned for the week - although I hope she does take it easy a bit. This is the last break she will get before the end of the semester!</p>
<p>D is currently on spring break. There was no way she was coming home. Spring break in New Orleans this year meant Mardi Gras! And, then the crew team promptly left for spring training in Florida on Wednesday morning after Mardi Gras was over. She is enjoying herself just too much.</p>
<p>D is passing through tomorrow night on her way to Morocco. This will be the last spring break trip funded by her scholarship. She is excited, but a little sad that this will be her last group trip. Wow, these past few years have passed fast.</p>
<p>Spring break and Mardi Gras sounds fun!</p>
<p>I may be captaining the 2014 sailing of the SS Indecision in three weeks but I am a bit jealous today as DS arrived in Florida this morning for his spring break trip on the Majesty of the Seas. Its only 4 nights to the Bahamas and Key West but there is no snow and the temps are in the upper 70âs and low 80âs. Itâs pretty obvious that internships will be on hold until his return at the end of the week. </p>
<p>D is home. Didnât get good news on a summer research internship she had applied for. She walked around the house like Eeyore according to H. Hoping she hears some good news this week from one of the others. Sheâs working hard - studying for both her classes and her MCAT this May. Keeping fingers crossedâŠ</p>
<p>I am reading along, in the same boat with all the parents of students looking for internships. S will be done with classes but needs co-op jobs to graduate, so he knows what is at stake and doesnât tell us much about how it is going. He did not get the one he was hoping for. Heâs off to the big game developers conference in San Francisco this weekend, I donât know if he hopes to make some contacts there.</p>
<p>D was accepted into the study abroad in Cuba next fall. It is at the university of Havana. Now she waits to see if the governments will play nice and give student visas.</p>
<p>Good news - yeah! After hearing only bad news on Monday and Tuesday this week, D did hear she was accepted at one of the research internships she had applied for. She will get paid, housing is taken care of. All smiles yesterday - feels good to have one in her pocket!! Sheâs waiting for a couple more responses - hopefully, she will decide what sheâs doing by the end of next week.</p>
<p>Greetings everyone! I swear, I go to the Parents Cafe page, and forget all about this thread for weeks at a time, and then Iâll see one of us pop up over there and Iâll remember to check in here! Can you believe our kids junior year is just about over?! Next weâll all be booking our hotels for graduation! BTW, if this is your first college grad, the thing to do is book one year in advance. In a lot of college towns the hotels tend to sell out.</p>
<p>Good new arisamp and bajamm. Internships and study abroads - the two things that really make for a good college experience. My son has just embarked on his study abroad starting in Germany. Iâve made him promise to post a picture a day so I wonât worry. He has really been enjoying his study abroad in Ireland so itâs been a good semester. </p>
<p>Housing for the fall is still up in the air. When he left for the abroad he was under the impression that two friends would be nailing down a place for a group of them. Last month those friends changed their minds so now son is trying to figure out an off campus apartment from afar and still holding dibs on a on campus housing room, just in case. Ugh!</p>
<p>I have not frequented this thread since the switch of formats. I hope all of your kids are having a good semester. Good luck with the internship search and visa abroad and congrats to arisamp D. walkinghome and bajamm, I hope the study abroad goes well. It sounds like it has. </p>
<p>walkinghome, we booked hotel rooms for ShawSonâs graduation one year in advance â that was the earliest date the hotel would accept reservations and there was a bit of a first-come first-served aspect. I had my assistant call repeatedly that day until she got through. We had to put down credit cards to pay for (and not just reserve) the rooms. </p>
<p>walkinghome, ShawD will graduate in December (so less than a year from now). There is no ceremony until May when hotel rooms will be hard to get. However, we can drive to the campus from our house in a reasonable amount of time so we wonât need hotels.</p>
<p>Sheâs on spring break. She works very hard on her classes and has works some shifts (often weekend night shifts) at a hospital and is has taken on the role of president of Hillel, which involves lots of scheduling of activities. She gets stressed with all of the tests and activities and I made her very happy by paying for her to spend a week at an ashram in the Bahamas. Got a cheap airfare and the accommodations are spartan on a good day (and appropriately inexpensive). So, sheâs doing yoga and meditation on the beach. The ashram is a sister to the ashram at which she studied yoga for many summers and was later certified as a teacher. Probably no big drunken excesses at the ashram (probably no drinking at the ashram, actually). Iâm hoping she comes back refreshed and destressed.</p>
<p>@shawbridge, good to see you here again. That sounds like an awesome relaxing break for your D!</p>
<p>We booked a rental house for our 11/15 sonâs graduation about a year ago! Ithaca has a huge hotel shortage. If you donât find alternative housing, your choices are to enter a lottery for the right to pay an absurd amount (~$500/night) for a hotel room, or stay in the dorms, which is reasonable for one or two people, but not so hot for a family (as itâs per person). </p>
<p>@mathmomvt, I wonder if airbnb would be a good way to go for those who want to avoid the craziness. Is that what you did?</p>
<p>Iâve been thinking of renting a house from airbnb for our sonâs graduation since we will most likely have about 6 people. I know a family who had a first born graduate from Cornell and didnât realize the hotel shortage thing. I think they ended up booking quite a distance away. When my older daughter graduated from Vanderbilt, I knew to book a year in advance but even on that day, all of the closer hotels were filled! </p>
<p>@shawbridge I canât remember where we found the place we did. I donât think it was airbnb but it might have been vrbo or one of the other vacation rental places. Most of those do book several years out as well. It may have actually been something Cornell published with alternative accommodations. We donât know how many people weâll have for graduation, but we can accommodate both sets of grandparents plus our kids in the place we got.</p>
<p>D1 was home for a few days on break, which involved us moving her out of her apartment, and into our garage, and packing for her term in Denmark. So much for a 2 car garage! She left on Wednesday for her junior year project in Copenhagen. All communication indicates that she has arrived safely, and is enjoying the city. Her group starts their project work on Monday, which involves working with a local organization to increase awareness of pollution in the city. I plan to fly out after her project and we will both do a little bit of travelling together. We received an email today from the Global Projects coordinator at the school to inform the parents that the students all arrived safely, just in case the students had not contacted the parents yet. I laughed, since I think that girls tend to communicate more with parents than boys do.</p>
<p>airbnb would have been smart for me as I booked 4 or probably 5 hotel rooms for 2 nights (us, both grandparents, sibling, uncle). And they wouldnât take points. </p>
<p>D is also on Spring break and is halfway through her study abroad term. She is having the time of her life and loving every minute but feels she will be ready to come home in May. As a parent I am happy to hear she has decided that she wants to settle in the US upon graduation (we werenât sure about this) and that she seems to be âsettling downâ in her mindâŠthis semester has helped her learn more about what she wants in lifeâŠmaybe some maturity setting in? I am going to see her next week when she returns from break - this week she is in London-Amsterdam-PragueâŠwhat a life!</p>
<p>College girl returned safely from Morocco spring break trip. Had an amazing time. Spent the night at home rather than drive back to school at 10pm. Up and away at 6 this morning as she has an early class. This is the last of her scholarship funded trips. Hard to believe that time has passed so quickly and how fast this group has matured.</p>
<p>Congrats to all the good news on the internships!</p>
<p>DS returned to school last night and just beat the latest storm that is coming up the east coast. They had a half day of classes today but that didnât benefit S as his first Monday class is 1230. Its hard to believe but I pick him up for the summer and haul him home in less than 8 weeks!</p>
<p>Do you all remember the end of March countdown 3 years ago? Well, we are going through it again ot our house as D-2014 is waiting on 3 schools to release decisions and for all FA packages. I had hoped to forget about the mailbox and portal stress in late March!! :eek:</p>
<p>Wow! I didnât think about booking hotel that far in advance. Good thing I checked in. Iâve been over in Parent 2014 as S14 is waiting for his decisions to all come in. S11 will come home for only 3 days this weekend. He is actually a groomsman in a HS friend 's wedding. I canât believe one of his peers is getting married! His summer internship is all set. Things are sure moving quickly with our kids!</p>