<p>We’re on our way to spend some time with S for Parent’s Weekend. He is also on a quarter system and sounds like he is in a similar place to Mutti’s S. He had the chance to travel & play with the club team the last two weekends. He’s enjoying the people he’s meeting but is still figuring out the social scene. </p>
<p>He likes his classes and I had to laugh when he went from last Sunday saying the classes were easy, not much work to yesterday when he was swamped with working on a paper and two tests next week. He’ll figure it out by next quarter.</p>
<p>Ok, so here is a glimpse into the future for the 2016 crowd. </p>
<p>D1 has been looking for an off-campus apartment for senior year. Apartments that are close to school are in high demand and need to be leased in the fall for the next year. D1 and RMs heard about a great apartment, and were first in line for showings this morning, which gave them first dibs. Great apartment, reasonable rent, across the street from campus, fully furnished. They hit the jackpot.</p>
<p>The landlord wanted a deposit in addition to the signed lease agreement to hold the apartment for them. However, none of these four very bright, independent young women had thought to bring a check book with them. In fact, of the four, my D1 was the only one who actually owns a checkbook, although she had no idea where it was, and was surprised the landlord could not take an ATM card. </p>
<p>Luckily I happened to answer the telephone when a desperate D1 called and ran down to the bank in my sweaty exercise clothes to deposit a check into the landlord’s account. I told D1 she owes me big time. Now I just need to find that thread on real-life skills I never taught my child!</p>
<p>My D has had a major breakthrough. Two of her classes are very tough, but the teachers grade on a big curve too. After her first couple grades, she was pretty scared and was considering switching one of them to P/D/F (pass, D, fail). She was feeling very intimidated by the caliber of students around her and lost a lot of her confidence. But, she was still loving it there.</p>
<p>This week, she has gotten some much better grades in… like a 95 on a quiz in a class where the first quiz grade was a 55. She has been working REALLY hard in every class. Her grades have gotten significantly better. She told me on the phone this week “I think I just needed to adjust. I also needed to gain some confidence. I realized that sometimes, when I had no idea what the answer to a question should be, a lot of other people were in the same boat. It wasn’t just me. It made me feel a lot better and a lot more confident. I’m talking in class more and I’m not afraid I’ll sound stupid to everybody else.”</p>
<p>Phew. She has adjusted. She is battling a rough cold this week and has called me every day to ask “Should I go to class?” My answer has been the same “Check the attendance policy on the syllabus, see if you can get notes from a friend, email the professor to let them know why you won’t be there.” She still seems to want my permission to stay home sick, like in high school…lol. She’s feeling better though and went to all of her classes today. Other days, she prioritized based on attendance policies and criticality of course content.</p>
<p>After a few conferences with RMs/advisers/deans, there are no spaces available for girls right now to switch. I will be moving to the single in our suite but that doesn’t solve the problem. Most problematic RM is shocked and said that this is the first time she’s had someone not like her. Told her I want to be left alone, advisers said I have to talk to her because it will make her happy.</p>
<p>This is too much stress when I have more important things to stress about, and it is starting to affect my health (getting a flare up). There are singles on campus reserved for people with medical conditions, long-term or temporary (ie someone comes down with the plague or something). I did not want to request a single at the beginning of the year because I wanted to try the RM thing and not have my condition isolate me even more but now it’s necessary.</p>
<p>Yes, please request a single, CPU. I’m sure there are plenty of social activities on campus so that you won’t feel isolated in your single. My son’s over at MIT. If there’s anything he/I can do, PM me.</p>
<p>At the point now where I get to start thinking about things coming up and then realize there may be some scheduling conflicts because S will be home for Thanksgiving break! It will all work out but so nice to not feel like we are leading two totally different lives.</p>
<p>I have a club I go to the 3rd Tuesday of every month-very excited about the November one and then realized that was the day I was planning to pick S up for break. Will still work out though. I will probably still make it to the meeting and S may enjoy some real live alone time. I don’t think he has had much of that since Aug. 19th!</p>
<p>But wait-then I remembered there is a HUGE tradition on campus that he wants to take part in and it happens to be that night. So maybe after all I won’t be picking him up until that Wednesday. </p>
<p>He mentioned going to one football game (he is so not into football like his mother is). Of course the game he would want to go to is the biggest one of the year, huge rivalry and ticket will cost a small fortune. More than likely he won’t go. I had mentioned I might go down and tailgate with my friends. I have never done that much less be on campus during a game day. I told him we would not hunt him down and he could come see us if he wanted (food, $$$, etc…). Guess who just realized he won’t even be on campus that day-he’ll be home on Thanksgiving break???</p>
<p>Kind of fun getting all of the organizing of who is doing what when done-just have to make it through this next month first.</p>
<p>We are headed to Atlanta next weekend to see DS over family weekend. We already made Saturday night dinner reservations. I am trying to decide which to do Saturday afternoon, the World of Coca Cola exhibit or the aquarium? DH has no interest in participating in any on campus activities so I didn’t bother to sign up. I had a difficult enough time getting him to do the orientation fair and he refused to attend any of the breakout sessions. I was disappointed but heh, it is what it is. </p>
<p>So, what is more fun for Saturday, the Coke thing or the aquarium? Hopefully we will get to see most of Atlantas attractions during the course of my son’s time at Emory.</p>
<p>I’d say the aquarium. I also have a soft spot in my heart for Stone Mountain, especially riding up to the top to look around and then staying for the laser show. I’m not sure when (in the season) that ends, you might check if it interests you. </p>
<p>I always liked hanging out around Emory Village and Little Five Points too. All of my cousins went to Emory and my uncle was a dean, so I spent a lot of time there growing up.</p>
<p>Quick check in – scanned the last couple of pages – sending peaceful, happiness vibes to CPU at Harvard. </p>
<p>H and I are headed to UVM in the morning to celebrate D’s 18th birthday. I am out of mind with happiness at the prospect of seeing our girl in person. We’ve stuck to the weekly Skype sessions with a couple of texts in between schedule. I haven’t missed her so terribly, as she’s felt still very connected to home, but now I’m physically aching to see her.</p>
<p>Catching up here but agree with others that the Ga aquarium is a more interesting choice for seiclan.</p>
<p>We have had D home for a couple of days, unscheduled, because she came down with mono + strep both at once, and felt so ill that DH went and fetched her home. She’s been pretty miserable but saw the home pediatrician today who assured her that the university health center gave her the right prescriptions and advice, encouraged her to get back to school and keep her follow-up appointment with the doctor there, and if she gets as much sleep as possible she should start feeling better in about a week. So we plan to drive her back to campus on Sunday night.</p>
<p>Poor kid! She struggled through midterms Monday and Tuesday while feeling very ill, but feels that at least missing class for the rest of this week was hopefully not so bad because it was right after midterms. The midterm grades that have come in are fine, too.</p>
<p>Although I’d much rather she’d stayed healthy, having her home and coddling her has been kind of a treat too. It’s been so nice just to talk with her and hear more about her life on campus. She’s had some anxiety issues but it’s sounding like she’s been making progress on those, and overall I think she’s growing up and doing pretty well.</p>
<p>Just had dinner with D2. She told us she went to school’s medical center to get her throat checked out because it had white spots. They checked for strep and it was negative. She is feeling better, so whatever it is, it’s going away. I asked her why she didn’t tell me about the white spots. She said she didn’t want to worry me. Sheesh.</p>
<p>The school is buzzing with so many parents on campus. The school’s hotel bar was packed today. The weather is beautiful. We didn’t sign up for any campus event, but looking forward to just hanging out with D2.</p>
<p>CPU- hope you feel better soon and have the RM situation resolved.</p>
<p>I’m very aware that it is parent’s weekend (envious of notakid for being able to go!). </p>
<p>My D is still sick and went to health service again today to be told it is still a virus and there’s nothing they can do. She won a free ticket to see a play on Broadway through Columbia’s Urban New York lottery. It’s a one time deal and if she didn’t go, she couldn’t enter the lottery again. She asked me if she should go. I told her “You’re either going to feel like crap in your dorm room or you’re going to feel like crap at a Broadway play, you might as well see the play.” She went and loved it :)</p>
<p>CPU get out of there. There is absolutely no reason you are required to make someone else happy. That is the stupidest thing I have ever heard (Harvard does have some dumb advisors looks like).</p>