<p>Cell phone will go out before landline would. Landline also works without electricity.</p>
<p>Hey, y’all. Happy autumn! Haven’t been able to catch up here for awhile. </p>
<p>Glad to hear about all the trips for parent weekends and all the fall break visits home. Neither is happening for our family. My kid will fly home the evening of Dec. 13 for her 4-week winter break. </p>
<p>She’s settling in to college alright and staying very busy. She was supposed to go out and buy a winter coat there but that never happened. She finally asked me to buy her one. I talked to some northern and midwestern friends about what would work best where she’s living, poked around online for some good choices, and sent her the links. She picked out what she wanted and I immediately had it shipped to her. </p>
<p>A few weeks ago, I went to our county clerk’s web page and arranged for the county to mail her an absentee ballot. She told me she received it and she voted/mailed it back in a couple of weeks ago. </p>
<p>One of her freshman buddies has a parent who holds a very high position for one of Vietn@m’s consulate offices in the U.S. My D has been invited to spend next summer at their home in their country. She was told there’s a huge need for English teachers so she’s hoping to spend next summer doing that. One scholarship program she’s in requires her to do two paid summer internships at a non-profit organization anywhere in the world. (does not have to be the same organization both summers)</p>
<p>I told her she really should try to find a non-profit group to do the English teaching with so it would cover that scholarship requirement this summer. She has to complete the 2 summer internships before senior year so she only has 3 summers to fit them in. The office that coordinates her scholarship program is trying to help her find something that will suffice for that in that country. </p>
<p>My boyfriend was near me when I reminded her she should try to find a non-profit to work with to complete one of her summer internship requirements and he said, “It’s a Communist country. EVERYTHING is a non-profit!” He also said they will want to recruit her as a Communist mole. Whatever! Anyway, she’s pretty excited about this opportunity but the plans are in the early stages so no telling yet how it’ll all work out. </p>
<p>She met with a past president of her college who has put the notion in her head that it’s much better to do study abroad in your sophmore year and not your junior year as we’ve long planned it. We’re still discussing this. I think she needs to get a clearer understanding that she will have to choose just one of these overseas opportunities in the course of one year so that she can give the best of herself to each one at that moment. I think she needs to take the time to savor the memories and value of the first trip before rushing off to do the second one. </p>
<p>Her scholarship group has a 10-hour non-profit work requirement every week for all 60 students in the group. (15 students in each graduating year) This is in lieu of the federal work-study program she’d be doing if she hadn’t been selected for this program. She hasn’t been able to connect with a local non-profit organization for a regular weekly gig due to her class schedule so she’s been doing short-duration work stints every week so far for different places. </p>
<p>Last week she called me to say the kids in her program had a favor to ask of me. They wanted me to send them a bunch of costume stuff we have at the house because they’re doing a haunted trail at the college’s co-op farm a couple of miles from campus. We have long had a big supply of costumes, wigs, haunted yard stuff but she forgot that I’ve been giving some of it away to people over the past 2-3 years and tossing out some of the items that haven’t survived their years of long use very well. So I poked through all that stuff and shipped them a box. I also transferred her a bit of cash so they could buy some items too. She said they’d probably use that for some costume make-up. Apparently there used to be a haunted trail event in the past but not for the past few years. Her group decided to bring it back this year as part of their community service stuff. Which is great except that it’s a group of some of the lowest-income students on campus so there’s a pretty tight budget! I managed to put together a huge box of stuff to ship them but I haven’t heard back yet how things went. It was supposed to be last night but I know they had a weather forecast of 80% rain.</p>
<p>Love the idea of a Soviet Army officer going around reminding people to vote!</p>
<p>Nice to hear from you woody! (ohiobass here)</p>
<p>Good friends of mine recently returned from teaching in Vietnam for a year. They’re a couple, both in their mid-late 20’s, college grads. They taught at two different schools but both were international schools with kids from all over the world…I had the impression that the families of their students were fairly wealthy. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess that this type of gig is probably not for a non-profit (and they certainly made money, more than they needed to live on - they used the savings to buy a food truck!) , but perhaps teaching English in a “public” school or preschool might be.</p>
<p>I’m sure your D’s friends’ parent can help with that.</p>
<p>Ok, blast from the past question that I thought would be best answered by the seasoned 2016 parents: DD13 is ordering SAT scores to be sent to colleges. She is applying as an engineering major. Not sure whether we should both sitting scores or just the one:</p>
<p>750 CR, 730M, 650 W (sub score of 9 on the essay) (Jun 2012)
670 CR, 660M, 650 W (sub score of 10 on the essay) (March 2012)</p>
<p>I would send just the June scores as they are the highest and I see no reason for schools (unless they require it) to see her lower scores. Can anyone see any reason that a subscore of 10 on the essay is necessary to show schools rather than a 9. They are both somewhat weak scores. She is going to be a STEM major. Help?</p>
<p>No reason to send both unless required. They all say they take only highest, but what if they needed a tiebreaker?</p>
<p>LOL, tie breaker! ALthough she has some reaches, I’m more concerned with merit aid from her matches. </p>
<p>Good luck everyone on the east coast. We are as prepared as we are going to be, I guess. I’m not sure how you prepare for 10 days of no power. We have the staples, but 10 days would be tough on anyone! Maybe I should go get some of the milk that stays on a shelf. Yuck.</p>
<p>Oldfort, landlines only work without electricity if you’ve kept one of the old-fashioned ones. The modern cordless phones most of us use with landlines don’t work without electricity because they connect to a plugged-in base. When our power goes out, none of our landline phones work.</p>
<p>My son already had a midterm postponed due to the storm - it was supposed to be this tuesday but he got an email yesterday that is has been postponed to either next thursday or after they return from fall break…he was happy to know ahead of time but he said it also makes it feel like mid terms are lasting forever. the school has been great about sending emails to parents updating us about weather conditions and what to expect…I know he has halloween candy, just hope ihe picks up some nutritious food and water just in case.</p>
<p>Not looking forward to Sandy. We are not in the main path, but after flooding from Irene last year and 3 days with no power after the Halloween snowstorm, we know to take it seriously. I made the mistake of letting DH come with me to the grocery store for the pre-storm run and we are now stocked with more junk food (crackers, nuts, pretzels, etc.) than we can eat in 3 months!</p>
<p>DDs are in Boston, which is supposed to get rain but not the full brunt of the storm. I have sent an email to remind them to get cash (not sure they know what that is) and make sure their flashlights are working and electronics are charged. No word of cancelled classes yet.</p>
<p>
I thought that was implied. 
Of course, if everyone’s line is out then it really doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>If you have Verizon Fios “landlines” (which we have) they don’t work at all without power - not even with an old-fashioned corded phone. I miss my old REAL landline! I kept an old phone for just such emergencies and it always worked when we lost power, of course, that was before we had Fios…</p>
<p>We live in MD (right outside DC) and we always lose power. We also own a house at the beach- exactly where Sandy is supposed to hit. It’s going to be a stressful few days for us. We are hoping and praying, Sandy just goes out to sea!!</p>
<p>OHMomof2- my D has already been told there are lots of opportunities for people to work as English teachers. Also, her scholarship program wants her to intern for a non-profit but they do allow an exception to that if she’s using her time to work with an organization “for the betterment of society.” She has two 7-week (240 hours) summer internship requirements for two different summers so she’s looking at a long stay. I think it’s kind of weird to be a houseguest for that long but she swears the diplomat’s family is totally on board with it and they’ve hosted others in the past. There may even be 1-2 other student friends going at the same time.</p>
<p>Columbia & Barnard have canceled classes for tomorrow. Don’t know if D actually made food, flashlight, battery, etc. purchases. Probably not. Probably a mad house in stores today. Subways shutting down at 7 pm.</p>
<p>Wow-thinking of all of you who have kids who will be affected by this storm in one way or another. Hoping everyone gets through it safely and with a great story to tell in their future visits home!</p>
<p>Wishing all those in the path of the storm well. I guess living in the Midwest isn’t so bad after all. (Remind me of that comment when we are covered in ice this winter). </p>
<p>Haven’t really had much communication with DS lately. I know he is planning a relaxing weekend of studying and fraternity “interviews” this weekend. He sent a text telling me that he may need larger pants this winter. I don’t know if that is due to a growth spurt of the excellent cook in his house.</p>
<p>My D just sent a text to tell me classes are cancelled for tomorrow and NOW she is at the grocery store. As if there will be anything left? Mail services are also closed so she won’t get the care package I mailed yesterday. </p>
<p>She has a Columbia Democrats meeting later, to plan for their campaign trip next weekend.</p>
<p>She called just after I posted that. She was able to get water and plans to fill all of her coffee mugs and glasses with tap water. She has apple cider and crangrape juice. She bought Nutella and some lunchables. She still has three loaves of zucchini bread in her freezer (from her first care package). She was going to get bread but they were out. </p>
<p>They are going to provide meal service in shifts, by dorm/floor. They are housing some staff in lounges in the dorm tonight.</p>
<p>My Barnard D also put off shopping with roommates until today. Flashlights were all gone, naturally, but at least one roommate has one. Did they get batteries? Don’t know. They bought sandwiches (don’t know meaning of perishable, I guess) and some other food. Hope she wakes herself up for breakfast, which is only 8-9 tomorrow. D has friend at Wagner College on Staten Island. Wagner just closed and told students to split. Friend went to home of girl she’d met that lives in New Jersey. Don’t know what the rest were supposed to do; go to shelters maybe. If mail services are closed, I guess D will not get the hand-cranked+solar flashlight/radio/power source that is supposed to come by Fedex tomorrow. Be glad when this is over.</p>
<p>Did anyone else see somewhere on tv that areas as far as Chicago might lose power? Was I imagining it?</p>
<p>Well, I’m in Detroit and we are expecting gusts of up to 50 mph starting tomorrow. They are warning about flooding along Lake Erie and Lake Huron and high waves. The thing is traveling westward so… </p>
<p>The weather channel front page shows a map of possible power outages and likely power outages. The possible shading does go just west of Chicago.</p>