<p>Funny call today… “I don’t know how to grocery shop and I don’t know what to cook.” </p>
<p>I was just finishing up my own grocery shopping and asked if I could call her back after I put my groceries away. I got home and there was a text “<em>Roommate</em> just got here to move in. Can we talk tonight instead?” </p>
<p>I think being in a dorm with only one other person around for a week was getting to her. Not to mention, half her stuff was still in summer storage and will be delivered to campus tomorrow so she had no pots and pans and stuff. She did have a wrist band so she could eat in the cafeteria when the freshman, there for orientation, ate, but she didn’t have her people there yet to hang out with. </p>
<p>I think it will be ok now. I did find two really good web sites with tips for grocery shopping and cooking in dorm kitchens. I’ve sent her those links. I also suggested she talk with her roommate about doing some meals together to save money and time. </p>
<p>So this very intelligent, social, and independent kid just totally froze when it was time to figure out how to grocery shop and cook on her own. You forget sometimes, how “green” they are at life or just what that felt like.</p>
<p>Update on D’s “moldy” room.
Thanks for everybody’s opinions. I felt justified to freak out after hearing everyone’s comments. (My own mom was very over protective and I’ve tried hard to lean as far the other way as possible). I ended up speaking with the “Dean” of her “House” (feels like Harry Potter…) Her basement has only been a dorm for a few years, and - no big surprise - since they run no a/c over the summer, this has been an issue every year. He insisted that the Biohazard lady had tested every year, and it was mildew, not mold (couldn’t understand what difference it would make since dd was allergic to it). He said that housekeeping would come and clean that very day, and they would run the a/c, and that other kids with allergies had had this happen, and had been fine afterwards. The only other option was to move her and roomie to a freshman floor (and not the chem free one she was in last year) which would probably make them both miserable. Lovely.</p>
<p>Since I really didn’t want two sophomores to hate me for the rest of my life, I agreed to give it one more night. And she really has been fine ever since - go figure. Why they just couldn’t run dehumidifiers in there over the summer - or clean right before the kids move in is beyond me. And I was totally surprised that she has been fine sleeping there after that. Go figure.</p>
<p>Most memorable quote of the conversation:
Me: Bus she woke up this morning with her face all swollen.
Dean: But she’s fine now. I’m looking at her right now and she looks fine.
AUGH!</p>
<p>Glad that mold/mildew issue is at least being addressed. Makes you wonder when it happens every year that they don’t deal with it before move in. I do enjoy someone who doesn’t know your d can declare her fine. I hope from here on out it really is fine.</p>
<p>Moved S into his dorm this weekend and we’re home already. He was going to stay in the hotel with us last night, but once he got there he decided to catch up with roomie instead. We managed to move him probably the hottest day there of the summer. Since yanks are curiously anti climate control you just suffer through not just the heat, but the humidity for awhile.</p>
<p>I only cried a little bit this time. He was happy in his suite. I swear his room that they call a double is really a single. I say if you have to loft the beds to fit two beds, it’s not a proper double. But he seemed happy, but smooshed, so I kept my fat trap shut and just went on about how great it was to have a common area and useable kitchen outside the door. </p>
<p>And I came home to my d on her way to the mall with her friend, very much embracing that teen girl attitude that I’m actually happy to have a few hours here to ourselves.</p>
<p>Glad to hear your D is doing better tozburi. I’d keep on eye on her for further symptoms (ie a cold that won’t go away, itchy eyes, etc). And perhaps send a dehumidifier. Seems odd that the school didn’t take care of the problem before move in.</p>
<p>We are up at school now and son is moved into his new room. Much smaller than last year’s room for a double but at least this year he is rooming with someone he is good friends with. </p>
<p>Interesting to be here now a year later. I was excited to get here and see everything again but I feel calmer now that it is not all new.</p>
<p>Son says he does not know anyone else yet on their floor. As freshman the RAs made sure everyone bonded and everyone left their doors open. I know there is some sophomore stuff planned so maybe by next week they will connect more.</p>
<p>D and two friends did retrieve all her boxes from the storage company. I’m relieved she asked for help with that. She wasn’t going to ask anybody to help her and she had to transport 4 large boxes and a fridge about 4 blocks. Since she’s in a suite with a large fridge, friends of hers are using her fridge this year. I had told her she could sell it if she wanted to, but she isn’t sure what her housing will be next year and whether she’ll need it, so this works out ok. </p>
<p>Last I heard she was still kind of anxious about buying groceries- which store to go to? How to transport them all back? She had a list- I suggested she split it in half and do two trips. This first trip would be the biggest, I would imagine. I tried to send more stuff with her… I really tried! I also tried to get her a big bag with wheels for groceries and she declined.</p>
<p>My guy called with an update yesterday. All is going well and he has a GREAT group of freshmen (not the loud partying type). That is good news for both of us as one never knows… Tomorrow his lab job restarts. Wed he starts classes. (Classes technically start tomorrow, but he doesn’t have any on Tues.) He’s already restarted with clubs, etc. All seems well.</p>
<p>Tozubri - glad all turned out ok, but one does have to wonder why they don’t get the room going FIRST when they know this is a recurring issue…</p>
<p>Barnardmom - hope the shopping went well!</p>
<p>Eyemamom - I can relate with the teen attitude. We totally missed it with our older two and I feel spoiled. Youngest is making sure we can relate to “normal” I suppose.</p>
<p>My D had a smooth move-in to her off-campus apartment. She was able to add the math class she needed, with first-choice prof. Her schedule of 5 STEM classes, four of which have labs, promises to be a ball-buster. But so far (first two days) she has enjoyed her classes. This holiday weekend, she is having a glorious time at a retreat for her EC up at Lake Tahoe. Life is good. :)</p>
<p>Bernardmom - Fresh Direct and soaps.com are her friends. She lives in the delivery capital of the world. We have most of our stuff delivered to our apartment and it is not more expensive most of the time.</p>
<p>I can’t even get pizza delivered to my house, it sounds like heaven to get so much delivered. If it weren’t for all the people, traffic and no elbow room - lol</p>
<p>Trust me, I suggested a lot of those things! I did research into which places would deliver, etc. In the zone she was in yesterday, nothing I said mattered. She does now have some groceries and some of her friends helped her get them back to her dorm. They are having a suitemate meeting tomorrow night to discuss procurement of a microwave and other appliances that all 6 might share. Her suite has 4 single bedrooms, a double bedroom and a common kitchen with a stove and fridge. I told her I would send her my George Foreman grill because I rarely use it anyway. I’m also sending her my Magic Bullet for smoothies because I never use that either. </p>
<p>She bought everything but meat because “I don’t know how to cook it”. Yes, this girl has cooked before, and has seen me cook a lot, but she wants to make stuff I don’t usually make. Oh my. </p>
<p>She is in much better spirits today though. She has 24 credits of classes right now that she’ll be attending during “shopping week” because she’s waitlisted for two classes and is hoping to get in those.</p>
<p>2016Barnardmom, good luck to our Barnard girls. Mine is in a suite for 6. She & a roommate from last year had bad lottery numbers and took a double to fill out the suite with 4 Seniors they didn’t know, who are in singles. There’s a kitchen, so they might cook some. She & roommate became friends, so that’s a big plus.</p>
<p>Sounds like our girls may be in the same dorm My D was on the guaranteed wait list because her group had a late lottery time. She has one of the singles but her roommate from last year is in one of the other singles. She doesn’t know the other girls and I didn’t think to ask what year they are.</p>
<p>Is this a Barnard dorm, or Columbia dorm? My D lived in a Columbia dorm this summer with no food service but had a kitchen. She said that grocery shopping was a major time-consumer. (And she did get food poisoning from her own cooking once and lost her Freshman 10 and then some.)</p>
<p>As the parents of a Barnard senior, it is so discouraging to pay massive bills for housing each year only to have the girls move into dirty, delapidated spaces with broken furniture and unsafe facilities. The freshman dorm was lovely, and after that?? This weekend I spent an entire day trying to help my daughter wash mud and grime off her mattress on her broken bed. Broken light fixtures, dangerous looking kitchen surfaces, asbestos hanging in strips off of pipes, broken desk chairs, electirc outlets painted shut, rusty broken radiators with no covers… And work being done on the building sending chunks of brick debris into the room. The school’s response to the girls is to seal their windows shut so they can sit inside their 90 degree unairconditioned spaces… This is the third year we have watched our daughter spend her first week dealing with housing problems. I guess on the bright side we don’t have to deal with the meal plan anymore!!!</p>
<p>For $9000 a year rent per person just for a room inside an apartment it would be nice to see the girls provided with safe clean functional spaces. I feel like the school puts so little money or attention into residential life… facilities get worse and worse which probably makes people feel less and less inclined to make gifts to the school, and so a downward slide continues. Barnard needs to wake up and recognize that student life outside the classroom is an important part of the campus experience. Dirty broken facilities are demoralizing…</p>
<p>D has had one week of classes, and a long weekend of homework! Like michal1’s D she is taking 5 STEM classes, but only one has a lab. She had all 5 classes on MWF with TTh being lighter, I think she will figure out how to make best use of her time over the coming weeks. She is working her summer job for 5 additional weekends and when that is over that will give her more time also.</p>
My D was on the guaranteed wait list because her group had a late lottery time. She has one of the singles but her roommate from last year is in one of the other singles. She doesn’t know the other girls and I didn’t think to ask what year they are.</p>