@oldmom4896, that is awesome that your D will be listed as a co-author.
I won’t hold my breath but really hoping DS would be in the same position after the summer since he interned in the same lab last year.
So sorry to hear that we’ve got sick kids, stressed out kids, sleep deprived kids! They will need to come home, sleep a couple of days and clean out the fridge! It will get better.
My son sent me a text today that made me cheer. He got his grades. Despite a misunderstanding with a campus employer which resulted in him losing a tutoring job, totaling his car en route to the doctor’s because of a sinus infection, contracting mono, getting strep and then having his girlfriend decide to end their relationship, the kid got a 3.8 GPA. He will be coming home tomorrow, and needless to say, I am very excited. He has a couple of weeks off before starting his summer internship. I look for him to sleep a lot … and eat us out of house and home.
I have two 2014ers, and one will be ‘half done’ on Thursday, but will stay at school for the weekend because her boyfriend is graduating on Saturday, then will drive with him to NJ and fly home from there. No work for ME. The other took a semester off and in helping her build a schedule for next year I don’t see a way for her to finish in 8 semesters. Her major has so many lower level prerequisites and lower level core requirements from the university that she won’t be taking upper level courses until she’s a senior, and then she needs 50 credits of upper division courses. Oh well, she’ll just keep chugging along.
Wow, two others are going to Edinburgh, and my DS is going to Glasgow in the fall! Anyone else thinking of a vacation in Scotland while they are there? We are starting to look into it. So long, and expensive, to fly from Hawaii, but we might do it.
DS has another month to go, then starts his summer job right away. If we don’t go to Scotland, we won’t see him until December. And we have to help him get ready from afar, which should be interesting. He’ll need some new luggage, and clothes, for starters. If anyone finds any info on cell phones, power adapters, or anything else useful for a semester in Scotland, please post.
You can get adapter plugs fairly cheaply on Amazon. Your son likely won’t need a converter since most modern electronics such as cell phones and laptops are dual voltage these days. Even “dumb” electronics like hair dryers and shavers are dual voltage now.
Almost every cell phone can also be used overseas but the trick is those expensive roaming charges. Would suggest either getting an international data plan for the phone (that way he can keep his phone number) or getting a SIM card in Scotland (he’ll get a different phone number but pay cheaper local rates). Or if you are on AT&T or T-Mobile and have a dual-sim phone then you can have the best of both worlds. We use different strategies depending on where we travel. DS has a global plan for work so he has no worries. But for the kids and I, if we travel to Mexico or Canada we just add a plan for those countries for $2/day that allows us to use our existing data and calling plan, and that is only charged on the days we actually use it. If we travel to Europe, Asia or elsewhere for more than a couple of days we get SIM cards. If the stay is short we usually just rely on apps that let us use wi-fi for calls/text especially if we’re staying in a city where free wi-fi is easy to find.
Wow, @momreads, that was quite a semester for your son. Well done on the gpa! That’s a bummer @twoinanddone, but you didn’t actually think you would be done in 4 years with 2 did you? 
We were in Scotland two years ago @Sweetbeet, so hit me up if you have any questions. We stayed at the Bonham in Edinburgh and at a lovely B & B in Inverness. People are friendly and the country is lovely.
DD finally got her acceptance to Edinburgh! I’ll find out more when we talk tomorrow but I know she is happy it’s been finalized and she doesn’t have to worry about that anymore - and neither do I!
@Sweetbeet - we’re definitely planning a trip to Scotland sometime. Just need to figure out when. We were originally thinking of going over and spending Christmas there but I think it will be very expensive to fly three of us over there then (including DS’11). So maybe sometime in mid-fall. DH has a very good high school friend who is an official tour guide in Edinburgh and the surrounding areas so it will be nice to be able to connect with him. And DD met him and his now wife about 10 years ago when they visited us and toured Boston so it is a nice connection for her to have while she’s over there.
I’ll need her to figure out when she needs to fly over because it’s looking like flights from Boston to Edinburgh are pretty expensive - especially because she can’t fly through Dublin. It’s cheaper to fly to Glasgow but I don’t think we’ll do that though. Still glad she’s all confirmed to go!
Our S (HS class of 2011) spent his junior year fall semester in Edinburgh. He took his iPhone to Three and they changed the sim card and he was immediately on a local UK network with a local UK phone number. He purchased prepaid minutes and used the phone all over the UK as well as on his trips to Munich, Rome, Luxemburg and Amsterdam. We had his Verizon account put on vacation for the months he was gone and had it turned back on the week he was flying home. He put his Verizon sim card in the phone while flying back and he was back on the Verizon network when he landed in Newark. He said easy-peazy. He was able to get a very low cost bank account with an ATM/debit card at Santander. They were the only bank at the time that would handle a short term (one semester) account.
We visited him at Thanksgiving. He met us in Londao where we spend a couple of days and then took the train to Edinburgh. Ws stayed there for a couple of days and took a one day side trip to St. Andrews. We also went to Glasgow and spent an evening at a manor house at Loch Lomand. We returned our rental car in Glasgow and flew home from there. S took the train back to Edinburgh to finish the semester. It was cold and the days were short but the Christmas market was already open and the city was decorated. It was a wonderful trip.
Thanks for the tips. We’re on Verizon, so I like the idea of putting his line in suspension and getting him a SIM card over there.
We’re thinking about going in October, but I’ve just started looking at airfares, so not sure exactly when. Haven’t decided how long to stay or whether we want to add other stops in Europe. Hubby’s never been across the pond and when you fly halfway around the world, you want to make the most of it. But, of course, when you’re self-employed, as we both are, days away from work mean less income! So it’s a tradeoff.
I’ve heard Santander mentioned as a good bank for students.
Classes are finished for Spygirl, but she has another week on campus since she’s an R.A. and seniors don’t graduate for another week. She says this semester has been the most difficult yet. And she’s contemplating dropping a class next semester because she’ll have the hardest class of her major, something called Math Modeling. Apparently at least one math number set takes 6 hours to complete and there is at least one due each day, four days a week.
Hopefully she rests up this summer.
What is Spygril’s major @Agentninetynine ?
Physics…
D is done and home as of yesterday evening. It only took two hours to pack her up and clean out the dorm room. Our empty nest is no more until late next August. It is nice to have her at home for the summer.
Son got home a couple of nights ago. Drove in rain almost all the way. Now, we begin the task of laundry, dropping off the dry cleaning (he has nine blazers) and figuring out what he will donate and keep of his clothing. Took him to the doctor’s for a complete physical. Enjoyed a nice dinner together. He has been getting lots of sleep since arriving.
Truthfully, I do not mind all the laundry. He took way too much stuff to school, and now we are going into Year 3. Hopefully, he realizes that he does not need all these shirts and leaves something at home. I have a family friend with some grandsons who are not as big as my son, so they will benefit from the clothing donation.
How nice for you @AvonHSDad and @momreads! Jealous…
Wow, a lot of kids are home now! Did they start the semester early? My D will not be home until the 27th. She’ll stay home for a month, then the whole family (four of us) is heading to New Zealand and Australia to drop her off to University of Melbourne. Shell study there this fall. Their semester starts mid July but she’ll attend pre-orientation week (geared for international students) then orientation. She’ll be home just before Thanksgiving.
DS and his best friend are both home from college and started classes around the third week of August. UVA, VA Tech and other in-state schools have one more week to go but they started later. Kids on the quarter system won’t be done until June.
Grades are in and DS made Dean’s list this semester. He says his classes are much more interesting now that he is moving past all the introductory engineering classes so that could explain the recent focus.
He starts work on Monday at the same place he interned last summer, with a nice 60% raise. Guess they liked his work last year (he also worked for them over winter break).
Sounds fabulous @2018dad! Good for your son @2014novamom. Dean’s list and a job, woo hoo!
DS is feeling better and has 2 finals completed with 3 to go. He will remain at school because of he is an RA, then will await our arrival as we are driving the 2700 miles for DD’12’s graduation. She is graduating from Wellesley, so we will pick DD’14 up at BC. Epic road trip in a couple of weeks.
@glido — you will be driving 2700 miles round trip? Oh my! My spring break week of 900 miles with DS 17 almost did me in, and I still can’t figure out how to get to Pittsburg.
Impressive…will you detour along the way?