Well after her visit with her advisor (the day after my previous post), it turns out DD has the option to be completely finished at the end of Summer 2022 
Definitely there are pros and cons but sheās pretty sure she will do it. The biggest āconā to her is not living with her best friend Fall 2022 semester.
D19 just turned 21. She is studying abroad and I wanted her to make the most of it so I gave her a chunk of money with the instruction that she is to use it there to buy āexperiencesā. (Her birthday money from others can be used to buy āstuffā.)
DDās passport arrived yesterday at exactly one month. Weād heard like 18 weeks so did it early. DD is pleased it came already because sheād tried filling out the app for study abroad and couldnāt get past the upload a scan of passport part.
In my last post I said DD was pretty sure she would choose to graduate end of next summer. She has decided to, so weāre brainstorming ideas for her internship for summer. Sheād like to live with her sister and not pay rent, so hopefully something in her area will work out!
Glad your D got her passport so quickly @bjscheel. My Sās took 3 months, which I originally thought would not be a problem since we applied in early July and he travels at the beginning of January. However, what I did not know at the time is that I should have expedited it because of the student visa process. If his passport had arrived a few days earlier, he could have been included in the group visa process and his college would have handled most of it. Instead, we had to handle it on our own and it was extremely complicated and stressful getting everything together and deciding if we should go through the Houston or Miami consulates. Since his internship company for next summer happened to fly him into Atlanta for an overnight fun thing, I was able to meet him downtown for a minute to give him his passport and some other documents and he finally got everything he needed last week and rushed to the post office. Fingers crossed that everything arrives before a Jan 1st departure to Barcelona!
Other than that stress (probably more stressful for me actually), S19 is having a fun and super busy semester. He seems way overinvolved in activities/organizations, but who needs sleep? He and his roommate were also able to get super cheap Spirt tickets to NYC and spent 4 fun-filled days there over fall break. They were lucky to get to stay with guys from their fraternity who had recently graduated and live in Manhattan. Seemed like so much fun!
If any of you have any tips regarding study abroad, international travel, types of bags/luggage, things to bring or not bring, I would love to hear any advice. Thanks!
Hi, there is a āflown abroadā facebook group for parents of kids going to study abroad. It has good tips on luggage, cell phones, prescriptions, etc. My son is going to France in Jan, we are trying to get the visa process together after I digested the surprising info that he has to do it in person in Chicago or DC (we live in Ohio and he goes to school in NC). So you are ahead of us! Iāve been hearing they take 3 weeks or so, much faster than a passport. My D did a 6 week summer abroad, it all went fine, in retrospect adding intāl service to her Verizon plan was the most costly way to do it so Iāll have DS buy a SIM card locally.
DD will be in Ireland for just 12 days. Do we have to do anything with her phone service or just let her find wifi to communicate?
I guess it just depends on your comfort level. I will sayā¦when my D was in Europe and I visited her at the end of her trip, like I said I had added cell service through our Verizon and while we were there was a Europe-wide problem with Verizon and we didnāt have cell service for several days. And it was really hard. Even being in cities. We were really counting on using our phones for navigation (both for trips and walking around/exploring), and in the train stations, the wifi wasnāt always working. So I personally donāt think Iād ever want to be overseas without actual cell service again!
Thanks so much for the advice! And good luck with the Visa process for your son. It took us a while to figure out that my son would have had to go in person to pick things up from the Miami consulate, so we were lucky to find out that the Houston consulate is still doing things by mail due to Covid. I just hope everything arrives in time! Thanks also for the phone plan advice. Iām thinking we will mostly communicate through apps, but I havenāt figured all that out yet.
Hey everyone, been a while since I was in here. Great to see the news on everyoneās kids. Various congrats are in order! As you may recall D19 was having some anxiety issues and took a semester off (sheās been staying at home and working full time). At one stage it looked like it might be a full year off college but sheās decided to go back in spring. I think a number of things (external factors improving as well as treatment for the anxiety) will make a big difference- crossing fingers it all goes well.
Glad to hear things are looking up for your D, @SJ2727. I hope the return does go smoothly.
Picked D19 up from the train station last night ā her Tuesday class is being held remotely, so she decided to come up early for Thanksgiving and do it from here. Relatively quiet plans for the day itself, just my in-laws coming. Happy Thanksgiving to all of you and yours!
D19 is having a busy week. Itās not a holiday in England, of course. This week she has three regattas, a gymnastics meet, and a choir concert. She sent me a text this morning excitedly letting me know that they won- her first time taking first in crew. Sheās loving it over there.
I have to admit I was wondering how your daughter was doing at Oxford, thanks for the update, so happy she is loving it!
Fun to catch up on things, and itās especially nice to read about the international travel plans and experiences. S19ās school has the whole week off for Thanksgiving. Too long to hang around on campus, but too short to fly home to Tokyo, so heās spending the week in Los Angeles visiting a couple of close friends from elementary and middle school. The trip is kind of a belated 21st birthday gift, and heās having a great time driving around in a flashy red rental car. Heās been to LA a couple of times before with us, but heās seeing it with different eyes being on his own and doing things weād never think of, like a ghost tour of Hollywood. Heās also doing some Christmas shopping (ten bottles of hot sauce for my husband!?). Heāll have just a few weeks of classes once he gets back to Ohio and his first indoor track meet of the season and then heāll be home for a month or so from mid-December. Even though heās already had his booster shot, heāll still have to quarantine for 14 days once he gets here, which will keep him in the house until after Christmas (they actually call you up once a day here and track your location so they know youāre not out roaming around). Our grocery bill will rise precipitously.
Crew is by far the best sport at Oxbridge, because itās so ubiquitous and social. Had she rowed before? Hopefully sheāll participate in the bumps next term and win an oar to bring home at the end of the year.
She rowed freshman year at Haverford (first time), but sophomore year was a covid bust for crew. During the first week at Oxford the first thing she did was sign up for gymnastics- first meet is this weekend- and the second was sign up for crew. Ha. She also joined the choir and trampoline teams, and the Italian society. Sheās a jump in with both feet type of person. I have no clue what the bumps are, but Iād bet that if she can participate, she will! Ha.
Bumps are a curious form of regatta unique to Oxbridge. The river is so narrow that you canāt do side by side racing. So everyone starts if in a line and has to physically hit (ābumpā) the boat in front. Then you change places with them for the next dayās racing. If you bump all four days then you win a painted oar with the crew names on it to go on your wall.
Good to hear some updates. S19 is here for the whole week and itās been very nice. In addition to all my pies, he and Iāll be working on three vegan side dishes to bring to our gathering tomorrow. We bought his ticket to Barcelona the other night and Iām doing lots of research on various items heāll need for study abroad. Still hopeful that his visa will arrive in time. Iām excited about his adventure, but also feeling quite nervous. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
The visa arrived! Woo hoo!
So DDās week at home was pretty intense. She did get to go Christmas shopping with a friend and we had two Thanksgivings. But my dad took a turn for the worse Monday and died Thursday night (not completely unexpected and truly a blessing for him) so there was sitting with grandparents and funeral planning. I hit a deer with my car. Finally, she is not sure she wants to invest much more in her three year relationship. So much to process but sheās handling it all well. She went back tonight but will drive up Tuesday for the funeral.
This is the last week of regular class, then finals, then she has a week of livestreaming a theatre production to elementary schools. Will probably stay down there till Christmas Eve to work.