S19 got good news about an internship a few days ago.
Trying to figure out housing part but just crossing my fingers that part falls into place. I’ll miss him at home this summer but excited for him!
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Congrats on the internship and good luck on the housing!
D just completed an apartment app at noon (started it Wednesday night) and I wish we would hear before the weekend but I suppose not. It’s been making me so nervous with the very short supply. This one is pretty ideal compared to the few other options. They’ve continued to email with her through the process and haven’t told her someone else got finished before her or anything so here’s hoping!
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I agree. The housing thing is stressful. I feel like a lot of students knew they had internships a while ago and things started filling up. One good thing is that S19 has at least two other friends in Boston for summer so they are going to have a blast. All are finally 21. Bars and baseball will be calling!
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I’m back from visiting S19 in Barcelona and the trip was so wonderful. We spent three incredible days in Paris prior to heading to Spain and had gorgeous weather for those three days (high 60s and low 70s). Barcelona was pretty chilly but it was great to spend time with S and have him show us around. He impressed us with his Spanish and it was very helpful at times. Barcelona is such an interesting and beautiful city and we had some wonderful meals. We also got to take a day trip up the coast (Costa Brava) and enjoyed some breathtaking views.
It was so good to get to hug him after three months and now I just have to manage my anxiety for the next month until he returns home. S will finish his program at the end of this week and then is off for an adventure for three weeks which includes a solo trip to Egypt for a week (I’m not feeling good about it). The other part of the trip includes multiple stops in Italy and Greece. He also had a blast a few weeks ago in Dublin for St. Patrick’s Day - the trip was very short and he definitely wants to return to Ireland one day. I’m so glad he got to have this experience and I can see what a powerful influence it has been on him.
Congrats on the internship for your son @homerdog!
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Holy cow. What an experience. Good for your S! Glad you got to visit. Don’t we all want to study abroad now??? I understand your worry. I would definitely be counting the days until he’s home. He’ll be ok. Sounds like he’s really growing into quite the traveler!
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Wonderful but my anxiety would be high too! So neat that you got to do a trip to visit.
DD and friend are signing internship lease tonight, yay! Time to stop worrying about homelessness lol so probably now I’ll start worrying about what comes after, job and housing-wise as roommate is leaving for grad school in the fall and we don’t know what will come about for DD. Always something but I’m sure it will work out!
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Well your D seems so on the ball about everything, so I’m sure it will all work out. But I guess that’s what we do! Even when there’s nothing to worry about, we’ll come up with something. 
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My daughter has been struggling with her anxiety and ptsd- she’s had no access to regular therapy in England, and it’s taken a toll. She’s tried through the university, but they have a cap on sessions. She tried the NHS but they couldn’t see her till after she would be done for the year. She tried her college at home, but they can’t give her therapy while she’s out of the country. So yeah… a struggle.
That said, she’s still been living her best life- last week she was in Rome, this week in Oslo, and next week in Edinburgh and Dublin. She jumped in a fjord and hiked a waterfall and went to the Sistine chapel and the coliseum- and she navigated (and enjoyed it) all alone. She’s been flying with just a purse and staying in Airbnbs and loving getting to jet set around for almost nothing (seriously, one flight was $5!). Two more weeks of vacation and then 8 weeks until her sister joins her for a vacation. Then they come home and we move cross-country two days later. Whew!
She’s been trying to figure out her schedule for fall, but she’s has three separate advisors and hasn’t been able to schedule a virtual meeting with any of them yet. She has to write two theses to graduate, which will take good scheduling for her last year, so hopefully everyone can come together soon.
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Could she try BetterHelp or one of those sites? Maybe they don’t have the geographical limitations?
My S19 is also finishing up a semester abroad, he’s been in Paris and had a great time. He did an internship last summer and this summer is just about making more $, hopefully at home but maybe in the college town since he has the off campus apartment lease.
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Glad your D has still been able to take advantage of all the great travel opportunities and is enjoying that part. If she has mental health coverage in the states and has some access to a U.S. therapist, it is possible she could do virtual therapy even if it’s not through her school. I’m a psychologist so I know that the laws about being licensed in the client’s location vary by state. However, the requirements in Europe are generally less strict, and some psychologists can meet with clients while they are overseas.
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Unfortunately she had to switch our personal insurance to match her living address, so she’s on an overseas plan now that is basically worthless except in an emergency- at which point she’d be covered by the NHS. Her therapist at home told her that she wouldn’t be able to treat her while abroad anyway. We are at the point that we are trying to manage private therapy over there for her, which we definitely can’t afford but will make work anyway, because it’s too important not to. She has an assessment on Wednesday with a therapist who specializes in CBT, so fingers crossed it’s a match and she can get back to weekly therapy.
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Some of your kids have been abroad lately- so I have a question. DD is going to Ireland/Northern Ireland next month. I went online to our credit card and under travel it said we don’t have to warn them of travel anymore, they will contact us if they suspect fraud. Have any of you gone ahead and told the cc of overseas travel or do you just go and it’s fine?
I also got her a month of International Calling on our Verizon plan. It said it was all set up and that I’d get an email on dialing instructions. I didn’t get it, so I guess I’ll contact them for further particulars.
Wells Fargo can be a bit finicky about using your ATM card overseas without doing a travel notice through your on-line account in advance.
I called credit card companies last fall before my first trip to the UK in a while and got the same “no need to call/notify us” advice. Used cards with no issue on that trip and three since then.
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We traveled to Austria and Germany a few years ago, and even with telling our bank we would be out of the country, our ATM card stopped working after a few days (and at a bad point for it to happen, too), and they told us they wouldn’t reactivate it until we showed up at a branch in person to verify that there had been no fraudulent transactions, that it had been us withdrawing cash.
Um…
We just went a few weeks ago, several family members/different banks and cards, and they all said we didn’t need to notify them. All of our cards worked, with the exception of sometimes for train tickets, we needed to try a different card, or I know my son who is abroad sometimes needs to get the authorization code that is texted to my phone for train tickets.
We just use the day pass for Verizon international and didn’t need to do anything. When my D was there for 6 weeks I got her two months of their monthly plan; also, once it was activated on the plan, she didn’t need to do anything else.
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Thanks, sounds good. She will have a Chase Visa and a Discover, but she also has currency to use. No ATM card.
Credit cards are the easiest. Especially the ones with contactless capability since you don’t have to sign a receipt with those (atleast my D didn’t need to when she was in the UK and EU a couple years ago).
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All set on summer housing in Boston for S19. Good thing he’s making decent money because, even staying in this dorm, it’s $2000/month not including any food! If he plans to live and work in Boston after school, he’d better be making a pretty penny.
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Yikes! DD and roommate will be paying $1225 total, in Iowa for 2 bed 2 bath…they could have gone cheaper, but with it being a boy/girl situation, wanted their own bathrooms.
BUT, plot twist they are now dating. Been best friends since college started but this spring was the first time neither was dating anyone else. Kind of a “it’s about time” thing and we are happy. They still don’t want to share a bathroom though!
Edited to say $1225 total, not each!
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We used our Chase Visa for the recent Europe trip and I checked in advance and did not need to tell them about our travels. I had also added S as an authorized user before he left for Barcelona and it has been great. No foreign transaction fees and Chase comes with some travel insurance for some things. I have heard from a number of parents that Discover is not accepted in many parts of Europe (not sure about Ireland) I also opened a joint Charles Schwab checking account with S before he left and that debit card can be used all over with no foreign fees. While he mostly used the credit card, the Schwab debit card has been useful for cash, especially on his recent trips in Italy and Egypt. Hope your D has a wonderful adventure!
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