I dropped DH off at the airport this morning for his trip to TX to visit D24. She’s asked to go out for Asian food and wants to go to the movies to see the new Joker movie.
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Hope they have a great time!
I’m in London on a work trip and had the good fortune to connect with my S24, who is here as a “Jan” at Hamilton College. It was so fun to meet up with him and his friends, and hear all about their adventures so far. When it’s the right fit, starting college off with a semester abroad seems like a great option! My kid and his pals have quickly developed independence–as they navigate public transport to get to classes each day, plan weekend excursions around Europe, budget for weekly grocery hauls and cook meals together, and learn how to balance the sudden availability of legal access to alcohol. I think that last point is actually the biggest sleeper benefit of a semester in London. Since my son and his pals can go to the pub whenever they want, and learn the niceties of drinking in a public social setting, they are not a part of the binge drinking parties that many students experience in their first semester at college (myself included–those MIT frat parties I frequented as a first year at Wellesley were something). I am hopeful this leads to more responsible behavior with alcohol once they land on Hamilton’s campus in January…
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Still receiving fairly limited reporting from S24. Thankfully, while limited - it is fairly regular.
I did get a bit more about Oktoberfest in Munich, some hiking in the Alps as well as plans for London, Austria and Denmark. Sounds like he’s made some good friends and travel companions.
Haven’t heard much about academic courses but I’m sure the nose is to the grindstone at all times other than weekend travels.
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Slight hiccup. S24 let us know that one club team was traveling to a tournament Parents and Family weekend, and he wanted to know if he could go. Of course, so now we are redoing our plans to go to the tournament instead of the college, which actually is fine with us!
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What a college game day for D24! In her wildest dreams she never thought unranked Vanderbilt would beat number one Alabama. She said rushing the field was surreal. She’s now continuing the fun out on the town. I’m a little nervous but also thrilled she got to experience a huge win!
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So cool. Definitely a lifelong memory to savor.
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Random stuff to report from DH’s weekend so far visiting D24:
- choir performance was at a church right across the street from college today. Church broadcasted it on Youtube, so I got to watch it from home. That was pretty great. They sounded lovely.
- D24’s roommate woke up today at 5 pm.
- D24 gave DH lots of hugs.
- D24 wants to be roommates next school year w/Roommate. And they want to live in the suites that a lot of sophomores end up living in…2 bedrooms share 1 bathroom and the bedrooms are all singles; suites have either 2 BR/1 BA or 4 BR/2 BA.
- D24 is tired of girls in the communal bathroom taking off their fake eyelashes and leaving the eyelashes in the shower.
- there was scooter talk, so Scooter Saga continues, but is temporarily on the back burner this weekend.
- they went to the movies yesterday evening
- DH took D24 to a Daiso store in north Dallas yesterday and bought her 30 containers of Japanese instant ramen.
D24 is most pleased with this. The roommate doesn’t like Asian food. - D24 & Roommate have been going to frat parties. Roommate drinks a lot more than D24 does. D24 told DH that she ends up “taking care of” Roommate from the partying. D24 also told DH that she drinks at the parties, but not like Roommate does because she doesn’t like feeling too out of control. I’m glad that D24 feels comfortable enough with us to tell us this stuff. There’s no way I would ever have admitted to my parents in college that I was drinking under age.
D24 has a good head on her shoulders. - They ate yesterday at a small family-run Mexican restaurant near campus. Menu was only in Spanish. D24 raved about the food, excellent salsa, homemade tortillas, huge enchiladas.
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Come for the random stuff. Stay for the scooter saga.
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My Vandy/utterly non-interested in football kid happened to be out with friends at the Margaritaville on Broadway after the game. He texted in amazement when the goalpost came by. I was like, “yeah, I know. I already saw that online.” So he got to accidentally be part of (or at least adjacent to) the celebration.
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Seriously–I did the same thing my freshman year!! No joy–the prof cut me no slack and gave me a failing grade on the exam. Still passed the class and from then on I was very careful when reading those computer printouts.
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S24 had first midterm this morning, then his long chem lab, and later his math midterm at 6:30pm. I guess the math sections all take at same time so not usual class time. Long day, hope it all goes well. Chem midterm next week and his bio seminar class is very easygoing and is a paper later on so they can focus on exams. Wild we’re here, feels like it was a minute ago it was stressing about acceptances.
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Long FaceTime call today with D24, we’re currently 8 hours ahead in a far away time zone so it was wonderful to catch up after not talking for over a week. She gave me a walking tour of her early morning campus on her way to a coffee shop. Sunshine, fall colors, so lovely. She’s happy, doing well in her class, has good relationship with roommate even though they have different friend groups, likes her friends, feels like she’s establishing herself and recognizes this is rare so early in the game but is thankful for it, had dinner at prof’s house last night and met their kids and dog, has joined a club or two, and told me “I really feel like I’m getting to know who I am.” I just loved talking to her.
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Scooter Saga continues. Now that DH is back home from visiting The Child, the animated discussions about all things scooters all of the time has resumed. LOL. Including discussions about how now DH wants to be able to ride scooter on the freeway and Grumpy Wife says, “No way in h.e. double hockey sticks.” And then DH backs off and Grumpy Wife grumbles and thinks that he’s going to bring it up again 1-2 yr from now with a big presidential campaign about why riding a scooter/motorcycle on the freeway is a great idea.
DH & The Child talked scooters last weekend. DH is on what feels like a battleground senate election race to convince D24 that getting a scooter that’s more than a 49 cc engine is a better idea. The bill that’s been proposed to the Senate of D24 & Grumpy Wife is that D24 should take the motorcycle safety class here in AZ before/if she decides to get a scooter in the 125 cc engine range.
Meanwhile, DH noticed that the relationship w/D24 is changing to one of “I miss my parents and want to spend time with them, but I don’t want to be with them every waking moment of the day and I need some downtime away from them each day.” Very similar to how both DH & I felt when we were in college back in the day. So DH gave her some space last weekend when she asked for it. Am grateful that she feels comfortable enough with us to ask for space when she needs it…I had a very different relationship w/my parents and me asking for space would have gone over like a lead balloon.
Learned from DH that the roommate vapes. Nicotine, not MJ. Vapes in the room. Huh, pretty sure that’s not allowed but DH & I are staying out of it. D24 doesn’t smoke or vape, thinks it’s disgusting but doesn’t care if other people choose to.
There’s a late night snack hang out on campus that’s popular on Fri & Sat evenings. D24 informed DH that “the sports boys all hang out there.” Because ‘sports boys’ (her term) hang out there, is this a desirable place to also hang out? According to D24, no.
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Meanwhile, some poor Sports Boy out there is just looking for his Scooter Girl, the Shark to his Jet . . . .
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West Side Story is 1 of my favorite musicals! 
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In fact that cultural reference won a very competitive internal process, just narrowly beating out Sk8ter Boi (there was perhaps a little more space between it and Sharkboy and Lavagirl).
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I think taking the motorcycle safety class before getting any scooter (even if she goes with the 49cc size) would be wise. There are all sorts of warnings and defensive-driving-when-you-don’t-have-a-metal-cage-around-you lessons that she’d pick up during that class that she wouldn’t want to learn on her own.
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What about an e-bike instead?
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LOL! I thought of Sharkboy and Lava Girl when you mentioned Sharks & Jets.
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