<p>Just got back after helping a family member move-in. This was my first visit to UChicago and I was very impressed. Met Mr. Nondorf during the reception held for family members after saying good byes to the loved ones near the gate.</p>
<p>that was very touching - the goodbyes at the gate. i love the sense of community in this place - from the communal goodbyes to eating with your housemates. loving this place more and more :)</p>
<p>here is my take on that emotional moment…</p>
<p>remember, it is a 100+ meg vid file and it will take you a while to d/l</p>
<p><a href=“http://creforum.info/uoc/2010con/P1080515.MOV[/url]”>http://creforum.info/uoc/2010con/P1080515.MOV</a></p>
<p>and it will finish uploading at around 10:10PM CST :)</p>
<p>It was so beautiful, so hard to leave though because that campus and Hyde Park are incredible. I am definitely attending parent’s weekend. I am very excited for my child, what an incredible week he is having!</p>
<p>I really liked the speeches given during opening convocation.</p>
<p>I also liked the way gracello advised the parents to back off during “Successfully Transitioning Your Student to the College”.</p>
<p>Parents weekend, actually called family weekend, is a lot of fun. If you have specific things you want to do, register early, because things fill up. But even hanging out is worth it. BTW, highlight of our first year was meet the adviser, because it was such an eye opener to hear her tell all us helicopter parents “don’t bother to call” because she would not talk to us!</p>
<p>FYI, we went to family weekend 3 out of 4 years! Expensive, what with flights, rental care and hotel? Yes, but worth it.</p>
<p>My one disappointment was that Randel hosted a reception at the President’s house. Zimmer did not. Seemed like something missing.</p>
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<p>Even College Confidential is mentioned in her speech… :)</p>
<p>Another high five for Grace! But I will dissent on the rest of Monday… we ended up in the balcony and couldn’t see a thing even though there was a second taller podium they could have used… the procession was very disorganized as the families took pictures, if that could have been done off to the side would have been much better. I will say we were on a tight schedule so that was stressing us out…</p>
<p>Also got mixed messages on lunch wristbands and lack of ethernet cable from house staff causing lots of needless running around.</p>
<p>Don’t want to give bad impression we did have a great time</p>
<p>You should have asked… I had those cables in my back pocket. lol…
But we all got connected via wireless.</p>
<p>Thanks guys :)</p>
<p>Silly me, I didn’t make the connection between Grace and gracello. But I enjoyed your presentation and I think you seemed to have many parents nodding thier heads in agreement during your remarks.</p>
<p>And I love your glasses!</p>
<p>alp- we didn’t bring one (that was silly) because of some (probably outdated) info that they were going to get one, and that was confirmed by the house staff, who even said be sure to get your free cable… So we went all over o-fest trying to get a definitive answer. Not a big deal, we had the time on Sun for this goose chase. We did get a cable anyway in case she decides to watch the internet TV. </p>
<p>Was great to meet alp and PF.</p>
<p>Speaking of internet tv. We stayed in ihouse and the room has a TV top box to get those tv signals and a remote to change channels, but I did not see it in the dorm. Is the box necessary?</p>
<p>No, you can get internet TV on campus by going to ctv.uchicago.edu.</p>
<p>This brings back my memory last year. The most emotional part was, when we watched our son go through the gate. It was very symbolic, that is, he was leaving us behind on one side of the gate and was warmly welcomed and greeted by the returning students on the other side of the gate. A poignant reminder that he is now part of a different world that is his own, which will occasionally overlap with ours at his pleasure…</p>
<p>My husband all got teared up. He is the softie in this family. I said to him “I guess this beats the alternative scenario, that is, he is passing through the prison gate to be an inmate” This completely ruined it for him :)</p>
<p>Seriously though, this summer while he was staying home and interning, I realized how much more mature, thoughtful, wise, and gracious he has become in just one year. He was a pretty mature kid before, but now, I completely see him as my equal and actually, I must admit he is a much more mature and thoughtful young person that I ever was at his age or even much, much later.</p>
<p>Good bye gate.
<a href=“http://i55.■■■■■■■.com/javsph.jpg[/url]”>http://i55.■■■■■■■.com/javsph.jpg</a></p>
![http://i55.■■■■■■■.com/javsph.jpg[/url]](http://i55.tinypic.com/javsph.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
<p>For folks next year–we got in line an hour before the convocation started and still ended up standing in the back. The ceremony was worth it, though. </p>
<p>Loved the goodbye at the gate. I’m so excited for S and happy that he chose UChicago.</p>
<p>(Am a little late posting–went directly from Chicago to a conference in Europe and just got home.)</p>
<p>^^ What takes to get in front of the line then? Perhaps we have to camp out one night before? :)</p>
<p>We ended up in the back of Max P theather watching videos, if we were another 10 min late, we might have to stand in the street!!!</p>
<p>It wasn’t that bad. We knew it was going to be crowded and so we stood in line immediately after lunch. This was about an hour before they opened the door.</p>
<p>I lucked out. I was standing in front and they opened up one of the pews they had been saving. In '07.</p>
<p>Next June he’ll be coming back out of the Gate.</p>