<p>We'll follow tomorrow night, but for now all is well. </p>
<p>YAY!</p>
<p>DS is in, for the most part. So glad we came today. No trouble finding a parking spot in his garage; lines for the elevators were not horrendous. And, except for ice cube trays, light bulbs, pliers and a hammer (putting shelf together backwards and had to take apart ... par for the course), and a trash can for the kitchen, all is well with the world. Brought Mom home (stage 6 alzheimer's), as she's had a long and adventerous day ... but she's exhausted. Left my daughter @ dorm to supervise and sent Hubby back with pliers, hammer, light bulbs, and a bag of ice. I miss him already, DS ... not Hubby. :) Sigh ...</p>
<p>Zebes</p>
<p>D is IN, a pretty full day including getting all of the shopping done, weather was a inferno.</p>
<p>A few problems with getting Vista to connect which we got resolved. Online textbook orders are screwed up and will looking to fix those tomm at the new bookstore. No issues with Suntrust and Card services got all of those setup properly.</p>
<p>Room is nice, D met her roomate and other suite mate, she likes all.
We left her about 10:00 and she was searching out others adjacent room folks.</p>
<p>Pretty full day and exhausted, 450 mile drive and then several hours of move in and shopping.</p>
<p>More later</p>
<p>tool kit
trash can
night stand
coax cable for tv
some clothes he left
... and something else I can't remember. I'll call him before I leave - the list will probably be longer by then anyway.</p>
<p>He has XP on his computer (Engineering school doesn't want Vista) but couldn't connect to the internet yesterday either.</p>
<p>Tomorrow afternoon we'll shop for:
bathroom rug
comfy mattress pad
food
other misc.</p>
<p>Everything seems to have gone smoothly. Last night he and big brother had dinner at Nana's, which I expect may happen fairly often. I can't wait to see the apartment/dorm. He is really pleased, and big brother, who has seen many dorms on various campuses says it's the nicest dorm he has ever seen.</p>
<p>I miss DS, but I think I miss the boys being together even more. We did stairstep kids, and they are really close. With two of them off at different colleges with different break/work schedules, etc., the reality is that the three of them won't be together to just hang out very often. And that makes me sad.</p>
<p>Just met S in the parking garage and he grabbed the few things I'd run to Target for today. I thought he'd cry when he saw the ice cube trays. <g> Shoot ... he was even excited about the over the door shoe thing ... which I told him to store his small stuff in: umbrella, extra cords ... etc. besides shoes. So glad we got him a small tool box with a few essentials, although how he could forget pliers and hammer ... beats me. My daughter really perked up when she was looking at his room and helping him organize. She's a junior this year and hadn't really considered UCF because it's in her own backyard, so to speak. But ... The Towers may have changed her mind. LOL UF doesn't solely hold her heart now, which is good since it's so exceptionally difficult to get in there. Even with her 4.0 uw she's nervous that she might not get in. Crazy, crazy, crazy! DS struggled with getting his internet connection set up last night ... froze his computer, in fact. Took it over to computer services ... fixed in 30 seconds and they told him what he was doing wrong. He just sent me an email so I know it's working now. Thank goodness, as his honors Econ professor has already sent 4 days worth of lecture notes via email. As far as textbooks ... yeah, he's been told his should be in Tuesday. We'll see. He's only met one roommate, very briefly as he's spending all his day and evening in band camp. The other two haven't arrived yet.</g></p>
<p>Zebes, who just found DS's underwear in the dryer. Oooops, I guess he forgot that load. LOL</p>
<p>Not sure if this is going to help anyone at this point but there is still 2 days of check in left.
I am a current student and a former RA and have worked in every community but Towers so I think I can offer some info that will help. My gf now is an RA in Hercules as well.
First off I've noticed a lot of broken elevators. Nike had some down during move in which I'm sure was a major inconvenience. Lake Claire does not have elevators. Believe me having lived and worked over there its a major pain. The Towers has super slow elevators which will back up majorly throughout the move in times.
The earlier you get in the better as it just backs up and backs up throughout the day. By early afternoon like 2-3 its really bad. If you have your own dolly, bring it. I ran dolly checkout in Hercules last summer and that wait was 45 min to over an hour at times for one. They are all first come, first serve.
Roommates: First impressions are generally wrong. So many times roommates who loved each other at first, hated each other at the end. And vice-versa. In Libra I had a room with your typical blond sorority girl and a very artsy, drama student and they were great together. I know parents worry about this, rightfully, but either way you learn a ton from the experience. As an RA we want nothing more than perfect matches because those mediations can get downright nasty. So give it time and see what happens. Switches usually aren't made till 3ish weeks into the semester as a policy.
Go to the opening floor meeting. I know it sounds boring and unnecessary but if you are a freshman this is vital. Its a good way to notice the cute guy/girl next door and meet others. Plus there should always be free food. Usually pizza or ice cream or something. I know I like to keep it short and give them all time to mingle and talk. Unfortunately this is not how a lot of them run it. Just pray your RA doesn't like their own voice so much. I guess the policies are good to know but they are all common sense. The small ones are virtually non-enforceable. Like the bed risers. Its a safety issue in case the bed slips or something they want to have themselves covered. But RAs should never go in your rooms without you letting them in. If they have thats a serious breach you should report immediately.
The biggest rule is just be respectful. This goes out to parents and students. Be respectful to other residents and especially the RAs. We get paid minimum wage for 15 hours a week no matter how much we work. And believe me in 2.5 years I never worked less than 30. There is nothing more aggitating than a parent yelling at you for something you have no control over. Unfortunately that has happened to me way more than 10 times during the various check-ins. Yes we know it doesn't make sense but we can't do anything about it. Just stay calm and be respectful and everyone will be fine.
I was just over at Towers tonight and wow I must say you kids are lucky. I lived in Orange Hall for 2 years so if you know what thats like then you know how great it is to be moving into those. Enjoy your years here. Its a great place. Sorry for being so long. Hope it was semi-helpful.</p>
<p>Well we haven't heard much since we left, we finished the shopping and putting together the balance of stuff for the room on Friday and left for Ft Myers shortly after noon. D quickly established a circle of new friends with roomate, suitemates and others on the floor. Her roomate's boyfriend started during the summer so they had his friends also to join in. The other suitemates are from WV and Jacksonville, so life sounds like it is pretty wonderful and we are glad that her feeling of not knowing anyone was unfounded. I guess a bunch of them went to the pool this afternoon ( I looked over the fence on Thursday, what a nice facility that is) and are out and about right now getting some Pizza.</p>
<p>The survival 101 course this AM was pretty much the same as the college transistions course she had this spring so it put a exclamation point on those things they learned.</p>
<p>She is going to check on books again tomm, we are missing two books for English Comp, not sure why the online system failed, but that was an inconvience.</p>
<p>Did everyone come to the same conclusion that the water is terrible? Lots of sulfur smell. We bought her a couple cases of water before we left.</p>
<p>Also no issues with the elevators, they all worked and hardly any wait.</p>
<p>I'd agree on the nice comments on the towers, it's like a small city over there they have done a great job on that area. Too bad about the food, it is a long walk and with the heat you don't want to be walking much anywhere. Hopefully the Bus or Bikes will negate having to do that, it has been a hot summer.</p>
<p>What a weekend! Drove to O-ville on Friday night. Picked up DS from his uncle's (visited a bit there) and drove him back to campus. Saw the dorm for the first time. Met the roommates. Everything seems great. Everyone we've met in the towers has been really nice.</p>
<p>Saturday a.m., DS did the 101 thing. He'd heard it before, but IMO, he can't hear it too much! Sat. pm, lunch at Friendly's then off to Target to fill in the missing pieces of the Towers apartment. Waiting until we got there to see what everyone else had worked very well. It was clear what was needed (toaster, kitchen garbage can and garbage bags, etc.) and we were happy to do our part. Probably much easier than 4 families trying to figure it out up front.</p>
<p>Sat. p.m. DS did the luau, so we had dinner with family.</p>
<p>Sunday was grocery shopping and the Honors reception, which I enjoyed. By this time ALL the kids seemed ready for mom and dad to head out. We said good-bye right after the reception. THEN we had a dead battery, THEN we drove to Gainesville to get our van from our UF son, THEN we drove home. Long day.</p>
<p>DS has called a few times today, mostly about books. They were out of some of them, then they found some. They apparently don't do deferrals like they did at UF, so I had to get $543 (!!!!!!) into his account fast so he could at least TRY to get books.</p>
<p>Very expensive few days around here.</p>
<p>Sigh.</p>
<p>But he seems very happy, good with classes, etc., etc. So far (knock wood) I have a very good feeling about his thing.</p>
<p>Yes it was expensive, it's like outfitting a small house. But most stuff is one time only purchase, now it's just has to be lugged to and from every year. Same comments on the 101 class, boring I've heard it all before.</p>
<p>They have gotten to the gym and pool pretty much with her roomates everyday. First day of class went went, Math class is pretty basic and she likes her Emg Comp prof. Another two classes today, we will see what the reviews are on them.</p>