Parents weekend

Colleges and Universities A-Z Smith College
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<p>I’m excited, too. I’m really looking forward to sitting in on my daughter’s classes, getting to know her friends, enjoying all the energy of the weekend, etc., etc., ad nauseum! :-)</p>

<p>I just tried the link for the Northampton parking map that CrewDad supplied earlier this month, and the link went nowhere although it was fine before. I’ve gone to the Northampton website and here’s one that worked for me just now:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.northamptonma.gov/parking/uploads/listWidget/2348/downtown_parking_lots.pdf[/url]”>http://www.northamptonma.gov/parking/uploads/listWidget/2348/downtown_parking_lots.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Heading out this am but wishing the weather was better!</p>

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<p>We decided to visit for a week in November so we’re not going this weekend. My daughter said it was beautiful a few days ago and now it’s cold and rainy. I hope that doesn’t stop anyone from enjoying Northampton. It’s a great town and I wish I were there! Enjoy.</p>

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<p>So? Impressions please for a frustrated mum who misses her daughter. What did you see? What did you do?</p>

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<p>I may not be the best reporter since we didn’t really do a lot of official things but I will say there were a lot of kids without parents there so I;m sure your daughter was not alone. We had a great trip to the Smith art museum - it;s quite spectacular and the collection s really impressive followed by dinner at Viva Fresh Pasta with my D friend and her family and on Sunday had brunch in the dorm which was a great chance to meet other kids and my D; senior buddy. Sunday was beautiful - the campus is gorgeous in the fall. We walked around Northampton and had lunch at Local burger. Town was busy. We debated the football game but none of the girls in my D’s house were involved so we passed. It was mostly just nice to be on campus and meet friends - as always I was very impressed by Smith women!
LIT hope you make it next year!!</p>

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<p>LIT, I’m so sorry you missed the weekend. It was a great weekend despite the lousy rainy, raw weather all day Saturday.</p>

<p>You wanted a description so here it is:</p>

<p>I live 1-1/2 hours away, so my weekend started first thing Friday morning. I was able to sit in on two of my daughter’s classes: English 199 (Methods of Literary Study) and her First-Year Seminar on Landscape Studies. Both professors were lively, responsive and welcoming and the students had good comments.</p>

<p>During the afternoon, some of us folded origami cranes in observance of 350 Day on Saturday; there was an inter-house competition for the largest number of cranes, so we had to do our part to hold up house honor!</p>

<p>Then house tea at 4:00 PM: there was lots of energy and a high decibel count in the house living room with students chatting away with each other and some parents connecting with each other in multiple ways. Delicious goodies!</p>

<p>That evening we attended “Mrs. California,” a hilarious play about a 1950’s homemaking competition. If you ever have a chance to see it, do it; it’s fabulous with its stereotypes and questions about women’s roles. As my daughter said, it was the perfect Smith play. The production was very professional and polished in every way: acting, costumes, sound and set.</p>

<p>Unfortunately, I missed Carol Christ’s talk Saturday morning. I never changed my cell phone off vibrate from the play Friday night, and as a result, I didn’t hear the nonexistent alarm and I overslept! It was well-deserved sleep but I won’t make that mistake again!</p>

<p>As my daughter had a paper and mid-term exam on Monday, Saturday afternoon I spent at the Smith art museum–a great way to spend a rainy day. Throughout the weekend, a lot of students were groaning and stressing out about the timing of various mid-term tests, papers and projects due right after the weekend. One does wonder about the scheduling of the weekend smack dab in the middle of mid-terms. One mother of a first-year had flown all the way from Seattle to cherish some time with her daughter and revel in her experience at Smith, only to discover at the last minute her daughter had just gotten inundated with school work and couldn’t spend any time with her!</p>

<p>Saturday at 3:50 PM the bells in College Hall were run 350 times in honor of 350 Day, the International Climate Day of Action, and we trooped to the Student Center to view all the origami cranes the various houses had folded. Very cool!</p>

<p>Saturday night we ate at Spoleto’s and it was great fun, delicious and reasonably priced! Saturday night there was the Montage concert at John Greene Hall, a concert of all the various Smith musical performance groups each performing one piece: numerous a cappella groups, first-year chorus, upperclassmen Glee Club, jazz ensemble, Wailing Banshees (Celtic), wind ensemble, and full orchestra. I don’t think I’ve left anyone out. There’s a lot of musical talent at Smith and it’s enthusiastically supported!</p>

<p>Sunday morning my daughter and I sang in the choir for the Interfaith service. It was a beautiful, moving service about “home” and how our definitions of it can change and enlarge through our experiences. Two students gave very powerful reflections on their meanings of “home,” others did beautiful readings and the hymns were perfectly chosen. I was in tears!</p>

<p>One very cool fact I learned from the Smith organist (who’s phenomenal): Smith has been extremely fortunate to be given(!) a 1874 Johnston organ, a very, very fine mechanical organ that is in its original condition, and hopefully over the next few years, it will be installed in the Helen Hills Hills Chapel. By coincidence, it’s as old as Smith! It should knock everyone’s socks off when he pulls out all the stops! </p>

<p>Sunday brunch was really yummy with all kinds of brunch-y foods. Afterwards my daughter wanted to introduce me to the wonders of the Northampton shops, so we picked up a couple useful items and had fun briefly browsing before heading back to the house.</p>

<p>My daughter had to hit the books so I said goodbye and enjoyed the warm sunshine and wandered around the campus photographing the light coming through the glorious trees and enjoying the variety of architectural styles of the early campus buildings (I’m reading ALMA MATER by Helen Lefkowitz Horowitz, a book about the early beginnings and developments in architecture, academics and social customs of the Seven Sisters–great book!).</p>

<p>At 4 PM, there was a magnificent Early Music concert at Sweeney Hall performed by Trefoil, a trio of two countertenors and a soprano, with their harps. Exquisite! And then the drive home.</p>

<p>I tremendously enjoyed getting to know my daughter’s warm, intelligent, playful, thoughtful friends throughout the weekend. With a support system like that, in addition to challenging courses taught by engaged and engaging professors, stimulating activities, and a colorful town, I know my daughter is really in the right place. </p>

<p>LIT, I hope you can make it next year!</p>

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<p>I envy you. It’s one of those once of a lifetime things. (It will be different if you go again…good, but still different. You’ll hear the fluttering wings of Time if you go when your D is a senior.)</p>

<p>But you still have Ivy Day and Graduation in front of you…</p>

<p>PS I don’t think you missed much in Carol Christ’s speech but I’ve become very disenchanted with her. She works a room well, have to say.</p>

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<p>Thanks, Carolyn, that was almost as good as being there myself. I sincerely hope that I will finally be able to make it next academic year, but in May, not in October.</p>

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<p>In case anyone is wondering, “350” in the context of the International Climate Day of Action refers to 350 parts per million of atmospheric carbon dioxide. This is the highest level known to have occurred naturally in the last several hundred thousand years. Today we’re at 387 and rising.</p>

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<p>For my D’s first year, we went to Family Weekend, only to discover that she was stressed with tests and a paper, all due/taken the first half of the coming week. She tried to work ahead, but, hey, there’s only so much time a student can muster, so we, too, had to leave her alone for stretches of time. </p>

<p>The next year, we went up the weekend BEFORE Family Weekend, and the timing was sooo much better. We didn’t much take to the official events anyway, and this way we had some time to spend with D. We did take out friends to dinner – friends that magically multiplied by the time we showed up at the restaurant. My husband had wanted to take D, her roomie, and one friend to Spoleto. Thank goodness we went to the Brewery instead, because eight Smithies and one guest showed up for dinner. :)</p>

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<p>I would have been with your H. We took three of D’s friends with us to Osaka on one visit and our experience with D wasn’t so diluted that it seemed as if we were tagging along. But I tend to be more of “small group” person anyway. </p>

<p>I do recall that at the first Family Weekend we had designated times where D had to study or do other stuff. Probably some the second as well but she had it better in hand.</p>

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<p>When we ate at Spoleto’s, I was taking my daughter and roommate out to dinner and we were joined by one of their friends and her mother, so there were just five of us, just right! Yes, I know, TD, that next year’s experience won’t be the same as this time. We’ll have to figure whether we want to go for Family Weekend or another one before all the mid-term test/papers hit the fan.</p>