<p>Doonesbury's Alex at MIT: Difficult problem sets, hostile advisor, uncongenial roommate....
<a href="http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html</a></p>
<p>How's your student doing?
Mine has gotten into all the classes he wanted, ranging in size from 10 to 290.</p>
<p>Marite--I thought that was hilarious. I didn't see the roommate as uncongenial, though (or maybe the uncongenial one is Alex?) I've always seen Alex as a little, um, mercurial, kind of like my D--except mine doesn't have the computer-genius thing going on!</p>
<p>My S is having a not-so-great start of junior year (for personal reasons.) All I've heard is classes are "okay."</p>
<p>Knowing how she's settling in would require hearing from her, harrumph.</p>
<p>Actually, D doing great, blissfully happy to be living in Boston, likes roomates and joined women's squash team, currently ranked #32 in the nation. Out of 32 teams. The only class she doesn't like is -- her major -- so she's thinking of changing it already, bet not for the last time, either. If she weren't so happy she'd be in the doghouse for not calling more often. </p>
<p>By the way, as this doonesbury shows - it's always something:</p>
<p>Mine is blissfully in Florence. Lives with a family on the Via D'Serragli (which, I'm told, is NOT the "street of the harems", but "street of the menageries" close to Sancto Spirito and the Pitti Palace), with a 15-year-old and 17-year-old, and now that she has figured out Florentine accents (hard "c"s are pronounced as "h"s), can get along just fine. There's no internet in the house, which means even more Italian conversation. She walks (on a bridge) across the Arno every morning. She's been to Ravenna, and on Sunday went to the west coast north of Livorno. Her program is located literally on the Piazza de Signoria, the historic center of Florence, looking out on the square itself. She's climbed Giotto's Tower, found a cheese shop and a cheap lunch place, bought shoes, and had a cooking class, all in Italian (they are forbidden from using any English.) Oh, and a bus tour of how to use all the public transportation. Is getting a voice teacher, and plans to play in the university orchestra. Got into the highest section of language classes (which surprised her a bit), but there are only 24 students total in the program (and a bunch of faculty), so the class sizes must be awfully small. Doesn't like bread made without salt (a Florentine institution, based on a historic opposition to a salt tax.)</p>
<p>The college is having its 75th anniversary reunion in Florence in October, with folks coming from all over the world.</p>
<p>I am extremely jealous (but I do get to visit!)</p>
<p>
[quote]
She walks (on a bridge) across the Arno every morning.
[/quote]
That might be the most charming parenthetical (or parental) addition I've read on CC,:).</p>
<p>I want to be mini's daughter.</p>
<p>So does mini. ;) (I played my first games of squash in 32 years last night.)</p>
<p>So mine has asked me to bring her a 13X9 cake pan and mixing bowls on parent's weekend. At the end of the first week she had peaches beginning to soften, found a suitemate with a yellow cake mix, someone else with instant oatmeal and brown sugar, and another with some oil and eggs. They made peach cobbler, bought ice cream at the WahWah and went around serving it to all in their end of the dorm. She thinks the dorm kitchen is grungy and wants her own personal baking utensils. She's been to NYC 3 times in 3 weeks - first for Darfur rally, then because the trains were free, currently on a bus in to see a show. She jumped on at the last minute after finishing math homework. She's missing the boyfriend, but I'm beginning to think long distance relationships are a good thing. Keeps her focused there and wanting to come home on fall break. I'm happy she's happy.</p>
<p>Since my freshman son is in SoCal, husband and I thought it would be fun to drive up to school one evening this week and take son to dinner. We haven't seen him since we left him over a month ago, and we're only a little more than an hour away.
Son liked the idea in principle, and he asked us to bring up an item he had at home that he wants to loan a friend. Husband checked out his schedule, and son checked out his. H made room on his calendar for this Wednesday eve - </p>
<p>We received an email from son the following day that he "spoke too soon." He really wouldn't have ANY free evenings until the 8th of October.(!)
With his photo job, his stage crewing for the theater department, and his classwork, lab, and test schedule, he was booked. </p>
<p>So much for that idea. I'd say he's more than "settled." He's entrentched!</p>
<p>I mailed the needed item. I think we'll be lucky if he manages to save an evening for us during fall break.</p>
<p>If anybody's student could walk on water, it would have to be Mini's D. :)</p>
<p>She'd probably forget her waterproof boots, or perhaps her flipflops.</p>
<p>(pssst. ohmother, that's Wawa. A convienence store chain that was started in Wawa, Pennsylvania - an actual place)</p>
<p>My college kids are also settled and happy. College senior daughter is student teaching 5th grade and trying to plan a trip to Kenya with a layover in England over her winter break. She loves teaching and is looking forward to having her own class.</p>
<p>Freshman son got back the highest grade on a Stats test. First grade I've heard about so far. We had an actual phone conversation of over 30 minutes where he talked about a recent trip to WV to see a new devasting way of coal mining where they blast the top off of mountains and then haul out what they want. He went with an ecology group. I'm a happy Mom, and excited about the upcoming parents weekend.</p>
<p>Can't top mini's post re walking on water, albeit using a bridge, nor the repartee between him and others following his post, but I am ever so happy to be able to post that DS is settling in at school number 3 (following the Katrina semester and the one term at Tulane before transferring due to the major disappearing).</p>
<p>DH spent a day with him over the weekend and reports that his roomate (in a 4-person suite) is a good match. He is making friends through the roommate. He got the classes he wanted in his major; got a decent schedule, if not exactly what he wanted, for his electives. He finds the workload "manageable," and really likes one of his key EE courses. After a rocky start with a new food service at JHU this year, he finds the food really good.</p>
<p>Third time's a charm?</p>
<p>A trip to Kenya, WOW!</p>
<p>My freshman D is definitely settling in socially, and I hope academically. She's already way overextended with extra-curriculars, despite having been warned that she could not participate in as many different activities as she did in high school. And I'm afraid to ask but fairly certain that she's left her first major problem set until the night before it's due -- again, something she did frequently in high school and was warned wouldn't fly in college. I really don't want to know how little sleep she's getting. On the plus side, she sounds incredibly happy. I just hope she can recover from whatever happens until she learns how to manage her time. Something tells me she's not the only freshman with time management problems.</p>
<p>Thought this might bring a smile--</p>
<p>My D & sister keep reminding me it's a GOOD sign that S is so quiet & not communicating--it means he's settled in very well & not missing us. I guess we did our job VERY WELL.</p>
<p>Our S, majoring in Engineering, is feeling overworked and overwhelmed relative to his friends, who are all in liberal arts. But, so far he plans to stick it out with his major and seems to be getting decent grades. He hosted a company at career day and already has a resume for possible internships next summer. He has always been very social and that hasn't changed, no matter what the workload.</p>
<p>We have gone to two home football games (only an hour away), where he tailgated with the family and took us back to his dorm room. The roommate is an even bigger slob than S, with clothes practically knee deep. S sleeps on the floor of neighbors' rooms most week-ends when roommate's girlfriend comes to vist from another college, but doesn't seem to mind either the mess or sleeping elsewhere. With all those clothes, sleeping on the floor in his room would be as soft as a mattress so maybe the other rooms are the same.</p>
<p>He keeps in touch via email pretty regularly. I write to my mom, dad, sister, and brother in one daily email and just added S to the group list (actually H is on the list too and I sometimes learn more about what is going on with him through his daily email rather than face to face!). S appears to enjoy the soap opera of our daily lives and hearing about his little brother, so pops up with his own comments frequently, which is nice. We are not a big phone family.</p>
<p>I'm getting mixed signals from my daughter but no actual cries of distress, so I'm assuming things are relatively good. My daughter is an "introverted extrovert", and I'm getting the definite impression that she's swung over to the introvert side for now. She's very focused on her coursework and is in the practice room daily (she's a probable vocal music major), but I find myself a bit worried that she's being too studious. (I can't believe I'm worrying about that, but it comes with being the designated worrier in the family). She tutors a 4th grade ESL student at the local elementary school once a week and is tossing around the idea of starting a world music a cappella group, since she doesn't want to sing only "dead white men's" music.</p>
<p>I don't hear a lot about social activities, but my daughter is one to observe first, connect later. She even pointed out to me that when she started high school (a charter school an hour away from home), it wasn't until after Christmas that she felt she had any friends.</p>
<p>On the other hand, she reported that she attended the theatre club's drag show this weekend, and her only regret was that she didn't have a handful of dollar bills to "strategically donate." So maybe she's not quite the shrinking violet I'm envisioning!</p>