<p>I guess for some of us, it’s the food over the company…</p>
<p>By Tom Sietsema
Washington Post Staff Writer</p>
<p>For a long minute, there’s no one to welcome me at the host stand. At the table, it takes seemingly forever to get a drink. Then, in the middle of explaining a dish, my bored-looking waiter is interrupted by the maitre d’, who whispers something in his ear while my companion and I wait. Throughout a recent dinner at what used to be a four-star experience, an unmistakable joylessness courses through the fading underground dining room that bears the name of one of the country’s most esteemed chefs. “Our new toy,” says a waiter who introduces Citronelle’s cheese cart, which contains fewer choices than even the most ordinary wine bar in town. The sommelier’s amusing wine stories can’t hide the reality that his colleagues are talking across the room at each other in the middle of service, and no one seems very happy to be there. Including this former fan.</p>
<p>hello5–</p>
<p>thanks for sticking up for me even though I wasn’t aware that my husband and I choosing to take S and his interesting new friends to dinner at a family-style Italian retaurant was such an unforgivable faux pas. We all had a wonderful, boisterous time that evening–some of the stories the boys told were absolutely hilarious. And, while Citronelle does have wonderful food–been there and enjoyed it–it didn’t have the relaxed atmosphere we were looking for that evening.</p>
<p>CR–</p>
<p>I don’t understand the malicious tone of all your posts or why you feel you need to criticize everyone and everything you encounter. </p>
<p>Your daughter is certainly not the only student in the world of CC that has had an inauspicious beginning to her college career, finding her school or living situation a poor personal fit. Many students and parents vent on CC, seeking support and advice. They receive support and advice from other posters.</p>
<p>Out of pure curiousity, why do you and/or your daughter even care what other students’ SAT scores were?(most likely roomie’s low scores are a figment of imaginaton…or roomie has severe LDs, or roomie was sick on the day of the SAT but performed brilliantly on the ACT or SAT on a different date…) or whether or not her roomie is/is not a good writer? perhaps she is a brilliant linguist or mathematician? not that you would ever have anything complimentary to say…</p>
<p>Right now I’m going to go with the report that your D’s roomie is a talented young woman who received generous scholarship $$$ from AU…because if you look at the CDS you don’t see students being accepted with the scores you report.</p>
<p>She doesn’t have a D (and there is no roommate.) She’s a student who is having a good time at AU’s expense. She has never even been to Citronelle.</p>
<p>mini,
I think you might be right.</p>
<p>All the same, I feel so sorry for cadmiumred.</p>
<p>It must be lonely and difficult to go through life as either CR or CR’s daughter, whichever situation is true.</p>
<p>Have a good time in DC and at Parents’ Weekend. I wish we could be there but we have a family obligation. </p>
<p>At least I know my son will be treated to several good meals this weekend! What goes around comes around…and several of my son’s friends have said their parents would like to reciprocate and take my S out for a good meal.</p>
<p>We aren’t there for Parents Weekend, per se, but it turns out we will be in town. We will eat at Cafe 8 - d. works there Friday night and Sunday brunch - she gets to use her Arabic, is learning Turkish, and the back staff speak Spanish (as she does), so it will be a terrific opportunity. (we will leave a big tip.)</p>
<p>Mini,
Will she be waiting on you, or will she be a guest that night! Enjoy! Let me know your favorite dishes–our family loves mediteranean food. While we were in town, our family (H, S1, S3, DIL, and I) had a very nice meal at Zaytinya–middle eastern small plates/tapas.</p>
<p>Our D will be waiting on us. We are planning to take a whole party. I have heard the food is very good but I have not eaten there yet. It is on the Hill and near my mom’s. I love Mediterranean food and the online menu looks great.
We will take her and her roomie and possibly some other friends to dinner on Sat. night. I am hoping to do the tour of the new SIS building and the Dean’s events for Kogod and
SIS but that is all we are planning to attend of the FW.
Ellen</p>
<p>I’m sure you all got the mailing today from “Ryan Lloyd, Vice President of Administration and Budget, Residence Hall Association” that actually comes from a third party vendor in New Jersey: “Because so many students receive Care Packages during exam time, it can hurt if a student is left out…A Care Package is tangible proof that the people students count on are thinking of them at exam time…We’re proud that American University can count on backing by their parents. This semester we want to try once again to hit that elusive 100% participation. The enclosed free gift card [tacky piece of junk with no envelope] is our way to help. Please send it even if you don’t plan to reserve a Care Package. Of course, it will be more appreciated if it comes with food.”</p>
<p>Now here’s an AU student organization, in return for what is no doubt a nice cut (not that it’s disclosed anywhere), allowing mail to go out under its name that preys on parental guilt by stressing the importance of every student’s receiving a pre-fab package. Really, really tacky! It’s one thing to send out a packet of third party vendor material hawking sheet sets and mini-fridges, but this mailing is ridiculous. And I’m sure many recipients don’t realize that the Residence Hall Association is a student group and not part of AU administration. If the RHA was just upfront about this being a fundraiser, and explained what the proceeds would be used for, I’d swallow it all a lot easier.</p>
<p>So it looks like that 100% participation will be elusive for another semester. Silly me, I thought that gargantuan check I wrote a couple of months ago was adequate assurance that I “back” my kid. I certainly have no intention of wasting $55 on a basket of overpriced junk food when D can hop on the shuttle to Whole Foods and choose from an enormous array of food items anytime she wants. Maybe this sort of thing makes sense for a college out in the middle of a cornfield, but I just don’t see the thrill of getting a package of microwave popcorn, M & M’s and gummi bears when you live in the middle of a major metropolitan area, AND most of those items are probably readily available on campus anyway. If I feel it’s necessary to send some special food item to my D to get her through the horrors and deprivations of finals I’ll either stoke up the oven and send her something homemade or order any one of hundreds of high quality treats available online. But you know what? Rather than contributing to the freshman 15, I’ll probably just call and send her my love and best wishes. Somehow I managed to stumble through 8 final exam periods without a single care package, and I think she can do it, too.</p>
<p>Thank you, I feel much better now.</p>
<p>About cadmiumred–let’s not forget that her correspondence here started with a diatribe against the Art department, so I’m guessing this is a disgruntled art student, maybe a grad student (or ex grad student) with a vendetta against AU in general and the Art Department in particular, who now just enjoys toying with us. I’m torn–sometimes I think she should be ignored so she just goes away; other times I think I’d miss her.</p>
<p>Exactly, MommaJ</p>
<p>sometimes it’s just too too tempting to respond to CR.</p>
<p>As far as the care packages go, every school my 3 sons have gone to seem to have the same dealio and we have never done it. It’s not so difficult to pack up one of the flat rate boxes with an assortment of my son’s faves. I have a Halloween box going out tomorrow, with face paint and candy and even some stupid magic wands. And some cold medicine and extra soccer socks and a blank thank you note as a reminder to send one to his aunt. And a book of madlibs cuz I used to love them.</p>
<p>I used to feel uncomfortable when I thought CR was being treated unfairly, I didn’t want her mis-treatment to be reflected on the AU parent population in general, but this has gone beyond the realm of reality. I don’t know who she is or what her misguided motives are, but when not taken seriously, and really, who could, she’s highly entertaining!!</p>
<p>I made my own box of D’s favorites last year for exam time: power bars and flavored instant hot cocoa. It was a big hit with her and her roommates and I had fun buying it for her. I looked at the stuff in the commercial pack and she doesn’t like that stuff. When my older D was at Smith they actually had care packages that had things that my daughter really enjoyed, good chocolate, nice teas etc so I would usually get it for her. I might have to make up a care package and leave it at my mom’s for exam time.
Ellen</p>
<p>Before responding to any more of CR’s posts, think of this: “Never mud wrestle with a pig. You both get dirty, and the pig enjoys it.” I tend to agree with Mini, the poster can not be a parent. It has to be a student (or ex-student) who has too much time on their hands.</p>
<p>Greetings all~</p>
<p>My son is transferring to AU in the spring semester as a, hmmmm I am not sure what exactly. AU accepted 72 credit hours, placing him as a junior, but he also plans to double major so I am not sure exactly where that places him. He will be studying new media journalism and anthropology with a minor in French. I grew up in DC and am ecstatic that he will be studying there :)</p>
<p>I have been reading this thread since August, actually, when my son was accepted for transfer. I have to say that I don’t believe that Ms. Red is for real by a long shot and didn’t from the get go, lol. I also found it odd that an art major would not be spending a good amount of time in the studio as opposed to their dorm room when they were not studying for their other classes. Artists are a pretty accepting bunch in my experience; it read odd that CD’s “daughter” was never in the studio or exploring DC museums/alternative art spaces communing with other artists, rather than her never ending battle with the AU demons of fun and frolic in her dorm room, hall or bathroom.</p>
<p>Regardless, it is nice to “meet” you and I hope to be a regular contributor to this forum in the future.</p>
<p>I was annoyed by the guilt inducing tone of the RHA mailing too. Also appalled by the stuff in the care packages–just junk!</p>
<p>Recently, I sent groceries through Amazon. Some time ago I accidently signed up for the $79 a year shipping package so I thought I would at least make use of it. I was able to send a case of individual curry meals, chinese instant meals (a bit like Ramen but with actual vegetables and such), etc. He was thrilled. Apparently, barely makes it to the dining hall once a day (sleeps through breakfast hours, is in class during most lunch hours).</p>
<p>D is also not maximizing her use of her meal plan-lesson learned for next time, we’ll go down a level. Sears is delivering a mini-fridge tomorrow (the third roommate who left was supposed to be providing one–the tripling/detripling thing made it hard to share stuff–and the small rentals are no longer available). So hopefully she’ll stock up on breakfast items–yogurt, milk, juice, cereal–and stop spending Eagle Bucks on stuff she buys on the fly. She’s been disappointed that the dining hall doesn’t open till 11 on Saturdays and Sundays, since she has off-campus commitments on some weekend mornings, so the fridge became a must to stop the flow of Eagle bucks and cash.</p>
<p>Congratulations to your son. And thank you for you perspective and insight on 'red. All of us here have been hoping that her postings haven’t alienated any parents of prospective students, so it’s good to know that the nuttiness is obvious to a newcomer. Looking forward to more of your contributions here.</p>
<p>Hi Sculptedmom, and welcome to our forum! As far as CR is concerned, I like having her around for comic relief, whatever she is (mom? student? who knows?) </p>
<p>Please be sure to share with us—your son’s experience and perspective will be a valuable addition.</p>
<p>I am SO jealous of all of you who will be seeing your students this weekend.</p>
<p>Anyone want to give my S a hug for me?</p>