Class of '18 now in 2019. blimey.

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

hang on....

Kitten - congratulations to your dd on her internship. Hope it all goes well for her.

So as year one of university draws to a close what's the verdict from our darling offspring?
Has the university/course lived up to their expectations?
Living with other students - fabulous or horrific?
Budgeting and cooking for themselves - how was it?
Summer plans?

I'm not even going to bother asking because it will have been "all right I guess".

Yes - congrats to your DD OYBBK. Hope it all goes well for her.

DS has loved very minute of his first year.

He's made some lovely friends in his halls, several of whom we have had to stay for the odd night when they have come back for concerts. He is sharing a flat with 3 of them next year plus another 3 from various other courses.

He is enjoying his own course and has (or so he tells me) worked hard -although time will tell when exam results come through.

Pretty well budgeting wise - he has actually come home with his bank account not in minus figures. He has managed to cook for himself without any disasters but has asked his DG to teach him to cook "the good stuff" over the summer...(I don't particularly enjoy cooking but my DM's food is amazing)

He's been to one festival already, has another 2 lined up, a trip to Amsterdam next week and another trip to London for a gig later in the summer. He is going to pick up some work shifts in between.

So overall positive up to now.

OYBBK well done to her - that's great!

Has the university/course lived up to their expectations?
They take longer than promised to mark work; he thinks that as marks are deducted for submitting assignments late, then marks should be added if work is marked late.
Otherwise very happy with the course and the teaching.

Living with other students - fabulous or horrific?
The people are fine. The collective effects of nobody doing communal chores are horrific.

Budgeting and cooking for themselves - how was it?
Fine; this was the easiest bit.

Summer plans?
Weekend break with girlfriend; a couple of festivals; family holiday with us; try to pass driving test; earn money.

Did anyone see in the news that Edexcel are investigating an alleged leak of today's Maths A-level paper? This would make it the third year in a row.

Well, ds1 is very relieved to have got a 2.2 at end of first year, a mixture of A's and BPluses and Cs, and B plus in the extended essay he was worried about. He says next year he will work harder [good to hear!]
I'm not sure about friends.
He has become much more handsome fit and trendy

He has been earning a tiny pittance as a pyschology "subject" in some research programme run by the Big Uni.

I'm still longing for him to come home and help me with some boring chores, but I don't think he has been tempted. Term still continues (without lectures) for another 2 weeks. Then the cooking course.

This year has been good, but I think it would have been better as a Gap Year, although I think the first few months would have been dreary and tough.

Today I took dd to visit Leeds. To investigate the Textiles course there. Seems very heavy weight. She was a bit overwhelmed. But loved the uni itself. I think she is now considering an alternative subject or to run away to sea [Bournemouth] and do Costume for Screen instead...or something like that.

I am recommending a Gap Year.

Eventually someone will listen to me.

Eventually someone will listen to me.
My motto for at least the past five years.

Has the university/course lived up to their expectations?
They take longer than promised to mark work; he thinks that as marks are deducted for submitting assignments late, then marks should be added if work is marked late.
Otherwise very happy with the course and the teaching.

Living with other students - fabulous or horrific?
The people are fine. The collective effects of nobody doing communal chores are horrific.
The first
Ds would definitely agree with the above!

Ds still has one more exam (Monday) and then will stay at university until about 28th June.
He found some of his lecturers uninspiring which surprised him, but did not surprise me! He is looking forward to moving out and sharing a house with students who know how to empty the bin and are prepared to put this knowledge into practice.
He is very underwhelmed by summer weather in the UK - 11 degrees! Meanwhile I have the air con as it's nudging 35 here. He says he thinks the most useful item he brought with him to the UK was a rain coat.
It's his birthday next week and it will be a bit odd not celebrating with him. dh gave him a bottle of champagne when he visited him in January and am sending him money to go out for a meal with flatmates so he should have a good time.
DD finishes school on Friday and we are going to South Korea and Japan for two weeks starting Saturday. Am going to miss these short haul trips when we relocate next year.

Thank you :) she's looking forward to it, though feeling a bit pressured by having a uni project and some maths sheets to do over the summer too.

The course has lived up to her expectations as has the tutorial system. There has been enough to challenge her and beyond.

Living with other students I think has been ok, a few kitchen challenges and the fire alarms have been a bit stressful.

Budgeting - it seems that Cambridge is a really cheap place to live and so she's managed to save quite a bit.

Summer plans, see above! Plus a family holiday.

DD had only negative expectations due to Clearing.

However .... she loves her uni city, accommodation was fine, she's made some great friends in her accommodation and socialised far more than she expected.

She hasn't engaged much with uni based social activities, partly because her accommodation was far away and partly because she could only cope with so many 'new' groups, but is talking about changing that next year as she misses an activity she used to do.

Course wise, because it is Scotland, it is a bit different, but it has also given her some different opportunities she has embraced.

She is finally dealing taking steps to deal with the anxiety that caused the issues in A levels, after realising/acknowledging after the first uni exams it won't just go away. Am very, very proud of her!

raspberry that sounds really positive.

DS1 is at Download this weekend. The weather is going to be a bit rubbish, so hopefully the music will be worth it.

DD has loved her first year. She has met a BFF which she has never really had before. She struggled with friendship groups at school but has found a lovely bunch at University. She has enjoyed most of the work but has found some of the lectures a bit uninspiring. She is ridiculously excited about the house share for next year but is already looking forward to third year when her BFF will be doing a year abroad so she is planning who she will live with.

Money has been a lost cause really.

She has several festivals planned for the summer. We don't do family holidays anymore and haven't for some time. We can't all go abroad as someone needs to look after the ageing Spaniel. Although we have a trip to the south coast planned as family are gathering from Europe.

The friendship group she ended up with at school seems to have fragmented so I'm not sure how much she will be going out over the summer.

The house is filled with all her stuff from University. The bathroom floor is constantly wet and my iPad has disappeared ...

Lovely to see everyone's updates. I hope DD enjoys her years at university. She is much more ready to go than she was last year. she is still with the BF who has enjoyed his first year far too much enormously. Sadly, his year at university has turned him into a self absorbed, boorish, arrogant young man who thinks he knows everything. Ironically, he was worried that if he had got into Oxford that it would change him and make him arrogant

We have a bit of a disaster to deal with just now as they were planning on going interrailing on Monday. I checked the tickets this afternoon and they have put the wrong dates on one of the tickets. You can't travel on a ticket with the wrong dates so they can't go on Monday as planned. Interrail aren't available until Monday 9 am, an hour after they plan to depart from our local station.

I have been frantically ringing around stations to see if DD can buy another ticket there, but, frustratingly, they are only available online to be posted out and not available electronically. So I will have to get DD's ticket exchanged, and realistically, they won't be able to travel until Thursday at the earliest. We are looking at getting the train tickets to London and Eurostar reservations refunded and them getting a flight to Amsterdam. Such hassle.

And it is pouring with rain again. Just waiting for Noah's Ark to float by

Sorry for such a miserable update.

Tapas not sure where you live but ds did Harwich to The Hook by ferry , the tickets pretty cheap and includes the train into Amsterdam so you don’t need to use that as one of your interail journey .

Thank you for reply Peaseblossom22. I have resolved this by buying a full price Eurostar ticket and buying individual train tickets between the cities. The Trainline are bloody brilliant. I will send the wrong ticket back to Interrail for a refund.

Interestingly the individual tickets don't come to much more than an Interrail ticket and have far fewer restrictions. For example it is possible to get a direct train between Paris and Amsterdam, but with an Interrail ticket they will have to take 4 trains.

Ah there you are. Somehow I lost you guys!

DD still at uni rehearsing for the Edinburgh fringe. She didn't realise that there would be a lot of choreography so her legs are aching a lot apparently!

DD2 has finished GCSES so we have had s nice weekend celebrating. Just hoping she has done enough for her BTEC course!

Going to move DD1 on 1st of July. She is looking forward to being in a flat with one other. Her hall mates have been a bit disappointing and unfriendly this year.

Nice to see you on here marmite. I hope you are keeping well.

Just found out that we will be receiving the deposit back from DD's halls as the room was deemed to be in an acceptable state. My clearing of the hair from the shower cubicle clearly paid off.

Welcome back Marmite, it's lovely to read your update :)

Well done Ursula.

Just wanted to have a proud mum moment and show you the photos of DD2 dressed up for prom. Hope you don't mind!!

She looks beautiful! You must be very proud.