Third year Oxbridge thread. '20/'21

[OhYouBadBadKitten]

A year where our kids really will have no clue as to what happens next!
Egads.

That's a long time Sunndowne, hopefully flights will resume when things calm down again.

A private house seems quite ideal at the moment, I think dd would love that - being able to escape us and less chance of being forced home again.

Fingers crossed term starts normally as it can. Worrying news at moment. The way I see it is that lockdowns are not permanent, they will be minimised as much as possible.
I'm glad DD is living with a cambridge peer, so she won't be totally isolated in this situation

Fingers and toes crossed here! It’s good to hear that our youngsters are looking ahead and have good friends to see them through these tough times.

It's been an odd thing, going shopping with dd so that she can prepare in case they have to stay in their room self isolating for a couple of weeks. This wasn't really what we had envisioned when they started was it?

DD and I are going up on Friday. She moves in Saturday. DH and DS are coming on Saturday. We will move in each individually as only one parent allowed. Staying until Sunday and will pick up what they need/have forgotten Sunday morning.

This is the preppy week and I'm now working until Thursday because my uni is in uber planning mode and I can see overnight campus rotas looming.

Oh dear ohtheroses. Forgot more supervision required by unis. Such a difficult time.

My DD is up against brexit and trying to prove her right to stay in euro town. Lots of paperwork.

Your poor dd Sunndowne, that's an extra stress.

I think dd is totally packed now. It is definitely a lot. After her being desperate to get back for months, we both have sudden minor collywobbles.

Yep. It's unnerving any change right now.

DD has her paperwork, hopefully mtg 2 with officials will go better.
She also got her key to flat tonight, and moves in weekend. All good.

Hello everyone, nice to see you still here, seems a very long since you held my hand while DD was having her interview. She’s going back on Saturday but we haven’t started packing yet. I’m hoping that we’ve got it down to a fine art now and it will all be a doddle. I really hope they have an uninterrupted term and manage to spend time with much loved friends.

I hope so too Biscuit. Good luck with the packing!

DS is heading back on Monday, packing early all done! You should be fine biscuit we are pro’s at packing now!

Hi everyone.
Relieved this forum is still here. Just come back from dropping DS off at Oxford.
Hadn’t read this thread until now and now having the wobbles.
I’m wondering if DS didn’t read or bother relaying Covid advice his college gave as

1. He definitely hasn’t packed light- I suggested he keep a holdall incase they got sent home. Luckily he did.
2. As he’s self catering he did do a big basics Food shop before he went as we’d used them all up during the 1st lockdown. But I wouldn’t say he has a fortnights worth of food - he said college would provide it?!!!

Having heard that some Unis were allowing one parent or none we said our proper goodbyes at home and just helped him unload the car.

He’s promised us a virtual tour once he’s settled so looking forward to that.

DS definitely hasn’t packed light either, they weren’t advised too by college so he’s taking most of his worldly possessions! He’s allowed one parent to help unload, DP will be doing that as I’ll be at work. DS is catered this term as they have closed to kitchens, not sure how that will work for those like DS who have perpetually hollow legs. I think he’s hoping that the kitchens will be opened at some point so he can feed himself when he wants.

dd didn't pack light - I swear half of it was food though! I was allowed to help unpack. She's allocated some as 'quarantine food' so that was stashed. College will also deliver ordered food, but it's nice not to have to rely on that.

Her room is lovely, but I'm worried that her household seems to consist of her and one other and they are only allowed to eat or meet up with their households. It seems very lonely.

I think after having them with us for so long, it's hard in one way to let go of the worry and responsibility again.

for you swimmer.

Well done Swimmer and OYBBK for surviving drop off. It does seem very strange having them gone again after six months. I’d kind of got used to the rhythm of the year but now I’m all at sea again. Quite looking forward to work starting again tomorrow and having a bit of a routine. I’ve spent the day doing manic cleaning until DH had to intervene and make me stop...

Thanks Bakeandyarn. It definitely looked liked DS was going for longer than 9 weeks . I hope your DS finds a way to fill those hollow legs. I guess he can fill up on bananas and nuts etc if need be. If he actually goes to the college canteen to get fed maybe suggest he has full cooked breakfast which should set him up for the day. Although I realise many students won’t bother going to breakfast if they’re not having to go to lectures
OYBBK & BiscuitBurglarYou’re so right about letting go again after so long. I’m going to have to throw myself into some home projects to distract myself from worrying
OYBBK Glad your DD’s room is lovely & hoping they might find another twosome that they can pair up with maybe

Would love to think he would fill up in bananas and nuts swimmer but he is still the world’s fussiest eater! Eating in college could persuade him to broaden his palate a bit, I think he will probably be living on cooked chicken, digestives and actimel! He does like a cooked brekkie and Browns in the covered market is fab he tells me.

Awww. Year 3. Just to think we were helping them send their applications 4 years ago!!! It was a great hand holding source of information then.
Hope your DC get fed and enjoy some food studying.
DD doing well abroad but wants a private teacher to up her language skills.
Not fully immersed as has many UK students friends. So far so good. Moved into a lovely flat yesterday.
Oybbk- your DD always gets the good rooms I remember.
Wish I could show you her foreign traditional city room so lovely but she'd kill me !!

Uggh good studying should read

Ah well. Both of them dropped and unpacked. We had a lovely family dinner Saturday night.

DH and I have now had three quiet suppers and the kitchen is immac. No butter on the doors . Weird though.

DD's room smaller than expected but super view over The Cam. DS's v small but perfectly formed - I'd have to travel from bog to shower sideways .

DH is whizzing up Friday with football kit because there's a team.

Hope you and all your dc are ok. It's jolly odd.

My uni now has it on campus - I have a luffly utterly shit room with facilities for my nights on campus next week. Can't make my DC understand how lucky they are

Well done for depositing DC Roses. I haven’t looked for butter on our doors but I’ll go hunting tomorrow, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was some...

Hope everyone’s DC are settling back in and having some much needed and long awaited fun.

DS has had a couple of visits to the gym and met up with friends in the JCR. They have already had a general email warning them about social distancing and meeting in bigger groups. I think it’s a big adjustment for them, lots of “new” rules again to get their heads around. They seem to be doing a good job of making the best of things and I guess it’s a very tricky balance for the colleges to make this happen.

I’ve got DD home as her year 13 bubble has to isolate, she will be back next week. It’s been very tough for her as she’s desperate to be in school and we resorted to an afternoon in the back garden as she’s so fed up. The one bright note was her first university offer!

Lovely to hear everyone's news.

Sunndowne I remember eons ago when I had my year abroad, the university had an orientation week for the foreign students, so no guesses who our friends ended up being, one of whom I married. I would recommend trying to make native speaker friends, although my language still improved and I was able to write essays and a dissertation in the language.

DS has been back in Cambridge for about 3 weeks. He is on the JCR and wangled an early start to help arrange freshers events. He was very keen to get back and seems happy. He spent some of the time consolidating work from last year as he really struggled with motivation (first time since he was about 14) studying at home in lockdown.

He also took the usual amount of stuff (lots!). We went on a big shop to Aldi so he has supplies and his college will also deliver food from Hall if self isolating.

ohtheroses how did your night on campus go? Did you have to pace the corridors ensuring rule of 6 was being followed
It must be really tough on top of your normal work load.
I still follow my eldest’s Uni on Twitter & a senior member of staff was doing the night rounds on campus & said he’d disappointed a student who thought he was the pizza delivery service

Pretty much swimmer. The self isolating smokers are allowed out so the non smokers are now all pretending!

Visited dc on Friday. V glad now we are all locking down again. They are well and enjoying themselves in a socially distanced way. Tested weekly and so far their corridors/flats have been -ve.

Hope all your young people are doing well. DD is thinking about applying for a Masters next year - plan had been Yale but covid may have put paid to that but she is being encouraged by her tutor.