Current Oxford/Cambridge students support/chat continued (2)

[Panicmode1]

The other thread is nearly full so I took the liberty of starting a new one...

Taking DS1 and DD back to Oxford on Sunday. It's been lovely having them (and DS2) home but I'm looking forward to a clutter free and quiet house. Plus we have decorators in next week so need their bedrooms to stash stuff in.

Good luck travelling back to O and C for the new term. I hope everyone has smooth journeys not blighted by floods etc.

DS1 and DS2 are in the middle of their first set of law conversion course exams and still missing university life but we all had a lovely Christmas, despite working except for the Bank Holidays.

@HoneyMobster I hope your decorating goes to plan. When I get more time, I'm going to need various people in to fix the one shower for all three of us, which is only trickling hot water (cold showers can be very bracing of course), the washing machine, which won't empty or open and is 'drowning' our only baths mats in deep water - and replace the twisted gas pipe sticking out of the wall where our oven used to be before breaking down and leaking gas, some weeks ago! I was still able to serve up an adequate Christmas dinner with two mini ovens and a microwave however.

Missing the term times when I could get on with things more easily without needing to consider DCs needs but still enjoying having them home.

Ooh @Panicmode1 DD's college also posted a photo of the boathouse. She is somewhere transiting London now. The trains from Devon to London are struggling now due to flooding and the one she booked has been cancelled. We went to a funeral earlier and then I dropped her at a local station and she made the train by the skin of her teeth. No idea when she'll arrive in C. I'm taking my DF home tomorrow then dropping DD2 back at uni, staying overnight near her then driving home on Sunday. I'll need another break!

I was in Oxford this week for work and Christchurch meadows were mostly closed due to flooding - towpath and boat houses flooded - all quite dramatic - DS and DD disappointed that there will not be much rowing. DS just had a college training camp on the Tideway in London and got some good training in there.

Good luck to everyone returning - both our two heading south on Tuesday...

Taking ds back tomorrow - we were reflecting saying only 4 more journeys (2 terms) to make! I'm already feeling a bit sad that the rhythm of the last few years will change.

@mutterphore good luck to both ds for their law conversion exams - and hope you get things sorted out at home in the new year. It's miserable having a long list of things that need fixing.

We are waiting for DD's decision on Tuesday but I wanted to know if your DC does English at oxford what kind of work do they have to complete over the Christmas break? I'm planning on taking DD to Japan during this time (if she gets into Oxford, or another time depending on her other offers) and wanted to know if it's ok to go away this time? I know she'll prob have to do some work and that's fine but was wondering on what kind of work load so I can look at planning the trip accordingly with downtime for her to do work.

Please don't suggest a Summer trip, I'm autistic and I wouldn't be able to handle the Japanese heat, Summer here is bad enough at it is lol.

DD went back today, quite early. Every time they sneak out without telling me they're actually off, and even now in the second term of third year something that wouldn't have escaped my maternal eye gets left behind. Today I didn't look any further than noting some of her toiletries still in the bathroom when I got up. I looked out to see if the car was still on the drive, but there were just tail lights disappearing into the dark.
I went back to bed without upsetting myself with further investigations, and await howls of mobile outrage when deficiencies are discovered at the last minute. DD is not one to have everything in its place.

@catmomof3 - to be honest I don't think either of my DC would have appreciated a 'big trip' after their first terms at Oxford. Both were exhausted and quite unwell and spent time recovering and then working for Collections early in January.

Dropped DS and DD today. Just two terms to go for DS as well but I think he feels like his time at Oxford is coming to a natural end. He's looking forward to 'real life' and I suspect he'll be living fairly close by so I should see him regularly.

It was my daughter who suggested we go then 🤷🏻‍♀️

@catmomof3 Good luck for your DD on Tuesday.

DS is doing engineering and so I don't know how the workload compares, but he studies pretty much every day through Christmas and Easter holidays, and if he's not working/having a supervision (he had two during this 'break)', then he's catching up on sleep or with friends.

@Panicmode1 Thank you ☺️

@catmomof3 I had a big birthday in the Easter holidays of DD1's 1st year at C. We booked a week's holiday which was an escorted tour of somewhere that DH and the DDs had always wanted to visit - I had been twice before many years ago. When it came to the trip, DD1 was really worried about not working every day. Yes, she took work with her but she was concerned about not studying all day every day. She told me off for including her and said that she didn't want to come on any more family trips at Easter until she had graduated.

We got our own back in October 23. We booked a trip to the NW USA/BC and DD1 was gutted not to be invited along. I reminded her that she had work to do blah blah and put her in charge of looking after my DF and reporting back to me. She is planning to come home for a few days at Easter this year apparently. Not sure who will be here!

@Malbecfan I don't think my DD can wait till she's graduated to go on this trip lol. That's why she is pushing for December especially as she's not a big fan of Christmas and would rather be away that week lol. Lots of her friends who are already at uni have gone away on trips during this time so she doesn't think it'll be much of an issue and I have a feeling most of the work she'll have to do for English is reading books for the next term. I personally wanted to go during Easter which will probably be the case if she doesn't get in at Oxford because I refuse to be on holiday in Japan during NY, I was hoping we'd come back by the 28th Dec lol.

Dd1 is at Oxford studying MFL and works solidly through the Christmas and Easter ‘holidays’, ploughing her way through a massive reading list and getting ready for collections. She did take Christmas Day and a couple of days at the beginning of December off, but went back to college today stressing about all the work she hadn’t managed to do. I wouldn’t book any big trips until your dd has done a term or two at Oxford and can assess for herself how much work she needs to do out of term.

@Outnumberedbytwo Thank you that's great advice, I will discuss it with DD after we know the outcome Tuesday.

Ds has a small room and has had to vacate it for the holiday but the under bed storage is lockable and he’s put his boxes in a friend’s room who didn’t have to vacate his.

Mine is doing a subject with a lot of essays, they have worked all day every day except Xmas day

DD slept a lot when she came home after first term, took a proper break and prepped for collections in final week of vac (Oxford STEM). This was pretty much the same for the first three years.
DS (Cambridge) had a complete rest at Christmas after the first term in first and second years but worked frenetically on his dissertation stats every day except for Christmas /Boxing Day/New Year in his final year.

In the vacs D1 would sleep a lot, then work a lot. She'd catch up with friends and go out etc but did get stressed about how much she had to do. There was always masses of reading and a couple of essays to do (History joint).

Hello
back from annual leave.
Just chipping in to say that my 1st year DC (STEM) just slept and ate for the first week of the holidays. And then seemed to regain momentum and has been working hard at home, in between seeing friends. Some talk about not wanting to go back as worried about workload etc
They have gone back a week early for rowing training which they are enjoying (although not getting any time on the river😞).
They have discovered they hate being in college on their own, but now people are starting to come back they are remembering how much they enjoyed themselves last term.
Teenagers emotions are very hard to cope with. Fingers crossed for the exams this week!

Happy New Year. DD is heading back to C on Saturday.

She has tickets to Lola's on Sunday night auditions at the ADC on Monday and first priority, even before unpacking is apparently to get a book out of her college library as there is only one copy and one at the UL, she is quite proud of how well her college library is stocked compared to others, it is also a reason she is thinking of squatting in her room next year (rather than go into the ballot) as it is two minutes to the library from her room. I know many DCs will be on courses where books don't matter and DD does use a lot of the online materials (reading downloaded articles on the aircraft on our way to a city break in December!) but she does like the physical book and not all of them are online.

DD is definitely a work hard, play hard type of gal, she never used to go out much when at home but she is enjoying socialising at Uni as I think she has found a lovely set of people to spend time with. She is also not a STEM student so does seem to have a lot more flexibility with her time than some of her friends. Last week of term she had some horrible virus and first few days back home she was not out of bed much for about three days while she recovered. We have stocked up on the medicaments that she used up during her first term and was very grateful to have when she didn't feel like leaving her room.

I hope returning DC have had a good rest and are looking forward to the term ahead.

I thought our Oxbridge journey had ended when DS graduated last summer but DS was surprised to receive a letter this week from his college awarding him an additional prize and the title scholar for his performance in Tripos. The title obviously means little outside of Cambridge but the money is a welcome late Christmas present.

@ofteninaspin amazing news for you and your DS, congratulations to him.

@ofteninaspin Congratulations to your clever DS!!