University visits

[shirley]

Josh has settled in really well, I went down for 5 nights 21-26 Aug, we had a great time, met his flatmates even had dinner with his friend Olly on the Monday night and he spent the next day with us as we headed to Chorlton for some charity shopping. He has his PT job, and his PS4 so hes sorted LOL. Got a bit of a cold but I think hes burning himself at both ends ATM, so hes been warned to slow down or his health will be the 1st to go when he is rundown. Not sure when he will come home or if Ill head down at the end of the month, as we have a long weekend then. Speak several times a day (his choice) and I send him wee parcels every so often with bits and pieces. As for his classes, not a lot of information ATM. He is disappointed that he cant get back to class but hopefully they manage to get them up to scratch . Hugs and thoughts are with the first timers who will be dropping their off spring to various unis over the next few weeks xx Although I must say having shared my various stages and emotions on here was a huge help and I didn't feel so bad when the time arrived. So again a big thanks to OP for a great thread xx

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by shirley

Josh has settled in really well, I went down for 5 nights 21-26 Aug, we had a great time, met his flatmates even had dinner with his friend Olly on the Monday night and he spent the next day with us as we headed to Carlton for some charity shopping. He has his PT job, and his PS4 so hes sorted LOL. Got a bit of a cold but I think hes burning himself at both ends ATM, so hes been warned to slow down or his health will be the 1st to go when he is rundown. Mot sure when he will come home or if Ill head down at the end of the month, as we have a long weekend then. Speak several times a day (his choice) and I send him wee parcels every so often with bits and pieces. As for his classes, not a lot of information ATM. He is disappointed that he cant get back to class but hopefully they manage to get them up to scratch . Hugs and thoughts are with the first timers who will be dropping their off spring to various unis over the next few weeks xx Although I must say having shared my various stages and emotions on here was a huge help and I didn't feel so bad when the time arrived. So again a big thanks to OP for a great thread xx

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I love keeping the thread going and hearing how all our children are doing, it’s lovely sharing our experiences, both good and bad through the last year although I never thought we’d be dealing with a pandemic affecting their university life 😂😢

I’m so pleased to hear Josh has settled back well, I can understand his frustration at not getting his lectures/classes. I know Georgia is really sad to be missing out too.

Georgia contacts me loads of times through a day when she’s away too, also her choice. It may be just a silly message or two or an hour long phone call but it’s lovely to hear from her. She just likes to keep in touch, even though she’s perfectly happy there. I’m looking forward to hearing all her news again when she returns, although it’s not the same as having her here, it’s good to hear they are happy

[Melbatb]

to everyone! Lovely to have the updates. Such a strange year it is going to be!

O’s university told them mid July that the classes would all be online this term. This coincided with a big spike in cases (HK). O decided that he would stay in Europe for the term as he spent last term there and there were only the non-local/non-chinese students there. His best mate from uni is German and so he has gone to stay with him for the term (he lives in his own apartment owned by his family) - this suits everyone as they have company, a bit of student life and independence!

O got all his options and started his lectures yesterday. The actual lectures he can mainly watch on catch up (good when they start at 4.30am) and his lab and tutorials thankfully are a bit later (he has one tutorial at 6am but the others are around 9!). His study day is over by midday!

He is happy - he gets to live in another country (coincidentally his country of birth but he doesn’t remember that ) and is hoping he can do a bit of traveling around Germany.

He is ever hopeful that term will resume a bit more normally next term!

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by Melbatb

to everyone! Lovely to have the updates. Such a strange year it is going to be!

O’s university told them mid July that the classes would all be online this term. This coincided with a big spike in cases (HK). O decided that he would stay in Europe for the term as he spent last term there and there were only the non-local/non-chinese students there. His best mate from uni is German and so he has gone to stay with him for the term (he lives in his own apartment owned by his family) - this suits everyone as they have company, a bit of student life and independence!

O got all his options and started his lectures yesterday. The actual lectures he can mainly watch on catch up (good when they start at 4.30am) and his lab and tutorials thankfully are a bit later (he has one tutorial at 6am but the others are around 9!). His study day is over by midday!

He is happy - he gets to live in another country (coincidentally his country of birth but he doesn’t remember that ) and is hoping he can do a bit of traveling around Germany.

He is ever hopeful that term will resume a bit more normally next term!

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Yet another country for O 😀 It’s great to hear that he’s coping well with all the changes and still enjoying his course. I’m so pleased he doesn’t have to be up early every day and can catch up on his lectures later

I do hope he can safely return after Christmas to Hong Kong, I’m guessing he will return home to you for a nice family Christmas before he goes though? 😀

[Col&Ali]

We took over Ry’s new flat on Saturday. It’s a self contained studio so no shared kitchen this year! I did worry he might isolate himself too much as he’s not bothered about company or parties but that may be better now with this pesky virus!

He is going into year 3 so a very important year and only has contact time on a Friday! Initially I was cross thinking of all that money per term for the course and accommodation but he will need to be there rather than home to produce a film with some of his fellow students. He’s worried they won’t be able to make something good due to the extra restrictions in place due to Covid ... what a crap experience they are all having!

He didn’t stay up there ... teaching doesn’t start til October so we will take him back up again closer to the time.

Rosie flew to Qatar last week to start her teaching job so the house will definitely be quiet again!

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by Col&Ali

We took over Ry’s new flat on Saturday. It’s a self contained studio so no shared kitchen this year! I did worry he might isolate himself too much as he’s not bothered about company or parties but that may be better now with this pesky virus!

He is going into year 3 so a very important year and only has contact time on a Friday! Initially I was cross thinking of all that money per term for the course and accommodation but he will need to be there rather than home to produce a film with some of his fellow students. He’s worried they won’t be able to make something good due to the extra restrictions in place due to Covid ... what a crap experience they are all having!

He didn’t stay up there ... teaching doesn’t start til October so we will take him back up again closer to the time.

Rosie flew to Qatar last week to start her teaching job so the house will definitely be quiet again!

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I think the lack of contact teaching is annoying, but as Georgia pointed out she needs to get lab hours in so it’s vital that they do manage to get into campus for things like that, or in your son’s case for his film making.

I think he’s wise having a studio, no cleaning up the kitchen after other housemates 😂 Georgia had very messy housemates last year, her friends she’s with this year all like to keep their rooms tidy so she’s hoping that the kitchen will be cleaner

I do hope Rosie enjoys teaching in Qatar. Our eldest son has taught overseas for the past 6 years and loves it. We visited him in Vietnam last year and he really has a fantastic life there, so I’m sure Rosie will too. It’s hard when they are so far away though, and I’m pretty sure our son has no plans to return for quite a while which is sad in some ways but we’re pleased that he’s happy

[ChoppyGirl]

Beth had an email yesterday from Surrey saying there is no place for her this year so a gap year it is.

She said she has no regrets declining a place at Bristol even though in the end she was offered uni accommodation (although it was catered at Clifton Hill House which was not on her list of 9 choices).

More and more of the learning was changing to on line and with it being a vet course that’s not ideal. Hopefully by this time next year things would have settled down a bit and she can get more of the full university experience. She is continuing in her part time job and will learn to drive and will try as bad keep her hand in studying. At least she has a year to look forward to starting.

Good luck to all the new starters and returners x

[DisneyDaffodil]

Originally Posted by ChoppyGirl

Beth had an email yesterday from Surrey saying there is no place for her this year so a gap year it is.

She said she has no regrets declining a place at Bristol even though in the end she was offered uni accommodation (although it was catered at Clifton Hill House which was not on her list of 9 choices).

More and more of the learning was changing to on line and with it being a vet course that’s not ideal. Hopefully by this time next year things would have settled down a bit and she can get more of the full university experience. She is continuing in her part time job and will learn to drive and will try as bad keep her hand in studying. At least she has a year to look forward to starting.

Good luck to all the new starters and returners x

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I’m so sorry Beth didn’t get the place in Surrey, but she’s right to go with her heart. I think if Georgia has been starting her first year this year then she may have taken a gap year too as the online learning certainly isn’t ideal. I do hope Beth has a good year and that everything improves by next year for her to start her course, and for all our children to get the full teaching face to face. Good luck to Beth xx

[Col&Ali]

Originally Posted by ChoppyGirl

Beth had an email yesterday from Surrey saying there is no place for her this year so a gap year it is.

She said she has no regrets declining a place at Bristol even though in the end she was offered uni accommodation (although it was catered at Clifton Hill House which was not on her list of 9 choices).

More and more of the learning was changing to on line and with it being a vet course that’s not ideal. Hopefully by this time next year things would have settled down a bit and she can get more of the full university experience. She is continuing in her part time job and will learn to drive and will try as bad keep her hand in studying. At least she has a year to look forward to starting.

Good luck to all the new starters and returners x

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I think that's a very mature decision by Beth - well done

Hopefully, like you say, she will get a better all round experience by starting next year.

[ChoppyGirl]

Originally Posted by DisneyDaffodil

I’m so sorry Beth didn’t get the place in Surrey, but she’s right to go with her heart. I think if Georgia has been starting her first year this year then she may have taken a gap year too as the online learning certainly isn’t ideal. I do hope Beth has a good year and that everything improves by next year for her to start her course, and for all our children to get the full teaching face to face. Good luck to Beth xx

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Thank you. At least she has her guaranteed place for next year so can get on with the planning. If she had been given a place yesterday it would have been a mad panic getting everything ready (although we have some stuff for her flat already) and we had missed the deadline to order her branded uni PPE. A lot of the build up seems fun as well as she was in a group chat and others were talking about the accommodation they had been allocated etc etc and she felt a bit left out as she was in limbo but she can fully take part next year.

I’m sure the year will fly by and everything happens for a reason.