At last, a true update. It is nice to be home, as always, but the trip was a very nice one as well. The only thing I really didn't like was driving in Boston. Their intersections are very long, they have the one way of traffic, then the two ways of the "T," and then the other way of traffic, but the light hangs about halfway through. So I would cross the T tracks (which had no crossing bars like our trains do here) and see the other cars sitting there, and not know if I was supposed to go or stay, because I couldn't find the light. Also, they had lines painted that I didn't know what they meant, they had bike lanes that made me nervous when I needed to make a right turn and had to cross into them, and they had drivers who seemed to think they were the only ones on the road. They would pull out in front of other people, cut across traffic, and just pretty much do whatever they wanted. The only thing I did appreciate was their willingness to honk at me when I didn't know if I was supposed to go. The honking would spur me on, out of my confusion.
We arrived around midnight on Tuesday, after hitting just a little bit of traffic on 95 in Connecticut. We had a great hotel room, because it was at the end of the hall and had some extra space which they used to put a desk and chair into, leaving the rest of the already-large room feeling like a suite. I don't know if all their double rooms are like this, but it was great. We were sharing with Megan's friend and her mother, and we didn't even feel crowded at all, aside from having to coordinate the four of us with the one bathroom.
Our big visiting day was Wednesday, so we got up and out pretty early. We drove through Northeastern, didn't really see a place to park or see anything we wanted to get out and look at, so we moved on to the BC campus, which was, as we had heard, beautiful. We dropped off the girls and drove around until we found the parking garage, then went to Admissions for a brief info session. I can see that these get old after a while. You pick up a little new information at each one, but usually they are just sales pitches for the school.
When Megan gets to the point where she is ready to choose between schools, if she has interest from the swim team, she can go on an "official visit," and stay with a swimmer, which will get her a better feel for what the schools are all about. Otherwise, many schools offer this as a visiting option without the sports connection. If she can get academic money (she found out she was ranked pretty high in her class for last year), then it would be better to take that than to be an indentured swim servant. But we have to see how she does this year academically and in the pool. She has a tough course load, which, if she does well, positions her perfectly for any schools to which she wants to apply.
After BC, we were onto BU, which knows how to sell itself and is quite a sophisticated school. Megan loved it there, so it is her first choice of the three. She and her friend went on a behind-the-scenes tour with a girl they know from swimming while I sat alone in yet another info session. One thing I learned here is that many schools prefer the ACT over the SAT, which I hadn't realized until recently. Apparently the ACT is more of a knowledge-based test than IQ-based like the SAT, and certain kids (perhaps like Megan) tend to do better on the ACT. Both BC and BU require the ACT with writing, but in lieu of that you can take the SAT and two subject tests.
Megan just got her math scores back on the SAT2 and she got a 660, which was pretty good for her, since math is not her absolute strongest point and she should have taken the test in June when it was all fresh in her mind. She will probably score quite well on the Spanish SAT2, so those two scores should make her strong, as long as she does well on the regular SAT, whish she'll first take in May. But now I'm signing her up for the ACT in June, if she scores well on that and the schools she chooses accept those scores, I won't have to worry about those expensive SAT prep classes that everyone takes, but that don't even seem to help some kids. I don't like that it's a big game. It angers me.
So, after the school visits were done, we headed back to the hotel for a short break before we ventured into the city on the T, an adventure within itself. We walked around Quincy Market and Faneuil Hall, and searched almost in vain for the 'Cheers' bar, which we found at the last minute and went into only to see the Phillies retired 1-2-3 in the first inning of what turned out to be the last game of the World Series. Then we got back on the T, and realized we hadn't noticed where we had gotten on, so that was a little challenging. We had to look out for CVS on the corner so we would know when to get off. Good thing it was above-ground at that point! Oh, and I forgot to mention we met an old friend of mine for lunch, which was nice. The last time I saw him he was feeding seal meat to whoever would eat it (not me.) That was a long time ago.
On the way home, we drove through the campuses of Holy Cross and UConn, just to get a glimpse of some schools other than the urban ones. We hit a pocket of traffic in Connecticut and a two mile backup on the Cross Bronx, but otherwise we made it home pretty smoothly. The girls had to go to swim practice, and I came home to find Wilbur beside himself. He seems to still be a little sore from his surgery but he is up to all of his old badness already.
And in other news, the swine flu is making the rounds more heavily at Brian's school, and I guess the other Catholic schools in town. Without the outlet of the public schools, it has had to attack elsewhere, but I'm sure it will pick up again in time for Thanksgiving for those who managed to elude it during this week out of school. We have a swim meet this weekend, which I am a little nervous about, and I am calling it 'FluFest.' Hopefully I will be mistaken! Otherwise, this is Megan's last day home on the break, although they have a day off next week as well for Veteran's Day. (Maybe another road trip day?) Our next destinations will be in PA, DE, and VA.
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