Hi Patty and all other TTS13 parents!Our daughter, Greta, and my husband, Tom , and myself (Alice) just met all four teachers, Emily, Cara, Rhea, and Thia here in Bozeman where it is a balmy minus 20 below zero!! What an awesome, intelligent, brilliant, artisitic, talented group of teachers. Since we will not be in Houston and happen to live here Gennifre arranged for us to meet. They answered all our questions. Greta got to show them the journals, notebooks, supplies she is planning on taking and they were ok'd. The message is for academics: BE ORGANIZED! So use whatever system you want if it keeps you organized! Greta asked about not being able to understand fast speaking Spanish and the response was :"You won't be alone!" I asked about mosiquito netting and there is some but the key is wearing long pants and shirts in the evening and in the a.m. when mosquito activity is high. Tom asked about governmental issues and the military but so far things seem calm. They monitor that all times. The teachers are in contact with Jennifer all the time so if we have questions we get a hold of Jennifer and she with us! Yea Jennifer!It all sounds so great and we are so excited for the teachers and the kids. Plus Emily (a teacher) got to go to the inauguration and her stories were so moving!It has taken us months to get Greta ready to go and I talked with a Bozeman mom whose daughter was on the first group that TTS ever took out and they got her ready in two weeks!! How in the hell did she do that????? Well, I guess you do what you have to!Tom and I will be in Houston in spirit and you will get to meet my sister, Mari Bauman. Greta's first cousin, Robin, for NM is going to. Say hi to her when you see her. She is awesome! Good luck sending the kids off and write and tell us all about it.Lots of admiration to all of you. The girls are in excellent hands. Remember no news is good news! Love, Alice

Hello fellow parents of TTS13 kids,  

With one week to go we feel like we are on a scavenger hunt:  find a stuff bag, mole skin, DEET, something small and light from Maine to give host families, figure out phone cards, etc. When we have everything together, we will board a plane and meet in Houston!  The prize is spectacular!  An educational trip to Latin America! We are filled with that combination of excitement and jittery anticipation.  My husband, Alan and I look forward to meeting all of you and connecting over our daughters' journey with TTS. I realize, too, that this is part of our journey as parents--the great letting go. I'm not minimizing that but focusing on the expansion in the girls' lives as they step away and explore LA with each other. 

Patty  

Advice from a Mom who has done this before :)

I thought I'd pass along a few things we did (or wish we had done) before leaving last semester that made communications easier (long, but hopefully helpful):

• Discuss whether the first call on any given day should be to mom's cell, dad's cell, home, work, etc. Sometimes the girls only have a few minutes to call. Hitting voicemail is frustrating for all and takes precious minutes from any subsequent call, if one is even possible.
• Encourage messages if she hits voicemail or when she has the opportunity to call but knows you're not available. "Hi, I'm having a BLAST!!!" is much better than waiting another week to hear her voice. Plus, you can play it back over and over and over. :-)
  If your daughter will call more than one place (mom's house, dad's house, older siblings, etc), let her know those of you back home will communicate with each other (she repeats less; you get more updates). And, she won't be as likely to pass up making any phone call because she doesn't have time to make two phone calls.
• Discuss time differences and best times to call (but know they may not have options and call when the opportunity presents itself).
• Write down your daughter's calling card number and pin so you can check available minutes and reload before it runs out.
• Have your daughter create a blog so she can post news and stories for people back home. Although Jenna was only able to post twice, I added a few of her emails and photos the teachers sent.
• Create a separate blog for friends and family to post news from home, photos, etc (we made this by invitation only). This provides a single place for her to read updates when Internet time is limited. Jenna said Facebook and MySpace don't work as well.
• Make sure your daughter adds all email addresses to her contact list, and if possible, creates email groups (family, friends, teachers, etc) to save precious email time.
• Share what you hear from your daughter on this blog -- other parents will love you! Not all girls call or email at the same time or share the same stories.
• Know that no news is good news -- if she's homesick, sick or hurt, you'll hear (hopefully none of us will hear any of these things).

This all said, know that you will ache for the next phone call and email, and no matter how often you hear from your daughter, those calls and emails won't be as frequent, as long, or have as many details as you'd like. But, when you do hear from her, oh, it is wonderful!