Just dropped daughter off at the airport for 3.5 months in Europe...
 

It was so hard..I know she's fully capable or this; her advance planning was impressive to watch. I'm just going to miss her!

Tonight she hits SFO, Chicago, and Stockholm, then she will end up in the very northern part of Norway for a couple of weeks.

Sshe looked good, packed her 23 lbs nicely, and will be meeting college friends as she goes. i know it will be a wonderful trip, but...... :`(

That's a hard thing to do. I remember sobbing as we farewelled our daughter when she went to live in Perth for an unknown period. We are in Sydney so it's 5 hour flight, not quite as bad as US to Europe. We missed her dreadfully and she ended up being away for 2 1/2 years. Of course, we flew her back a couple of times each year and we could communicate by mobile phone. I guess you will both become great emailers??

Hopefully she will have great experiences to share with you when she returns.

Oh icuy, I so understand. We had a young family member who went to Italy for his senior year of high school. His mother kept up a brave front when he was around her but she cried herself to sleep every night for weeks. We all felt sad he was so far away and yet the other side of the coin was we were excited for him. Does that make sense? And another young family member, college age, spent the entire summer backpacking throughout Europe including Moscow and St. Petersburgh. That was precomputer and cell phones days. The Saturday morning we received a collect call from Venice was heaven, lol, expensive but delightful.

Dear one, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. She is your daughter and with the way you love to travel it is no shock that she does also. I wish her a safe and wonderful time in Europe and I send you many hugs as I sure understand your feelings!

Having said that I have a 19 year old grandson that is joining the US Army. My heart breaks but all we can do is support his decision even though we absolutely hate his decision. I could cry too just thinking of not having him around and I will worry about him terribly but it is what it is.

Sorry to be a downer but do you know that as all the countries your daughter will be visiting are in Schengen area, she is only allowed to stay 90 days in total. If she stays longer than that, she becomes an illegal. Doesn't apply if she has a passport from an EEA country or Switzerland, but if she only holds US passport, she will fall foul of Schengen regulations, unless she is spending at least two weeks out of 3.5 months outside Schengen, such as UK and Ireland.

Feeling your pain.......put my daughter on a plane last week to the UK for 2 years!!!! I got sick of everyone telling me not to worry.......I'm NOT worried, she too is more than capable and I'm as proud as punch, I'll just miss her so much. I like having her around. But what a great experience.
And we are going to Europe next month and will see her a few times...........YAY.

Feel your pain for sure, but how is she able to be in the Schengen area for 3.5 months when the limit is 90 days? Hope she got the proper documentation to allow for that.

To all worried parents I recommend reading the "Scruffman" threads by artsnletters here in the forums, where she tells the adventures of her travelling son.

Don't we rasie our children to be independent and adverturous....then why does it feel so bad when they are so succesful at it?? I try to remember how grateful I am that they turned out interesting and not dull!

She is spending 4 weeks outside the Schengen area- Ireland, England, and Turkey, so hopefull there won't be any visa issues.

She's traveled before; did a univ semester in Singapore and spent every weekend traveling to places in Malayasia, Thailand and Indonesia (while still getting good grades!

I did the same trip- as a 17 year old right after high school, and again as a 21 year old after college. Maybe that's why I worry...I know what kind of mischef you can find!

No, I'm happy for her to have this opportunity. I'm just sad for me, her dad, and the dogs. WE miss her!

I just realized I posted this in the Europe forum. Oops! Despite the destination, this should have been posted in the lounge.

Lcuy, remembering the travel you have described, I figure you will be circumnavigating the globe a few times while she is gone; maybe you'll run into each other.

Good for her Lucy. Great adventure. Remember, I took off alone at 17 and was away in Europe nearly every summer, for up to 11 weeks, and for a good two decades. It's a great life skills experience. And I know how you are a globetrotter, so it's genetic. LOL! We'll have to meet up in Bangkok again or again here in the States. I miss the laughter. Smiles.

At least there are cell phones, e-mail, twitter and all the glitter now. I'm sure you remember back when you and I..and the dinosaurs were roaming the international earth, that we had to go to a local post office and wait a very long time, sometimes hours, for a static-sounding line out to the States, if we could even get one. And then we'd call the parents and talk a quick 3-5 minutes and they wouldn't possibly hear from us again until right before time to fly home and arrange a time for them to pick us up at the airport. LOL! How I miss the 70s! Happy Travels!

I understand completely. My 20 year old daughter will soon be off for a semester in Bologna. We've set up Skype accounts, cell phones and email.

And of course we'll have to visit.

It was fun traveling in the 70s! Those telephone offices were the worst...waiting for a line, talkasfastaswecould, then our parents would get a huge bill for the collect call!. One of my co-travelers used to call his dog collect. If the parents needed to speak with him, they accepted the charges. Otherwise, Barney was never home. I remeber once, a payphone was broken and you could make international calls fro free. The line was around the block for several days till the phone co caught on, Must have been Germany...other they were that advanced at the time.

And remember getting your mail at Amex or post restante? It would be so exciting if there were any letters, but they'd usually be so old. One time, I got one that said my dad had had a possible stroke--two weeks earlier! I ran to the post office telephones and called my mom at 3 in the morning, only to find out "dad was fine, only a scare".

Icuy, for a short while I worked for MaBell at a phone building where even the local phone calls had to go through the operator.

This was in a tiny town where ships and trucks arrived. We all knew what was going on and we could have not have cared less. The seaman or the trucker would place a person to person collect call to his home from a pay phone. The wife would answer. We would of course say "This is a person to person collect call for John Doe". The wife would respond with "John Doe is not here right now". So, lol, the wife knew her husband was fine and there was no charge for either party. Good memories!

And yes, the pleasure of receiving mail at the Amex office..life in a way seemed more fun back then.

Oh my, stopping at the American Express office for the Poste Restante mail (which usually was non-existent).

And a shameless pointer to a report of my 2 mos in Europe/No Africa when I was 25: http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...co-algeria.cfm

Hi Lucy (hi guenmai)
I'm sure she'll be fine. Yes, she has your genetic makeup! Travel is such a great life experience, as you well know. (and I can't think of a better excuse to get on a plane and fly to Europe!!... she might need you to help her with her shopping or carrying her suitcase...haha)
Carol

I remember those days well...in my case back in the mid-60's and I was SO glad to be AWAY from my Mother and Dad! Oh, I PRETENDED I was going to miss them but believe me, there were times when I DIDN'T....

Ah those were the times when the golden rule was: you phone home when something serious happens to you. Otherwise no need to bother and waste money on phone calls. Write a postcard every second week.

Best wishes for your daughter's trip!! I know how you feel. DD went to Europe for a year -- half of it alone in Italy -- back in the early 80s. She did OK, and I remember sending her mail through AmEx, and RARE phone calls.

I guess I should not talk about the things she didn't tell me about until years later --------