All year long, I've been unable to go on any field trips with Thing 2's class. They've all been on days I work, or they haven't needed volunteers when I could go. Thing 2 has been feeling the lack of me lately, so I took the morning off to go on a "bridge tour". The class had been studying bridges recently; different kinds of bridges, what each design is good for and how they are made. We took a walk from one park in the north end, along the river to downtown, checking out about 9 bridges along the way. It was pretty interesting, as field trips go. (Thank GOD I didn't have to go to the sugar bush yet again. I could give the tour myself by now.)
The ride there on the school bus was ear-splitting. What is it about a school bus ride that makes children only able to converse at a clamourous shriek? Is it the lack of meaningful entertainment for a full 15 minutes that whips them to such a fever pitch? Is it the tight confines of the vehicle that render them incapable of speaking normally? Most likely it is the fact that every other child on the bus is screeching shrilly at top volume for the duration of the ride. Honestly, I feel like I've just had a grand mal seizure by the end of a school bus ride. (I certainly don't remember that when I took a bus every day to school. Maybe it's the curious sensitivity to noise that befalls everyone over the age of 40.)
The day was lovely, and I enjoyed the bit of talk about the bridges. I was able to contribute somewhat, as I was the only person on the tour that could remember when the pedestrian bridge at Gibbons park was a tenuous structure made of oil barrels and planks and rope. It was positively medieval. (Everyone, even the other adults, looked at me like I was reminiscing fondly about "gentleman callers" and seeing electric lights for the first time.)
We finally made our way to the final bridge, which was nearby to a playground where everyone ate their lunch and the kids played on the equipment until the bus came to pick them up. I was only a couple of blocks from work, and so I left them and walked to the salon.
When Thing 2 came home later, she told me that I missed "the best part of the day", the "barf festival". It seems that some of the kids played a bit too enthusiastically on one of the spinny contraptions, and one boy threw up just before they got on the bus. And then he threw up on the bus. And one more time just as they got to the school. This was just too much for another boy, and he threw up on the school's front lawn. Another kid witnessed it, and, in sympathy, lost his lunch. The first kid threw up again, and yet another kid tossed his cookies, too. She said the kids who barfed weren't too upset about it, it was so comical by that point, and she also said that the teacher nearly hurt himself laughing. (This teacher is a riot; he's replaced the teacher they've had all year, who went on medical leave. He's only been here for 3 weeks, and this is his first teaching job. The fact that his reaction to all the vomit was to double over and laugh makes me love him all the more.) I'm so sorry I missed it.
The class is going on an end of the year trip to a provincial park about an hour away. I don't know if I can handle the bus ride, but I'm sure going to try to be there for the rest of the day. I'll see if I can make anyone barf.
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