I had the great good fortune last month to chaperone a week-long school trip to the northeast. "Surely you jest," you say. "
Good fortune? This was not some kind of horrible punishment for taking weeks to write about a single event and owing the library a dollar for your new card?" Perhaps some years the trip would indeed have been a trial. However, when you have the sterling students we have this year, it was pretty great. Because they are kids, and not technically mine, I won't post any pictures with any of them in it, which takes out a good portion of my pictures; but rest assured, you will have photographs to peruse.
The lead teacher on the trip has a series of worksheets, one for every night, that the kids have to complete. The worksheets help them think about what they've seen, and later, when they work on their scrapbooks, remember all the places they went and what they did. I will now answer the questions from the worksheets. Rest assured I will be more thorough than the students were.
Day One1.
How was the flight? Was security as tough as you'd thought it would be? Did anyone do anything stupid?Security was pretty reasonable, as far as security goes these days. We left on a Sunday night,
which meant the airport wasn't too crowded and that helped. Unfortunately, once we got through security, one of the girls lost her school ID, and one of the boys lost his entire wallet. Luckily for him, the lead teacher had most of his spending money. On the bright side, while we were waiting, we saw Charo get off a plane, which was kind of cool.
The flight itself was not too bad. I got a window seat, for which I was thankful, because I don't like having to get up if other people in my row have to go to the bathroom. Furthermore, the middle seat was empty, so I got to stretch my legs. Some of the students apparently forgot the injunction against flash photography on the airplane, and since I wasn't sitting with them, all I could do was snap my fingers and hiss at them not to use the flash. We took a redeye and landed at Logan around 6:30, and immediately started touring--after stopping at a Dunkin Donuts in Lynn, Massachusetts, that is.
2.
What was the first thing you noticed about Boston? Give me your visual impressions.The very first thing I noticed when we landed was how interchangeable airports are. Waiting for our coach outside, we could have been almost anywhere, had that place been cool and overcast and we could see our breath. Massachusetts is a lot like Connecticut, obviously, in terms of geography and topography. And everything looks older than it does back home.
3.
What did you have for dinner? How was it?At Longfellow's Wayside Tavern we had salad, rolls, pot roast, green beans, mashed potatoes, and apple pie. Some of the rolls were white bread and some were cornbread and some were brown bread, which is what I had. The mashed potatoes were very creamy and good, and the pot roast was really nice.
4.
What was the best thing you did today? Okay, what was the best educational
thing you did today?Most of the kids put that eating dinner and/or going to sleep was the best thing they did. We went to the House of the Seven Gables of Hawthorne fame, and saw a play about the supernatural at the Griffen Theater in Salem; we visited Orchard House, where Louisa May Alcott lived; we drove by Thoreau's cabin and Walden Pond; we drilled the militia on Lexington Common, and one of the boys read Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Concord Hymn" in front of the memorial at Concord Bridge; we stopped by Fenway Park. At all the Revolutionary War sites it's amazing to think that a bunch of farmers and tradesmen defeated one of the most powerful armies in the world at the time.
Concord Bridge with the monument; behind me is the minuteman statue.
5.
Do people look and dress the same here as they do on our side of the country?Nope. But I wore the same jeans for 36 hours, and let me tell you, it was amazing to change into my pajamas and fall asleep in Brookline.
Day Two1.
How tired were you this morning? Was it jet lag or did you stay up late chatting?I wasn't too tired, because we got to bed around 10:30 and woke up around 7. That's a fair amount of sleep. We called home before bed, and I read
Johnny Tremain, which is the book I brought with me. I hadn't read it in a while, and I figured it would be good to read in Boston.
2.
Is the harbor in Boston anything like the one in [the nearest major port city at home]? How are they the same? How are they different?First off, we went to Dunkin Donuts for breakfast again this morning, and some of the girls talked to some real Bostonians. Their accents were great. I was proud of the girls for talking to them politely, and the girls learned a lot just from their short conversation.
Of course they're different. Things in Boston seem to be built right up to the water more--there are more condos on what looked to be former piers than here, where things seem to build up more gradually.
3.
Could you imagine Massachusetts back in the Beyond the Burning Time
era? Why or why not?I've never read
Beyond the Burning Time, although I have read
The Witch of Blackbird Pond and
The Crucible, so I'll insert those two for the former. In some places it's easier to imagine than others. Salem, for example, still has a lot of old houses, which makes it easier. Lexington Common and Concord Bridge are still pretty much the same as they were during the Revolution. But the place where the Boston Massacre happened is now in the middle of an intersection, and there was a guy breakdancing in front of Faneuil Hall. That sort of thing makes it difficult. (Along the same lines, if it were possible, I'd love to see Manhattan go from woodlands to colony to city to metropolis, in fast motion.)
4.
Who did you sit with today? Did they stay awake?Best student response: "Sit? Ha!" We didn't have the bus at all, so there wasn't much of an opportunity to fall asleep anywhere.
5.
Were you a Patriot or a Loyalist in Tea is Brewing? How did you feel about your side? Could you understand the opposing side's point of view?Tea is Brewing is an interactive program at the Old South Meeting House, where colonists me
t to discuss what they would do in response to the tea tax. Half the kids were Patriots and half were Loyalists; each was assigned a card with the name of a real person and his opinion on whether or not the cargo of tea should be unloaded and sold in Boston. Some of the Patriots were Sam Adams (pictured), Joseph Warren, and William Molineux; the only Loyalist I can remember was Francis Rotch, who owned the
Dartmouth, one of the ships forced to wait in the harbor. Governor Hutchinson wouldn't let the
Dartmouth, the
Beaver, and the
Eleanor return to England, and the Patriots wouldn't let the ships unload. Finally, at the end of a meeting in December 1773, Samuel Adams said, "This meeting can do nothing more to save the country." This was the signal for the Sons of Liberty to destroy the tea.
Although I didn't take part, I could see both sides' points of view. Everyone pretty much roots for the Patriots, because we won, and I do believe taxation without representation is unfair. On the other hand, the tax was only three pence per pound, which was not unbearable, and it did suck for the merchants, especially Rotch, who was only 23 at the time. Ultimately, though, it was the principle and not the three pence that was important. "Boston Harbor a teapot tonight!"
6.
What was your favorite thing today? (Extra points if it's insightful and educational.)Being by/on the water. Specific to Boston, the USS Constitution, and especially when we got a cute young sailor to take pictures with one of the girls while we sang her "Happy Birthday." Then seeing things like Old North Church and Old South Meeting House and Boston Common, places we all read about in history. Eating Boston cream pie at Quincy Market for lunch, and walking around the Common and the Public Gardens.
GO CELTICS, BEAT LA!
1.
Last night I sleptA. Like a brick!B. Fitfully, that bathtub is hard and cold
C. OK, but I miss my own bed
D. Sleep? Who could sleep with my roommates' snoring!
Those silly boys absolutely could not have more than one person per bed, so when we went around for room check there was always one little nest on the floor.
2.
On the bus ride IA. Saw many interesting thingsB. Got really queasy
C. Fell asleep
D. All of the above
3.
What did you think of Plimoth Plantation? Could you have lived there?I really like living history things, so I thought it was cool. Part of it is the Wampanoag village, where Wampanoag people dress in old-fashioned clothing and do old-fashioned things, but
they're not pretending to be anyone from the past. It was interesting to see American Indians in buckskin clothes making porridge and shaping a canoe, but talking with outrageous Massachusetts accents. One of the older women was kind of belligerent with the stupid schoolkids (not ours) asking her stupid questions; she kept saying things like "Use your brain."
Another part of Plimoth was the colonial village. There, the reenactors dress in 17th-century clothing, talk in old school accents, and portray actual colonists. The houses are all wooden, and pretty simple, and they have goats and cows and little gardens. The meeting house has a great view, as it's at the top of a hill. It would be daunting to live there as a colonist--so much unknown and so much hard work. But I could totally do it if I had to.
Furthermore, one of my college friends teaches middle school in New York, and she was on a school trip with her kids at the same time, and we ran into each other in the cafeteria. It was kind of surreal, but cool.
4.
What is one important fact about Newport?It's where I was born!
5.
Whose "cottage" did you visit today? Why is it called a cottage?We went to the Breakers, the Vanderbilts' summer cottage. It's a cottage because it only has 70 rooms, as opposed to the 150-some at their Manhattan mansion, located where Bergdorf
Goodman currently is. The Vanderbilts only used the Breakers four to 10 weeks a year during the summer. It was built in the style of an Italian villa, with a loggia on the back that during the summer is open to the backyard. Some of the rooms are in French style, some are Italian, all are ridiculously ornate. In one of the rooms there is silver color on the walls, which was originally thought to be silver leaf; the docent said that a chemical analysis in 2006 had found it to be
platinum leaf. That is the level of ridiculousness. Also, Anderson Cooper is part of the Vanderbilt family. The butler's pantry and the kitchen were huge and amazing. It was cool, seeing the summer house of a family who at one time had more money than the US government, but one also thinks that they could have put that money to a little bit better use actually helping people. It's way more impressive in real life than in that little picture.
Day Four1.
What is a Pequot?A Pequot is an American Indian. The tribe has a casino, Foxwoods, in Connecticut, and a very nice, large museum. The museum is interesting. The Wisconsin Glacier used to cover the Midwest to the East Coast; part of the exhibit goes through a faux glacier, and they have a scale model of the museum in relation to the mile-and-a-half thick ice of the glacier. In another exhibit there's a life-size caribou hunt, and the fan favorite, a giant beaver. One of the most impressive exhibits is the full-size village. Our tour guide was knowledgeable and passionate, and the kids really got a lot out of the museum.
2.
How did you like the play? Was Broadway like you had imagined it to be?We saw "Hairspray" and sat three rows from the stage on the left. It was quite fun. All the kids noticed the energy of the performers. We were close enough to also notice their sweat. The one and only thing that bummed me out about it was that Ashley Parker Angel had been playing Link, but didn't at this performance. I had been so looking forward to seeing Ashley Parker Angel as Link.
3.
How was dinner? What did you have?Dinner was at a restaurant called Hurley's. I had French onion soup, chicken pot pie, and chocolate mousse cake. Hurley's was nice, although we discovered that the books on the shelves were all fake. Some diners were concerned that the chicken pot pie was filling on a plate with a disc of crust perched atop.
4.
How many states have you been in on this trip? Have you left anything behind in one of them?I somehow lost my freakin' brand new hairbrush in New York. There's $4.99 gone.
5.
Have you "met" a security guard in his/her professional capacity yet? If so explain.I had to take some girls down to the front desk of our New York hotel to get new keys because they'd locked theirs in their room. And that was about the worst thing that happened all trip long. In one room in Connecticut the toilet stopped working just before we had to go, and I told the boys to tell the front desk.
6.
Can you believe the traffic in the city? How is it different from [the closest major city] and our area?Traffic in New York City is unbelievable. I have never had any desire to drive in the city. I am not that good a driver. Somehow there are not carcasses left and right from people who have died due to the traffic, but I'm not exactly sure how it's possible.
As for human traffic, there are so many more people walking places than there are anywhere around here.
View from our hotel room.
Day Five1.
Did you see anyone famous anywhere?A. Yes: we saw Charo in the airport before we left.B. No, and I am bitterly disappointed
C. Not yet, but there's still tomorrow
Also, one time in JFK I saw
Scott Cohen, who played Max on "Gilmore Girls" and Wolf in "The 10th Kingdom."
2.
How much money do you have left?A. All of it, I've been sponging off friends
B. Enough to get me homeC. None! I blew it all on food and cheap souvenirs
D. Not too much, but I got lovely things for my family, especially my mom
3.
The Statue of Liberty looked...A. Bigger in person
B. Smaller in person
C. Exactly like I thought it would4.
How much did you walk today? Did you ride the subway anywhere? What were your impressions of walking in New York or taking public transportation?We didn't walk too terribly much outside because it was raining. We took the subway to the Met and walked around there, rode the bus somewhere, then took the ferry out to Ellis Island. We had dinner in Chinatown and then rode the subway back up to the hotel. We lucked out big time on the subway--in the morning it was crowded, but not unmanageable, and it was fairly easy getting back in the evening. Boston public transportation was a precursor to the real thing in New York.
5.
What was the most impressive thing you saw today?Having already been to the city, I wasn't really overawed by anything, because I'd seen most of the sites we went to before. But I'm always impressed by the Statue of Liberty, and always saddened by Ellis Island. When you go to Ellis Island and look at the exhibits about its history, and learn about what people had to go through to get into the US, and imagine what it must have been like to wait in that big, echoing room to see if you'd get to stay or be sent back across the ocean, it's overwhelming. I can't even imagine what it must have been like to get all the way there, within sight of the mainland, and then be told that you have to go home, which is what happened to many would-be immigrants. I feel very, very lucky that my ancestors made it all the way through.
6.
How was the view from the Top of the Rock?
It was quite good when we actually went the next day. I'd kind of thought it was a tourist trap, and it may be, but it has brilliant views of Central Park to the north and downtown to the south. You can see both rivers and off to New Jersey. I was impressed.
Day Six1.
It's the last day and I...A. Don't want to go home!B. Can't wait to go home!
C. Am so tired I don't know where I am or care
2.
My favorite thing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art was...not on display because of their renovations. We wanted the kids to see "Washington Crossing the Delaware" by Leutze and Stuart's portrait of Washington, plus the Tiffany mosaic fountain in the courtyard. None of the above were on display. They did get to see the arms and armor, and we happened upon John Singer Sargent's "Madame X," but I was pretty disappointed in the Met being in such a state of disarray.
3.
The weather has beenA. Wonderful!B. Weird
C. Okay, a little rain never hurt anyone
D. Tell me again why people choose to live on the East Coast
It rained on Friday, the penultimate day, but we had beautiful weather the rest of the time.
4.
One thing that surprised me about this trip was...how much easier it can be with one group of kids than with another. I did part of the same trip two years previous, and while the kids weren't actively bad on the earlier trip, they just weren't as much fun as these kids were. That's partly me and partly the kids, but these guys rocked.
5.
One thing that really touched me on this trip was...how the kids took care of each other. Like I said, they rocked.
Well, that's about it. I got to drink cranberry juice in Massachusetts and see this Chagall stained glass window at the United Nations. It was a pretty great time all around.
