North Garner Middle School 7th grade Track 1 class had a field trip to the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro. It was originally scheduled for October 17th and I had volunteered to chaparone. What was I thinking? Well, the date got changed, never got informed until last minute. I had to scramble around in order to find someone to cover me so that I could go on the 28th. We also never got confirmation that the parents were or were not riding the bus or driving ourselves. It was the MOST unorganized field trip I have EVER been on. We had to have the kids at school by 0700 to leave by 0730. We didn't even leave the classroom until 0730 and didn't pull out of the school parking lot until after 0800. Boy was this going to be an exciting day!
It was about a 90 minute ride, then we found out that they had to drop us off at North America and we were going to have to walk 2.5 miles to Africa. Ok stop for a second...Africa? Its in the 40's outside and you can't drop us off at Africa, your going to make us walk 2.5 miles in order to get there???? Is anyone feeling my pain here? Later we found out that the Africa parking lot was closed because 2 coach buses caught fire...ok so that IS a good enough excuse, I guess. So after we got off the buses, stood in line for them to 'ok' our group to go, we headed to Africa... it was already after 1000 and we had to have the kids to Junction City by 1130 in order to eat lunch before boarding buses back to Raleigh. As we were walking, we passed a Tram station.. HEY! No one said we couldn't ride the tram...hummm???? So off 3 of our groups went. It took us a couple of minutes to get there and they dropped us off at the other end of the zoo which was on the far side of Africa. Now, because of time, we had to decide which side of Africa to see because we weren't going to see both. We headed out and saw numerous animals. Each group had their own pocket camera to take for a project they would be completing in school.
The only problem was, we really couldn't spend more than 30 seconds at each stop b/c of time. Again....UNORGANIZED! How much education are we getting out of this trip? Surprisingly, alot of the animals were up close and the kids got good, up close, pictures.
This was mine and Carlas group. How lively huh? Overall, they were a good group of kids. We headed back to Junction City and sent the kids that were eating on the bus back and stayed to eat. Then, another obstacle. No one called to tell them that most of us would be eating there. No food was ready. They had just opened at 1130, prices were confusing. Teachers were under the assumption that they had a 'meal deal' but nothing was posted. Now the teachers were wondering if the kids that were going to eat had enough $$. Wow... if this was any more organized Im not sure what I would do. Luckily, we were at the front of the line and got our chicken tenders baskets quite quickly. But then we only had 10 minutes to shovel food down. There wasn't enough space in the not-roped-off area so Carla had asked if we could open another seating area, the cashier stated 'sure, sit where you want'. So as we are into our 10 minute lunch, a kitchen person somes over and says, 'this table is reserved' for which Carla responded that she had asked the cashier and then Lisa (Lauren's mom) said (we are getting ready to leave) then the lunch lady says 'oh no..take your time'. EXCUSE ME...did you not just tell us that the table was reserved..mind you.. nothing on the table reflected that the table was reserved. Oh well, another lovely bump to add to our road today....
We then headed, rather jogged, back 2.5 miles to get to North America. That was not fun. I felt like I was in Boston (have to tell you that story later). We made it back, even though 1 kid was missing. It wasn't anyone in my group...oh relief! Then after getting back on the road, Ms Cross tells the kids that ride the bus that we aren't going to make it back to the school in time and to use cell phones to call someone to pick them up at school. Hello.....can we get any more unorganized? Someone run me over...please!
As you can see, Lauren and Allison had a blast! Actually, aside from literally, running, everywhere, it was a great trip. We ended up getting back to the school, just in time for the kids to be pushed off our bus in order to get on the right bus to go home. Again, what about the kids that had already called someone to pick them up? Can I please organize the next field trip? Maybe thats my new calling.... group planner?
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