Thursday
May 29, 2014:
This morning at around 8:45 am, 82 students and five
teachers, including me, left for Ottawa, Ontario on two coach buses: Coach
Canada and Parkinson. We had gathered at
our school, Albert Campbell C.I., in the forum area with all of our luggage waiting
for everyone who was scheduled to go on this trip to arrive. This was probably the biggest contingent ever
to go on an Albert Campbell field trip.
It promised to be very interesting.
We rode on the 401 eastbound, neither bus trying to
keep up with the other. The first stop
was scheduled to be in Kingston, about two hours east of Toronto. We stayed at the rest stop a little over an
hour because the two buses arrived at slightly different times. There was just enough time for a light lunch
and a washroom break for everyone. Our
bus, the Parkinson coach, had arrived first so we left first, slightly ahead of
the Coach Canada coach.
When we were coming closer to Ottawa, we arrived at
our first tourist stop: the Diefenbunker. This was a military installation located four
stories below ground level. It was
designed as a bomb shelter big enough to support up to 500 people with food and
shelter for up to 30 days. Designed for
the safety of top-level government officials and their families, its existence
meant that the government of Canada would be protected in the event of a
nuclear attack. It was kept secret from
the public from 1960 to 1994, when it was determined that the military no
longer needed it. The Diefenbunker would
have protected our federal government officials from harm, and thus, the Canadian
government, from total destruction.
The Diefenbunker was an installation like I’ve never
before experienced. It was a whole
complex with many rooms and levels, which made me feel more like I was in a
prison rather than a building. It was
very cramped and stuffy. If I were one
of those 500 people having to live there for 30 days, it wouldn’t take very
long for me to feel claustrophobic.
However, it was the best solution that the military had to offer for the
protection of the Canadian government in the event of a catastrophic event such
as a nuclear attack. Fortunately, that horrific
event never happened, although there had been some very close calls in the
early 1960s.
After leaving the Diefenbunker, we arrived at Carleton
University by 5:00 pm. It was a
bit confusing for us on the campus though, because there were no obvious signs
or directions to the residence building where we would be staying. Finally, after driving around the campus a
couple of times, we found the correct residence building: Lennox and Addington House. Our teacher-leader, Mike Koeller, received
everyone’s keys (key cards) and our assigned room numbers from the university’s
liaison person as well as instructions on how to get into the building, a
particular floor of the building, and each room. Everyone needed their own key card to the
building door, all floor doors, and their individual rooms. Some people shared rooms with a friend, but
most had their own rooms.
Living in residence was absolutely brand new to our
students and may have been new to some of the other teachers as well, but I
felt like this was nothing new to me.
This trip was going to be the fifth time I’d stayed in a university
residence in my life. My room number
here was 442, on the fourth floor. Fortunately,
I had my own room (all the teachers did) and I shared the bathroom with my
student-roommate, Aleksia, next door (the bathroom was situated between our two
rooms). An attempt was made to keep the
male and female students separated in the residence building to discourage
fraternization or worse. That fact,
however, did not keep the boys away from the girls all the time.
I remember living in residence for a week when I was
enrolled at a gymnastics camp at York University; I was 16 then, in the year
1968. That was the very first time. The second time happened much later when I
became part of the gymnastics judging team at the World University Games in
1983. Then, I stayed at the residence at
Concordia University in Edmonton, Alberta for a week. The third time occurred when I was registered
in a summer seminar for Computer Studies teachers at the University of Waterloo
for a week. I stayed again at the U of W
residence a few years later while enrolled in the same kind of seminar. This trip to Ottawa was to be my fifth time
living in a residence, but we would only be here for two nights. With any luck, I can go again on this trip
next year and stay at Carleton U’s residence.
At 5:45 pm, after settling into our respective
rooms, we then left for dinner at Byward Market, an area in downtown Ottawa
with lots of shops, kiosks and restaurants in an outdoor area of about 4 square
blocks. It was such a nice area to
finish our day in and made me aware of how lovely Ottawa really is. At this time, everyone had some free time to
get their own dinner, so my fellow teachers and I went to dinner at a rather
expensive restaurant called “Fourteen Dollars for French Fries”. Mike told us this was an excellent restaurant
and he was right, but I spent $60 for dinner, including two glasses of
white wine and dessert. It was
definitely worth it, however. It’ll be a
while before I go back there again, but I will if I can.
At 8:30 pm, we were scheduled to be picked up by our
respective coach drivers. On the way
back to the residence, we drove by the beautiful Rideau Canal, which is
just lovely at dusk. This was the
conclusion of our first day in Ottawa.
Tomorrow, Friday May 30, we’ll be spending time
walking along the Rideau Canal, as well as doing a bunch of other tourist things. We’ll be busy from 9:00 am till 9:00 pm and
that means we are going to be very tired by the end of the day….looking forward
to tomorrow!
copyright 2014, Anne Shier. All rights reserved.
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