Friday
May 30, 2014:
Today, we had to be up and have breakfast in the
nearby cafeteria (next door) by 8:30 am.
Breakfast was free and all-you-can-eat, which was included with the cost
of our residence, but lunch and dinner were up to ourselves (students and
teachers). The students had already paid
$40 for the whole field trip. That fee
would cover their cost of residence, the buses, and their entry fees to tourist
attractions. The teacher-chaperons, like
me, did not have to pay for anything ourselves, except for lunches and dinners –
our costs for this school field trip would come out of Albert Campbell’s (ACCI’s)
field trip fund.
The rules of the university residence stated that
during the students’ free time, between 9:00 and 10:00 pm, they could visit
each other as much as they wanted and were free to roam the building, but by
11:30 pm, they were expected to be settled in their own rooms for the
night. This rule was supposed to be
enforced by the teachers, which we tried to do as much as possible, within
reason. I wasn’t sure I would still be
up by 11:30 pm, but I did try to monitor the noise level in the hallway after
that time.
Between 9:00 and 9:45 am after breakfast, we took a
lovely walk along the Rideau Canal for 10 or 15 minutes,
until we arrived at the lovely Dominion Arboretum – a fancy name
for a city park – and then rested a while there. It was a very hilly park, so we had to do
some climbing up a hill. That would not
have been so bad except that I had a rather sore right ankle and the climb
posed a strain. Otherwise, it was lovely
and energizing to climb that hill.
After we left the Dominion Arboretum, we went to
visit the National War Museum.
This was a history field trip, after all. The students were all Grade 10 history
students at ACCI. I was not a history
teacher, however; I was asked to accompany these students on this trip because
a history teacher-colleague of mine who was supposed to go on this trip could
not go…..a great opportunity for me!
Although I really don’t consider myself a history enthusiast, I found
the museum very informative. Its
displays were very graphic and visual, which made it more interesting. As a result, I was motivated to learn more
about the historical events that affect our lives today and they made me
realize how important it is to appreciate historical events – the wars Canadian
soldiers participated in and their outcomes.
These events are largely responsible for the freedom we all enjoy today.
From 11:15 am to 1:15 pm, we were scheduled to have
lunch at Place du Centre in Gatineau,
Quebec (formerly Hull). Gatineau is right across the Ottawa River
from Ottawa, so it was not far. The
Place du Centre was a mall, office building and government building all in
one. The mall was at the lowest level,
just below the level of the sidewalk.
This was considered free time for the students and teachers, since
everyone was responsible for feeding themselves at lunch.
After lunch, we left for the Museum of Canadian History
(a.k.a. Museum of Canadian _________________).
We were scheduled to be there from 1:30 till 3:30 pm. This museum was unlike any museum I had ever
seen or ever would see. It had real-life
artifacts and life-size displays of life from early Canada (late 1800s to early
1900s). These displays were set up in
Canada Hall. But, Canada Hall was only
one of several other halls we could see.
I also saw the First Nations Hall with native Indian artifacts, but missed
the Canadian Children’s Hall. (That’s
not the correct name of this particular hall, but I’ve forgotten it). By this time, my right ankle was getting very
sore from all the walking I was doing and I was getting very tired, but I did
enjoy this tourist attraction very much and I will be back to see it again.
At 3:35 pm, we left this museum to visit a very high
lookout point in the Gatineau Hills. I think we were supposed to do some hiking up
to the lookout, but instead, due to a change in plans, we just drove to the
lookout point to spend some time taking pictures of the breath-taking scenery and resting
there. The lookout was almost 20 km away
from the city of Gatineau, so it took half an hour to get there. We stayed there about half an hour and then
took off for dinner at Byward Market again.
This time, for dinner at Byward Market, my
teacher-colleagues – Anita, Mahesh, Tamarra and I – all went to the Texas Lone
Star Bar and Grill. I’d never been to
this restaurant before, so I was looking forward to eating there. On our way over there, we met a friend of
Mike’s, Bill, who is a retired teacher from the Ottawa area, which is where
Mike grew up. Mike was intending to eat dinner with Bill. Dinner at the Texas Lone
Star was good and then, after dinner, we left for our residence by 8:45
pm. However, some of the kids did not want to
come back yet – they liked the free time they were having at Byward Market – but, the
problem was that the bus drivers were expecting us all to be on the buses by
8:45 pm so that they could bring us all back to the residence. This kind of pissed me off because I didn’t
think that the kids should have a choice in departure time. Some of the kids seemed to have their own
agenda by staying downtown, and did not necessarily want to adhere to our
collective schedule. But, finally, our
bus left (the second bus would leave slightly later), and I was extremely
relieved because I was now in some pain and I needed to get off my feet for the
night.
On the way back, our particular driver, Tim, was
being a real pain-in-the-ass (I thought) and he was being somewhat rude in his
remarks to me. I finally called him on it and
told him off very sharply. He did not
understand what the problem was, so I told him that he was rude and I did not
like his attitude to me. Later, back at
the residence, I figured that I was very tired and cranky and that I should
probably apologize to Tim for taking my crankiness out on him. That did not mean I liked his attitude at all,
but I was prepared to apologize to him anyway and I intended to do this first
thing tomorrow (Saturday May 31st) right after breakfast. I did not want to have a bad taste in my
mouth from this trip.
copyright 2014, Anne Shier. All rights reserved.
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