The Teacher as Tour Guide

WorldStrides calls their tour guides/directors "course leaders." At first I thought that was a bit presumptuous, but after completing a number of tours for them I appreciate the moniker. The more I use my teaching skills as a tour director, the better the experience.

Lesson One: Children need recess. What senior, let alone 8th grader, wants to listen to commentary and walk through memorials and museums all day for three to six days? They need to run around and play. There is always a place to play -- Mount Vernon (peek-a-boo at the Ha Ha wall and rolling down the lawn), climbing on Einstein (even if the guards at the National Academy of Science wishes you didn't), taking pictures with Alice in Central Park. Bring a frisbee on the bus and let the kids play on the mall. The few minutes of recess, just like in school, will allow the kids to enjoy the tour and help them focus.

Lesson Two: Students learn more when they are involved. Touring is the ultimate experiential education, but when we get them on the coach we can't stop involving them in the learning process. What do they know? What do they want to know? I was anxious about the ride up Embassy Row. I know the main embassies -- Great Britain, Japan, and the glass house that Finland built -- but, unlike Tim, I cannot name them all. I tell the students I don't know them all, so we are going to make it a contest. When they recognize a flag or can read the plaque they should call out the name of the embassy. Now, everyone is looking! Of course, understanding what an embassy is and hearing stories or legends such as the one about the gold hidden in the side portal of the former Walsh residence, now home to the Indonesian Embassy, is more important than naming each and every building, however impressive that is!

Lesson Three: Good tour directors, like good teachers, share and steal. On my last tour I was working with another DC guide with a background in military history, something I know very little about. I was quite impressed watching him do a lesson on the Tuskegee airmen using his students as models of airmen to demonstrate how successful these flyers were. I also stole an idea: at the Supreme Court we chose four students to argue a case; I chose to have them argue for or against year-round schooling. (Be sure to chose something that interests students.) Three students served as Supreme Court Justices. For one minute, each student argued his or her case, and the court made a decision. Now these students could go home and say they argued in front of the Supreme Court! (Thank you, John McCaskill!)

Of course, we still have to make sure the coach driver knows where he or she is going. (I sure do appreciate the local drivers.) We have to wait on line for tickets, and we have to make phone calls to get extra tickets when we don't have enough for all of the students. We need to make sure we have the same number of students at the end of each visit as we did when we started. We have to make sure that the students leave room for others to pass, and we do want to share the essential knowledge of the sites. But, the most important lesson I have learned is that if I focus on the kids and making sure they are involved and having a good time the students will learn. The tour director becomes a "course leader."

Creating Tours: IB and Travel

When I decided to go back to teaching after eight years as the director of a residential summer camp, much had changed. Back at the school where I taught for 18 years, I realized there is some truth to the old cliche that "you can't go home again." After I was informed the interdisciplinary course I was teaching would be cut for the following school term, I called my good friend and colleague who was working with a new program to Fairfax County Public School: the International Baccalaureate program. Ron convinced me that teaching in the IB would be exciting and a great match for me. Although I slid off the road in the ice on the way to Robinson, slashing my tire and requiring a call for help to my recently separated spouse, my interview and offer of a position teaching IB English was the start to some of my most exciting years as a teacher.

The International Baccalaureate's mission includes lofty goals, but the two that resonate most with me are promoting a more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and creating life-long learners who understand that "others might be right." I started to read with a different perspective, and I often learned as much from my students as they learned from me. When I had the privilege of teaching Theory of Knowledge, I knew that I had found an education that was not only exciting, but one that can make a real difference to the students, and perhaps to the future.

From IB teacher to IB coordinator to Advanced Academic Programs Specialist, where I had the opportunity to supervise the IB and AP programs for the district's 25 high schools, I never lost site of my wanderlust and what I believe travel can offer students. A frustrating spring break trip to Italy which didn't fulfill my expectations and a very successful two-day New York experience that did, were always in the back of my mind as I made the transition to a career as a tour director. I talked about the possibility of IB trips to every student tour operator with whom I spoke; a few international student tour operators offered one or two IB trips, but none of the domestic operators did, at least to my knowledge. Finally, after I was called the "tour director from hell," I considered perhaps creating educational tours for IB students might be a better way to use my expertise, and I was thrilled that the same privately-owned company that suffered my inability to find the bus parking lot at Newark was not only willing for me to develop such tours, but was anxious to have me do so!

I can be a nerd. I love to learn, and once I started reading -- Monument Wars, Memorial Mania, and numerous other books and articles -- my interest and excitement just continued to grow. I started with an IB New York Experience, writing an introduction, itinerary, and teacher resource guide. The owner of the student tour company asked me to create an "answer guide," or at least a guide for teachers and tour escorts to help moderate student discussions. That work took me twice as long as creating the tour. Since I had already agreed upon an amount to be paid for developing the tours, I was torn between that agreement and what I thought would be appropriate financial remuneration for my work. After sharing what I had done, I was confident to ask for additional payment for future work, and that was accepted.

Creating the IB Washington, D.C. experience was even more fun than New York. I discovered a strong theme -- public monuments and memorials -- and created what, if I can be immodest, is quite a comprehensive and thoughtful educational tour for IB students that not only takes the students on an exploration of the public monument as a form of art, culture, and politics, but also makes connections to other areas of knowledge. I shared the tours with the IB coordinators from Fairfax, and they all agreed (including the one AP coordinator who hung around for the presentation) that the trips would be an excellent complement to an IB education.

The IB coordinators asked if I could develop a one-day program for local schools in DC; it was easy to take the concentration on memorials and monuments and turn it into a one-day tour. A presentation I attended given by Maya Lin on public memorials only heightened my interest. I understood how as a country we moved from the hero monument to the victim's memorial to the therapeutic memorial. I learned small details that all students would find fascinating -- Maya Lin, who had written her purpose in her design for the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial before she actually designed it, discovered it in her dinner of mashed potatoes one evening. Now I had another story to add to the one that student's love about her getting a "B" on the project as a junior in college. Lin believes that memorials should stay with the "bare-boned facts so that the viewer brings the self to the piece." This is a perspective that we can bring to any discussion of memorials and monuments. I highly recommend that you take a look at her fifth and final memorial, one to the 6th extinction -- What is Missing? Her last memorial is actually a website in addition to some strategically placed screens showing the videos -- http://www.whatismissing.net/.

In addition to the traditional sites on any student trip, although with a different slant on perspective and the addition of thoughtful discussion, I also added other sites off the traditional itineray, including a visit to Lincoln Park to see the Mary McLeod Bethune and Emancipation Proclamation statues, and the National Japanese-American Memorial, dedicated in 2000 with the contrasting purposes of apologizing for the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II and honoring those who were killed in action fighting for their adopted country.

I continue to learn and hope to be able to add and adapt the study guides with time and experience. When I woke up to the Post article on the lack of statues of women in DC you might have thought I had won the lottery; I had a similar reaction to the recent article considering whether the decline of the African-American population would mean the loss of the Black influence on culture in the district. To my tour guide friends out there -- read the articles! To my student tourists, I hope I don't overwhelm you with my excitment, having so much I want to share with you!
www.washingtonpost.com/local/pondering-the-meaning-of-changing-dc-demographics/2011.03/30/AF02nCDH_story

I look forward to the sale (and maybe leading) my first IB tour. Next step -- develop one for Chicago and Los Angeles.

Catching Up

I finally get it right...

The last time I posted was over four months ago, before the start of the busy spring student season. An e-mail from a fellow tour guide asking me about my blog inspired me to take another look and perhaps attempt to get this going again. Since it would be difficult and quite boring to try to catch up on the last four months, I am going to highlight my journey of self awareness that that time has given me.

My first tour of the season in February was an utter disaster; in fact, the lead teacher actually called me "the tour director from hell." Although at the end of the tour I was ready to agree with her, I understand now what faults lay with me and, to a great extent, with her. And, so I don't leave any doubt to how this story turns out, I also know now that I can be a great tour director doing what I do best -- research, teach, and make connections.

The tour was a large choir, and in addition to escorting the 87 individuals, with almost as many adults as students and a few additional children and parents I learned were called "ghosts," people on the trip who had not paid through the tour operator, but were "hangers-on," I also was supposed to be training a first-time escort. All of these in combination with a couple of errors in judgment on my part led to the calamity It started at the airport; when the coach driver told me that we should meet him in the coach parking lot rather than having him pick us up, I made my biggest error in judgment. First, I didn't know where it was. Second, the lead teacher was in a wheelchair. To make a long story short (okay, I know that is a cliche) I dragged 60 people with luggage and a teacher in a wheelchair up and down three floors inside and out, looking for the parking area. After that attempts to make everything right -- storing luggage so people could eat, handing out theater tickets so people could meet us at the theater -- did nothing to help the situation. My utter confusion over ticket numbers and people interested in "doing their own thing" only contributed to the chaos, and by the end of the first day there was nothing I could do to change the poor impression I had already made.

At the end of the trip I realized this type of tour was not my forte; I wanted to teach. I wanted to be able to share the cities and sites I loved and not to herd people who don't want to be herded. And that has made all the difference.

My next tour was DC to NY with a different tour operator, and it couldn't have gone better. The students were 8th graders. One of the greatest surprises (the whole touring experience has been one surprise after another) was that I loved the 8th graders. They still are basically innocent and, for the most part, are thrilled with each new experience. A highlight of the trip was a pre-arranged pick-up of cupcakes at Carlos's Bakery. My coach driver was the best, and, unlike on my fall foliage tours, we worked as a team; in fact, the teacher-chaperones were constantly remarking that they couldn't believe we had never worked together prior to this trip. I took care of the 30-something kids and the 10 adults, even walking from Central Park to Columbus Circle in the middle of New York's St. Patrick's Day parade surrounded by thousands, many of whom most have started drinking early that morning. The thanks and the tips and the great ratings finally made me think, "I can do this."

And then came my work as a "course leader," an accurate description of the job. I didn't have to make confirmation calls, ticket arrangements, or worry about the several students and one chaperone who were taken down by a horrible stomach virus. All I had to do was teach (and, of course, make sure we got from place to place). I loved it! And I was good. It was easier because the teachers had so well prepared their students for their experience; the students were eager to learn, and I felt that I was finally getting a good handle on what was important, what to share. In addition, I was on a two-bus move, and my cohort was wonderfully supportive and generous, always making sure that I had all the information and support materials that she used. Thank you, Karen!

When I received my evaluation scores a couple of weeks later, receiving all "10's," my change of perspective seemed justified.

In March I also had the wonderful opportunity to travel with the high school theater department where I taught for 19 years -- West Springfield H.S. We saw Wonderland on Broadway and after a performance of Phantom, where they had to stop the show after an on-stage accident, the students were greeted by 3 actors and the stage manager, including Phantom himself, Hugh Punaro. It was fun and educational, and noone entertained the idea that I was the "tour director from hell." (At least I assume noone did based on my evaluations.)

By now I was feeling more confident. I no longer had to look at my notes, and I had a better understanding of what I should and could do. A couple of four-hour city tours after these gave me more confidence, and now I was even having fun. I wasn't laying awake the night before, anxious over the trip, nor was I being kept awake going over everything I did wrong.

Now I had a big decision to make. Would I still go after those adult over-the-road tours that I thought was what I really wanted, why I went to ITMI in the first place. When I was asked if I might be interested in a position as a local rep, doing "meet and greets" at the airport and selling excursions and helping independent travelers in DC, I had the opportunity to give this serious thought. When I thought of those over-the-road tours I still would get anxious; this might be an excellent alternative. Yet, I still want to prove to myself that I am more than capable of taking the more demanding adults on the road. When I was told that it might be possible to do one or two short tours in between the "meet and greets" I knew it was the right choice.

It's fascinating to me how what I thought I really wanted is not what I want in the end. What I love is doing the research -- I will write more in my next blog about the work I am doing developing tours for students in the International Baccalaureate program. What I love is interacting with students. What I do well is teach, help the students make connections to their own lives, to their own knowledge and experiences, and to bring a sense of wonder to their experience.

Between next week and the middle of June I have one tour a week in DC and a one-day theater tour to New York. In May I start my work as a local rep, meeting UK passengers at the hotel and meeting guests in their DC hotel. That work continues until the end of October. And, with all that income, I can fulfill my wanderlust on my own!


With time comes different perspectives.

Lessons from the Off Season

The Minute Man
Daniel Chester French
Concord, MA
Training for Smithsonian Student Travel


It has been a little over two months since I posted a blog; I haven't done any tours since October 11 with the exception of trip to Virginia wineries with a group of past PTSA presidents and a couple of meetups with DC Local Tourists. This afternoon I find myself "snowed in"; actually, I am just too lazy to brave the cold and the potential black ice on the local streets. With time on my hands, I thought it might be a good opportunity to reflect on the future of tour guiding and directing and the lessons I continue to learn in the off season.



The cold is an issue. Noone wants to tour in the cold. Most tour guides don't work from November through the start of March, at least here in the mid-Atlantic. I have given up posting meetups; we could visit any of the many fabulous museums or galleries in the area, but you don't need a tour guide to do that, and I don't believe in charging if my presence has no added value. We had a great visit to the U.S. Botanic Gardens with lunch at the Museum of the American Indian, but besides a few minutes of background information, and checking out the museums so I knew which way to walk, there was not much that I did. Doing "free" tours isn't a waste of time. It's fun, and I add to my experience (and my resume).

Tour operators, museums, and other sites use the off season for professional development and training. I completed a three-day training with one company and look forward to a two-day training with another here in DC. I have National Cathedral training as well as special training for a program at the Historical Society of Washington, DC called Facing History and Ourselves. The annual Symposium for the International Tour Management Institute is in Atlanta in January, and I am representing a company at the Texas Theater Teachers' convention promoting their theater tours. So, I am busy, even if I am not making any money (just spending).

Spring is the time to make money. It's clear that if you have a DC license and live in the area (even if you don't -- two of my tour guide friends, one from Boston and the other from Florida have gotten work) you will work in the spring. Thousands upon thousands of students, mostly 8th graders, descend on DC in the spring, and the student companies need almost every licensed body they can hire. Before I could put my availability on line for one of the largest student companies, they had scheduled me for several tours. It's good money (and good work) to meet the students at their first stop in the morning and guide them through their day in DC (and sleep in your own bed), but that is not what I really want to do, at least not every day for three and a half months. I quickly filled in as "unavailable" for the rest of the time, including my three scheduled tours to New York with the company I am representing in Texas and an additional three with another highly reputable student travel group.

Then Smithsonian Student Travel called. I didn't think that there was much of a relationship between the Smithsonian and the travel group, but after attending their three-day training with 30 other potential tour directors, I was pleasantly surprised. I like the way they do business. Even though there was no one in the company over the age of 35 (I think -- unless they are all very young looking), the training proved that they were of the utmost professionals with a dedication to the teachers and the students. I have the luxury of not supporting myself with the tour business, so I can choose to work with the companies I like (who want me) and not choose based on where I am going to make the most money!

I think I love the training and the research even better than I like the guiding! I love the educational aspect -- the research, the learning, the practice touring -- without the stress of being in charge. Perhaps with more experience and more self-confidence, I will learn to love the actual tour guiding as much as learning to do it! Through three days of getting to know the history of the company, the way they do things, safety, touring in Boston in below freezing temperatures, and completing the paperwork and getting paid, I was never bored and always intrigued. Still, the highlight was a visit to the Old Manse in Concord where Nathaniel Hawthorne and his wife scratched writing into the window, and I touched the desk where Hawthorne began to write, "The founders of a new colony, whatever Utopia of human virtue and happiness they might originally project, have invariably recognized it among their earliest practical necessities to allott a portion of the virgin soil as a cemetery, and another portion as the site of a prison." I had tears in my eyes; I hope that I get to take students (or adults) back there some day.

I have had some extremely challenging jobs throughout my career. As a camp director I was responsible for the well-being of 350 campers and 150 staff members. As the advanced academic specialist I was involved in a politically tense situation providing the best programs for our students. Yet, being a tour director has proven to be the most demanding and difficult job for me. I know I can be good (and have successfully met the challenges). But at the end of the two back-to-back on-the-road trips I questioned whether it was worth it. After some time to reflect and additional time to continue my education, I have decided to go forward with what I always considered to be my "dream" job.

I am learning to listen better. I love my colleagues who are willing to point out my errors and to show me some better ways to do things. I know I won't repeat some of my mistakes and I will continue to develop my strengths. Sometimes you need a different perspective. Why not eat with the passengers? The reason is that they are always watching; you cannot play favorites. You need to develop a relationship with each individual, but you need to maintain your professionalism. You need to know your company and to represent them well. And it is hard, but it is what I want to do.

Second Time Around

The second time around is easier.

That doesn't mean that it isn't difficult. It also doesn't mean that fewer things go wrong. It does mean that I have more confidence in handling situations and especially have a better understanding of the procedures and more destination knowledge.

The second time around for me is also different because of the make-up of the passengers. I have mostly Americans, and, of those, 25 are a part of a group of Asian-Americans from Hawaii. It brings a different perspective to the tour, and, for a reason I still have not been able to determine, less pressure

I started with 49 passengers and am currently down to 45. Two cancelled due to health reasons before the tour started, and a passenger became ill in Montreal and had to be hospitalized. That was two days ago, and, unfortunately, they are still in Montreal although they should be heading home to Hawaii soon. I hate to be mercenary, but it is difficult not to think of the lost tips when I should be thinking of their health!

My first tour was greatly impacted by a non-communicative driver who got lost on a regular basis; our circling became a running joke of the tour. Although I have the same driver this time around, like me, he has a better sense of where he is going. What I really like about Chris is once he gets somewhere, he knows how to do it again! It is also obvious that someone had a good talking with him based on my numerous complaints, and he is really trying. We are on a two-bus run with another Cosmos coach in tandem. One of Chris's trainees is the first-time driver on that coach, and I think that gives him a sense of comraderie as well as a need to be a leader! The other bus driver is friendly, but her lack of experience as well as some weak driving skills, is giving my tour directing colleague some fits. At one point, she almost missed a turn. We were following her but yielded to the left exit when she realized she was heading in the wrong direction and cut in front of us. I saw the two coaches colliding in my mind! That was a close call.

One of the themes of this tour is RAIN! We started on day two with a city tour of New York; it rained throughout most of the morning. Although it stopped enough for some pictures of the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty, by the time we got to the World Trade Center Site, the rain was so steady we went into the building where we could observe the progress of the work and headed to Grand Central Terminal for lunch. The drive to Boston was in torrential downpours. With an unwanted bird's-eye view from the front seat, I was glad to know that Chris was comfortable driving in the rain. The city tour in Quebec with the afternoon cruise were both in the rain; this theme continued here in Toronto with a steady downpour all day (we still did the harbor tour) and the forecast for today in Niagara Falls is the same. I am amazed at the good humor of the pax!

Yesterday's city tour of Toronto initially caused me great anxiety. Although we had a city guide for my training tour (my training tour director hired him), and Globus provided us a guide for our first tour, this city tour was on my own! I spent hours researching, took lots of notes the last two times, mapped out the route and discussed it with Chris, who actually turned out to be a great help, and off we went! It was almost great. I hit all of the high spots, gave appropriate commentary and even had a laugh or two or three, and I believe I gave my pax a good overview of Toronto in the rain. But I was too fast. I could have fit in at least a few more sites, and we arrived at the harbor a good 15 - 20 minutes early. But my passengers were happy to have some time to walk around the quay mall, and all of them enjoyed the harbor cruise despite the weather.

It all lies in the details and the dealing with crisises. And this tour is not without mistakes, conflict, and problems.

Problem number one: male shares. Shares usually don't work out, but people take the chance there won't be anyone else, and they won't have to pay for a single room. One of my shares is insisting that he had an agreement he wouldn't have anyone over 60 (although I think he is 62) and no one with a medical condition. He is fighting this the whole way. The other passenger paid for a single one night, and one night I inadvertently did the same (details not important). I misunderstood an e-mail from the office, so now I have two happy males with single rooms and a very unhappy boss. Still working out the details, but it might mean the end of the start of a career! At least the people are happy.

Therein lies my problem with this job. I want everyone to be happy, and that is impossible. I want to please everyone, and that is impossible.

Problem number two: lost passport. Again! This time I have a group leader, and she helped the woman, with limited English skills, and, in the end, it was solved with a letter from the consulate allowing her to cross back into the states where she can apply for a new passport.

Problem number three: ill passenger. One of the men from Hawaii had some bleeding in the middle of the night. He was taken to a hospital by an ambulance, and a note was put under my door. Ironically, it worked out best for timing. When I woke for my usual 4:00 am bathroom break, I saw the note. I was dressed by 4:30, called the hospital and spoke to his wife, downloaded all of the paperwork (lots) and was at the hospital by 5:30. Whoever travels without travel insurance, no matter what the age, is foolish. Travel insurance company was called, and they take care of everything -- including making the arrangements for travel home. The pax and his wife were in good spirits, and I left them in the Montreal hospital. As yesterday he was expected to get out of the hospital and return home today. I wish them the best. Logistically, this meant cancellations of excursions, and reconfirmations of all the hotels.

So, two tours, and probably enough obstacles to last me a few years.

I love the people; I love when they are happy. When a passenger tells you that you are the best tour director he has ever had, it makes it worth it -- almost. In addition, I still get excited when I see the beauty of different places. And the foliage! Now I can see why fall foliage tours in the north are so popular. The colors simpy burst, and despite the consistent rain, it is still gorgeous.

So the question is where do I go from here? Right now all I want to do is nothing. Perhaps I need some perspective before making any decisions. After a few glitches, I also need to see if they even want me again! So for now, the baggage pull awaits, and I have to count luggage!

On the Road: First Cosmos Tour

The following blog was written on three separate days over the course of the tour:

It is day number 9, and I have a moment to write, an hour to breathe. And lots of stories to tell. With the first couple of days of my first solo over-the-road tour, it could only get better, especially if I maintain a good attitude and work hard, even though most of what went terribly wrong was not under my control.

Day number 1 is a relatively easy day. I meet and greet my passengers (referred to as PAX, an abbreviation I will use) either as they arrive in New York or, as in many cases, as I catch them in the hotel lobby on their second or third day. A couple of the PAX have just completed another COSMOS tour; their TD (tour director) even took the time to send me an e-mail to tell me how delightful they were. I enjoy meeting my PAX, and all goes well. Then Joanna comes to tak to me; she and her traveling companion have been in NY for a couple of days, and it seems that her passport has disappeared along with some other belongings. She has an appointment with the Australian consulate in an hour, but it looks like the temporary passport they will issue her will not allow her to leave the county and return. She has two options: not to travel with us to Canada and meet up with us back in the states or come to Canada and fly home from there. That seems strange to me, although I learn that it is accurate. Joanna would be forced to leave us in Boston and meet us again in Lancaster.

I stop checking in people around 6:30 even though 4 couples haven't arrived. They could arrive at any time, so I leave their packets at the desk and head to bed with a quick phone call later in the evening.

We pull the bags at 6:30 the next morning, although my driver doesn't arrive until about 7:20. He should have been there at 7; this would be the beginning of a difficult relationship. I was told to expect Marty, but there was Chris. And he doesn't smile. And he doesn't really talk. And that becomes very difficult to change. By 8:10 or so I am giving the safety talk, and our city guide, Eddie, takes us on a wonderful journey through Manhattan. He is witty, animated, funny, and knowledgeable. And a consummate New Yorker. About halfway through the tour he directs Chris to make a right when an impatient driver attempts to pass us on the right; we take off his mirror and his silver car has remnants of our bright red coach. Although we are in front of a police station, it is not the "correct" one; they call the appropriate precinct (the 5th) and we wait. And we wait. I make a few phone calls, and, luckily, we are right in front of a public park with bathrooms. After about an hour, I talk Eddie into taking our PAX for a walk; they get to see the steps of the court house on which Law and Order is filmed. When they return we still have a wait for the police followed by an additional wait for them to finish their report when they finally get there. After about an hour and a half, we are able to continue our tour, and with only one or two little rumblings.

We don't miss a thing, and we finish our morning in New York with a tour of Grand Central Terminal, one of my new favorite places after taking an extensive tour with guide extraordinaire, Justin Ferrate followed by lunch. I meet up with Joanna who has some hope that she might be able to find another solution, one that would later be dashed by the fact that the Australian consulate deemed her marriage certificate not the appropriate "state" document. Chris meets us on time, and we are off on our coach to our hotel in Brookline, or at least that is where I thought we were going.

My first lesson in communicating with my bus driver is making sure we are on the same page. We talked about the hotel. What I didn't realize is he had an old technical with a hotel that has since closed. About 30 minutes into Boston traffic I began to wonder where we were going only to learn we were heading to Braintree rather than Brookline, and after turning around and heading back into traffic, we finally arrived at the hotel an hour and a half late -- 7:30 p.m. And I still had to sell the optionals.

I canceled the "get-to-know" each other activity, and most PAX sat in the lobby restaurant for dinner and a chance to purchase the excursions for the tour. It was suggested that we might have pictures of the excursions to help our PAX make the decision about what they wanted to purchase, so I put together a book of pictures from my training tour and passed it around the coach after I gave a brief introduction to each of the choices. And it worked! I made a very nice commission on the optionals, and I am confident that my PAX's holiday will be enhanced by all of these experiences. I totally undersold the Oh Canada, Eh? show, a corny tourist evening that brought lots of complaints on my training tour. I would rather the people be happy. Ironically, the 11 people who went were thrilled and told me that I shouldn't undersell it so much!

As I was writing the above, time demanded a return to my PAX, and now, 5 days later I am finally getting to continue to blog about this experience. I am utterly, unbelievably exhausted. I give so much credit to people who do this on a full-time basis; my mind doesn't work too well ,anymore and I cannot imagine doing this for another 2 weeks, but I will.

I must have been tired when I began writing again since all I wrote were the above two sentences. The tour ended today, and the evaluations and notes in the tip envelope have put a different perspective on things. I was trying to talk myself into the fact that the driver wasn't ruining the trip -- that his consistent talking on the phone, isolation from the pax, turning in circles lost wasn't as obvious to the PAX, but that turns out not to be accurate. Most everyone recognized my friendliness and effort to please and work things out, but they also said I needed to be more communicative with Chris.

I need to reflect on the requirements of this job and see if I might have what it takes. But I also did have so many fabulous experiences with the group and met some tremendously smart, fun, and easy-going people. I promise a blog with some of those stories -- once I can "think" again.

Training Tour with Cosmos/Archers Direct

My trainers: Brenda Brooks, our tour director and Henry Horton, bus driver extraordinaire


14 days over the road training for my first adult tour, and I haven't written a thing. They were long days filled with touring, studying, 2370 miles, and a lot of fun but very little time to write on my blog. I suppose, like many people who keep a blog, I write for introspection, analysis, and the opportunity to share experiences, so now that I have a few hours to myself without anything that must be done right now, it's time to reflect on this extraordinary experience.




The first thing I say when asked about the tour is that there is a tremendous amount of paper work, but imagine this: I am on a helicopter flying over Niagara Falls. I didn't pay the $118 the excursion cost, and I got paid for taking the ride! As trainees we had to take all of the excursions so that we can sell them to the passengers on our own tours. As tour directors, we also escort our guests on all of the excursions, although we only ride the helicopter if there is room; on top of that, it is no secret that tour directors get a percentage of the sales of the excursions, so the more we sell, the more we make. As the cliche goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, so I took pictures on the training tour -- lots of them on the excursions. I created a book with greater in-depth descriptions of each of the activities with pictures of each, including the helicopter ride over the falls.







Helicopter ride over Niagara Falls

There are many challenges providing commentary and information on the road. I am not funny -- at all (ask my family, especially my brother-in-law, Ronny). I did tell a joke to an individual passenger (PAX) who laughed so hard, adding that I needed to tell her husband, that she gave me a little hope. It's an old joke -- What do we call someone who speaks two languages? bilingual. What do we call someone who speaks more than two languages? multilingual. What do we call someone who speaks one language? American. But I really cannot rely on my humor. My training tour director (TD) showed a lot of videos. Most of the videos were great for the first 15 - 20 minutes and then became boring. I thought I wouldn't do the same, but with 2,500 miles on the road and at least one deadly ride from Niagara Falls to Lancaster, PA, I relented. It also seems to be common on Cosmos Tours. The purchase of the DVD's (and music) is our responsibility, so I ordered a bunch from Amazon -- Destination Quebec, Destination Montreal, the CN Tower (how they built it -- my favorite shown) and more. But I also decided it might be good to entertain while educating, so I bought one movie for two of the long trips -- 1776 on the way up to Boston and Witness on the way to Lancaster.

Most of the people on Cosmos/Archers Direct tours are from Australia, New Zealand, and Great Britain. My first tour has 33 Aussies. Although, my second tour has 27 Japanese-Americans from Hawaii. Just like I don't know much about Australian or New Zealand history, most of the PAX (except for the history professor) didn't know much about American history. I could see that they were confused by Brenda's attempt, so I decided to try a "fun" way to give them at least some understanding of the founding of America with 1776. It may be a musical comedy, but it is relatively accurate, certainly enough to understand the accomplishments of Ben Franklin, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson and to give them a little humanity.

One of my challenges on my tour that starts tomorrow is knowing when to talk and when to shut up and when to give out games and when to mingle with the PAX. I want to mingle more and get to know individual guests. But they also want to talk to each other and to rest, so you have to read them, just like we have to read our students. I also know that you cannot please everyone. I thought our tour director in Costa Rica was fabulous, but others thought he talked too much. He never did give us quiet time, but I loved learning so much about the country. I have learned that not everyone cares about the local government. But everyone cares about the food; I am going to talk a lot about food.





Cooking demonstration at Hershey Farm:
shoo-fly pie and whoopie pies










There is so much to remember -- so many details that need to be attended to along the way and closed out within 12 hours of the end of the trip; my next tour starts 22 hours later. I drop my PAX off around 3:00 on Sunday, September 26th and meet the next group at 1:00 on the 27th. To do that I have to create loads of documents, copy them, organize them into welcome packets, print my vouchers, make confirmation calls, and more. But I am doing all of that doing what I love to do more than anything else (well, almost anything else) -- traveling, meeting new people, learning.

It's time to pack for 48 days on the road.