I was told that the students were from a small school. One of the suggestions I picked up at ITMI was to learn a little about your group before they come so that you can make appropriate comparisons and references, so I went to the school's website. It turns out that "small school" was a little bit of an understatement. The senior class had 16 students; the school is pre-K through 12, with a total of about 150 students with a teacher-student ratio of 1:12. The school board was paying for all of the seniors to participate in the senior trip to Washington, but 6 of them decided the trip would be either too dangerous in light of terrorist threats or was just going to be "uninteresting and dumb." So, there I was at 1:00 a.m. at National Airport picking up the 10 students, school band teacher, and the school nurse. They would end up teaching me almost as much as I taught them.
Eight of the students had never been out of Texas, and the same eight had, obviously, never flown in an airplane. None of the ten had been in a subway or in a taxi; in fact, for at least one young lady, riding the metro turned out to be the highlight of the trip. One young man had already finished boot camp and was off to the army the day after graduation, and two others were heading to the marines. What this taught me was perspective: what is important to me or what I think might be important to students is not necessarily so. A good tour director, like a good teacher, has to know the students: where are they and where do you want to take them? This caused me to make some changes in our itinerary as we started our three-day tour of the nation's capital.
I had already checked into the hotel, a recently renovated but still "classic" hotel not far from Navy Yard. The teacher leader was thrilled that I was ready with the keys, but even though we got to the hotel around 1:30 a.m, the students were more interested in food than sleep. Unfortunately, the hotel doesn't have a late night restaurant or anything close (or safe) within walking distance. I was very glad that the school chose to hire a security guard for each night; I think the students might have tried to sneak out. At my age, if I kept talking to the teacher, I couldn't be my best the next morning, so I excused myself by 2 a.m. (way past my bedtime) and set a couple of alarms just to be sure.
Like the NY trip, we would be traveling by metro for the first two days. But I know the metro (and it is much easier) a lot better than the NY subways, and I was ready to go. Even though I could make my way to each destination easily, I still routed everything ahead of time and included it in my detailed itinerary. This time, after all of the kvetching about walking in New York, I tried to utilize the metro as much as possible; we had all-day passes, so we were good to go. I was "escorting" them the first two days and on the last day we would be joined by a licensed "step-on" guide, but it is hard to escort without guiding. I really need that license!
Forewarned that they could not take anything liquid, including hair spray, we made our way to our visit to the Capitol. We had plenty of time, so we stopped at the Supreme Court and the Library of Congress where I quietly pointed out a few things before going through security in the Visitor's Center and having an early lunch before our timed visit. I thought our tour was a bit short, but I didn't think much of it until the teacher expressed his great disappointment. Unlike his students, he is a lot more worldly and has been to DC several times and knew that we were short-changed. I was reminded that we usually see the Old Senate Chamber, the corncob columns, and a lot more. To make up for this, he decided he was going to take his students into the chambers to see Congress in action. A phone call later, we were scheduled to pick up tickets at the Rayburn for all of the students to visit the house and senate. I would go pick them up during their lunch tomorrow, and we would cancel the scavenget hunt of the Museum of Natural History. Unfortunately, when we went back to the Capitol see observe in the galleries the following day, I forgot to remind them about the liquid restriction. They had just shopped in Union Station while I ran to the Rayburn, picked up the tickets, and ran back and had packages filled with shoe spray (for their new shoes), perfume, drinks, etc., so I sat outside watching all of the bags while they went in. As I waited for them, I was amused by how many people tried to "hide" their bags outside the trash bins, but the security officers always caught them! Soon, I had company as well. Lesson: don't forget that you can't take anything liquid into the Capitol, including EMPTY water bottles or coffee mugs!
By the time we were walking back to the metro to make our way to Arlington Cemetery, the kvetching began. Are we really walking? The forecast was for rain, but it was still dry, so we took the Blue line to Arlington, where, unlike DC, I could actually guide without the danger of being arrested. I had previewed the trip, and I was confident in taking the students to the site of JFK's gravesite and the Tomb of the Unknowns. I bagged Arlington House when it took half of the students a long time to walk to the fork in the road: up to Arlington House or down to the Tomb, so down we went. We were at the Tomb of the Unknown not only for the changing of the guard, but also for a wreath-laying ceremony. They got the history of the tomb and an explanation of the symbolism in the ceremony. So, you can imagine my dismay when asked by the tour guide on the last day if they had seen the changing of the guard, and one of the young ladies answered no! Oy!
By this time the rains did come, and we made a quick as possible walk from the metro to dinner at Buca di Beppo for a family style Italian meal with no consensus of whether it was good or not before heading to the obligatory student tourist show: Shear Madness. Although I have seen it at least three times, they do attempt to make it topical (although I was the only one who laughed at the joke about Rockville) and they seemed to have changed the focus to engage the students greatly. The students really got into it, although I was squirming at some of the interruptions.
The trip home was another lesson for me. Since we knew from the night before that there wasn't any food at the hotel, and the students had an early dinner, we agreed to stop on the way back for some snacks. The only place between Navy Yard metro and the hotel was a 7/11. Now, there I was with 10 students, a very large young male teacher, and 10 high school seniors. Although I would never walk alone at night in the same direction, I didn't feel threatened or uncomfortable: that is, until the cashier whispered in my ear, "You know, you are risking your head"! Really! Did he really just say that? There were two policemen in the 7/11 and I thought for a minute about asking one to walk us there. (We had a one block walk). Although I decided against it, I also decided that we would not make the same walk the following night. Hence, all of the students got their first ride in a taxi! They loved it! And, with only 10 students and 3 adults, the less than 2 mile taxi fare was some of the best-spent money. Of course, I called my boss and asked permission first; I was delighted that she said she trusted my decision.
The highlight of the trip for the students was the student cruise on the Spirit of Washington; it was great watching the students have such a good time. I knew that pointing out anything we were passing was worthless, but I did excitedly point out my own place to the two teachers. The students wanted to dance, and dance they did, although we almost missed the boat. Again, walking! Why can't 17 and 18-year olds keep up with a 56-year old out-of-shape woman? The excuse is that no one walks in Texas! In discussing this with other tour guides, I have learned with the exception of students from Colorado and New York, most don't walk.
On the last day, rather than the mini-bus we expected we had a full motor coach with a driver who had not done a city tour in 8 years and his lack of experience took us in many wrong directions, but we managed to see all of the monuments and memorials on our tour with our step-on guide who had just gotten her license and had finished ITMI this past summer. It was frustrating for me because the bus had no mike, the kids were tired, and she was soft-spoken; I wanted to scream the tour out and get the kids more involved. When one young lady didn't want to walk up the steps to see Jefferson, I made her at least walk over with me to take a look up the steps. I did get a few good stories from her, including my favorite for kids -- "Kilroy was here" at the World War II Memorial.
We were just a few hours shy of heading to the airport, and it was obvious that the students had had enough. We made a detour to Iwo Jima, especially for our two young men who had already joined the marines. After making our way to the Old Post Office Pavilion for lunch and a view from the tower, I decided that a trip to the National Archives to see the faded Declaration of Independence would be the last thing the students would want to do. Instead, we gave them extra time to finish their souvenir shopping and headed to the airport a few minutes early. The students were ready to go home.
I am not sure how I knew, but I expected no tip. The students, despite their fatigue and complaining, were extremely happy with the trip and gave me an excellent evaluation. The teacher asked me to work with him again. But I could tell that there was no thought of a tip; we were told at ITMI that most student tours do not tip and that is why the pay is a bit higher for students than adult tours. Someone told me they would guess about 40% of the student tours tip. But I am good; I am happy, and, especially for now, each experience is a learning opportunity for me.
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