Camp Geneva comes to Philadelphia

Yesterday I received a phone call out of the blue from Brian VandeWege (Chief). I must have stammered my first four words out of surprise, but he told me that he was in Philly with Kevin VanderKlok for a conference! He asked if I was free for dinner tomorrow (now today). On their tab! Consequently, I'm having dinner with Chief and Klok tonight in Center City! I can't wait.

Giving thanks

Thanksgiving break has come and gone, yet I still like I haven't even begun to express my gratitude to God and those around me. Isn't it funny that the United States is essentially the only country that NEEDS a holiday in order to stop and be thankful?

I'm back in Philly after a 54-hour hiatus in Michigan. It was wonderful to be home and spend time with family and friends. My excitement on the trip home was missing a flight in Detroit due to Philadelphia delays and catching a better flight to Grand Rapids instead of South Bend! I returned home with parents and Maria by 12:30 instead of the expected 1:00--even though I had 90 minute delays! It's cool how God works some things out.

While home, my family celebrated Thanksgiving with the De Boer tradition of flank steak. The day after Thanksgiving, however, we went out to Wild Chef, which is a Japanese steak house in Holland. They put on a nice show while cooking all the food in front of you. Delicious and entertaining! Perhaps my favorite part was when they made small bundles of rice and tossed them through the air to their customers, hoping for them to catch the rice in their mouths. Good fun!

Scott Parrott, Chris Marlink, and Peter Van Wylen came over Friday night. Peter had friends in town, but Chris and Scott spent the night. There's nothing like a good old fashioned sleep over! Since my bed is in Philly, I had to "make my couch" each day. My room just doesn't quite seem as much like my room when my bed is missing. Amazing how much sentiment can be associated with an inanimate object.

Seth dropped me off at the airport early Thursday morning, and two other friends from church picked me up on Saturday night. I had called them to get the best directions home using public transportation, and they insisted on picking me up instead! Another blessing.

Perhaps it's the return to work feelings after Thanksgiving, but I felt frazzled when school started today. Some of it was due to last minute things to do, and other teachers made it worse by having issues that required my immediate attention. The computer that I have all the others connected to in order to print was refusing to turn on, and the Internet itself was down everywhere. I had a slight panic attack, took a deep breath, and tried the first thing all good techies do when attacking a problem: restart. I restarted the modem and router which worked for the Internet. Then I tried several buttons on the computer to no avail. However, when I came back 2 hours later, the computer started up just fine! Those computers...I tell ya.

Tonight was a 2-hour training on safe touch/safe environment for all first year teachers. There was a good deal of grumbling about not getting paid or any academic credit for this extra time, but I think that Monday after Thanksgiving is the best scheduling possible for such things. Report cards are next week, however, and teachers are beginning to stress about them. I'm excited about getting next Friday off (Immaculate Conception, you know!)

Bedtime is quickly approaching here. Seth is in New York until Wednesday, so I have fulltime dog duty. Anyone's welcome to join us for a morning/evening walk! It's quite relaxing, actually. Pets are great.

Holland or bust!

Seth and I are driving to the airport at 6:10 tomorrow morning, with my flight to arrive in South Bend at 11:08. Consequently, I should be home in the early afternoon! Can't wait.

Mass went really well today--better than I would have ever thought! More later, as I'd like to hit the sack now.

Boom goes the Dynamite

My favorite part is when he says "boom goes the dynamite"...you've gotta see this newsmen. Just a guess, but he's probably an intern!

Marathon pictures

And here are the pictures from the Philadelphia Marathon Dan and Krista ran on Sunday (and some extras from our weekend with them).

Me? Lead mass???

It's Thanksgiving week! And I'm excited.

This Thursday morning I board a flight from Philly to Detroit to South Bend. Thanksgiving Day my family and I will consume vast amounts of flank steak (we've never been much for turkey) and go for a game of bowling (two years ago dad got three strikes in a row--a turkey!). I can't wait to be there. I'm usually glad to go home, but I've never been this excited to do so. God has blessed me here in Philadelphia, and I haven't been homesick, yet I can't wait to see friends and family again. I will have to go back on Saturday afternoon...every moment counts!

Sarah finished up her exam on physical diagnosis today and already caught a ride home to Pittsburgh this afternoon. Somehow I'll have to survive 48 hours in Philly without her... =)

Tonight our home group had a Thanksgiving potluck! We had mounds and mounds of delicious food, along with beautiful fellowship. After eating for a while, we went around and shared how we saw God answer our prayers this year. I shared how God has been faithful with my move to Philadelphia and be constant in my life--even while bikes were stolen, cars towed and hit, and living and teaching in an entirely different culture. It was wonderful to hear others praise God for His work in their lives too. I tried to add to the family dinner/reunion feel by taking several pictures.

School is only a half day tomorrow. I'm a little nervous because I'm leading mass! Yep, that's right--the non-Catholic computer teacher is leading mass on the piano. Kinda crazy, but our music teacher quit a few weeks ago. We'll see how it goes! The resource room teacher is backing me up on guitar, and the 1st grade teacher is going to teach her kids the songs and sing along with us too. Should be an adventure! The perfectionist, loud Geneva-style side of me is nervous. I just need to remember that it's for God, not for man.

Dia de la marathon

Who'd of thought that the Philadelphia marathon would take me back to my days at Hope?

Today Sarah and I got to cheer on Dan and Krista Carter as they ran their first marathon! They've been training together, and today they got to finally run it. Sarah and I made signs and went out to cheer them on as we rode bicycles and tried to keep up with them for a while. I had no idea it would be so fun to encourage random runners as they passed too! We made one sign that said "doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo (think Chariots of Fire!)", and if we were to do it over again, I would burn a CD and play it as runners passed. Whenever someone would have his/her name on a shirt, we would yell encouragement to them. Great fun! Dan and Krista were tuckered out when they were done, as you might imagine. Krista ran for over 21 miles, and Dan did all 26.2!!!!!! Unreal. It was a joy to be with them this weekend and experience such a life goal for them.

In the short time we were cheering on runners, we also saw a few people from Jefferson as well as Ashley, my 13-year-old 8th grader who ran the race too!! The next time I'm near a marathon, I would certainly enjoy watching it simply to cheer others on. What spiritual parallels!

Seth bought the video game Guitar Hero II for his PS2 today. Tonight we played it together. If you've never heard of it, it's the same concept of Dance Dance Revolution, only with a toy guitar instead of footpad. The game is somewhat addicting, but quite fun. I swear that if I was more familiar with pop culture songs, I would be better at the game. =)

Go blue!

First time experience alert: minor league hockey game. Last night Sarah, some Jefferson friends, and I went to a Philadelphia Phantoms game! Even though they lost 3-2 to their rivals of the Penguins, we still had a great time. Our tickets included a free hot dog and pop, and I even snagged another hot dog that was tossed into the stands. A fight broke out halfway through the game, and it made me realize that hockey is a professional sport rarity in that it allows fighting to a certain extent! If these guys had been duking it out in the NBA, they'd be suspended for weeks! Why is hockey exempt from this?

One cool part about the night was that I had no less than 5 random people comment on my Michigan sweatshirt. That's gotta be the highest percentage I've ever experienced! Unfortunately, not all the comments were positive. The acknowledgment of the Big Game was enough to encourage me, because in commenting on it, they were giving Michigan credit for being a high quality team and making this game significant. Two hours to go!

Dan and Krista Carter are coming this evening to spend the night with Sarah. They're running the Philadelphia Marathon tomorrow. They've been training together, pledged to run the 26.2 miles together, and are very excited about the whole experience. Sarah and I are excited to support them in it, too! We'll have to miss a good part of the run with church in there, but it should still be a great time to cheer them on. Go team Carter!

"News" for the day

This just in: new studies have shown that the mere thought of money makes people selfish.

This just in: old studies have known that for nearly 2000 years.

In other headlines, the FDA has changed the term "hunger" to "those with food insecurity". Apparently the term "hunger" was confusing to some. America continues to amaze me.

Michigan vs. Ohio State

In my effort to wear Michigan colors/shirts all week, I've tried to get a few students into the rivalry. They don't care. At all. Maybe if they read some of these stats, they would:

(this is all from ESPN)

1835: Folks in Ohio and Michigan started getting on one another's nerves back in 1835, when they fought what is referred to -- rather appropriately -- as "The Toledo War," since it was waged over a swath of land that included, of all things, the city of Toledo. Just in case you're curious, both states actually wanted it.

Turns out the "war" really was fought primarily in Congress and that only "warning shots" were fired when the states' respective militias squared off. Still, it stood as a precursor to the kind of vitriol we see today. For instance:

10: It will cost you $10 to attend "The Hate Michigan Rally" Friday night in Columbus. Headlining the "rally" will be a band known called The Dead Schembechlers, who all dress up like Woody Hayes and play timeless classics like "Bomb Ann Arbor Now," "M Means Moron," and "Schembechler Kicked My Crippled Dog."

This is real. You can even get tickets online at Ticketmaster (and save $2 by buying in advance).

Asked by The Detroit News for a comment, the band's namesake, who I'm happy to say is alive and well, looked at a picture of the band, chuckled and said, "I'll be damned, they do dress like Woody."

18,000: There are still 18,000 absentee and provisional ballots left to be counted in a hotly-contested Congressional race in an Ohio district that includes Columbus. Saturday is the first day to count those ballots legally. The counting will begin on Sunday. Seems the elections officials had more important matters to focus on Saturday.

18: The Buckeyes come in with an 18-game winning streak, the longest in the nation.

11: Michigan comes in having won 11 in a row, the nation's second-longest streak.

29:34: Out of 660 minutes of football in their first 11 games, the Buckeyes have trailed for a grand total of 29:34 this season. They were behind for 18:36 in the first and second quarters against Cincinnati, 5:54 early in the second quarter against Penn State, and 5:04 against Indiana in the first quarter.

4: OSU's largest deficit of the year was four points against the Bearcats.

17:15: Michigan has also played 660 minutes and has been behind for just 17:15 this season. The Wolverines trailed Wisconsin on two different occasions in the first half for a grand total of 13:41, and they were behind Ball State for 3:34 late in the first quarter and early in the second quarter.

7: Michigan's biggest deficit this year was seven points against the Badgers.

0:00: Out of a combined 330 minutes of second-half football, Michigan and Ohio State have trailed for 0:00.

329: Michigan leads the nation in rushing defense and has given up a grand total of 329 rushing yards all season.

29: There have been 29 individual occasions when a team has run for more than 329 yards in a single game this season. Navy has done it four times. West Virginia has done it three. In fact, even Michigan has done it -- going for 352 yards against Ball State, which means the Wolverines gained more rushing yards in that game than their opponents have gained all year.

Also from ESPN

• It is true that the late Ohio State coach Woody Hayes, who did more to pump up the negative feelings in the rivalry than any man, refused to fill up his car in the state of Michigan.

"I'll tell you why we don't," Hayes said, according to the seminal book, "Woody Hayes and the 100-Yard War." "It's because I don't buy one goddam drop of gas in the state of Michigan. We'll coast and push this ***** car to the Ohio line before I give this state a nickel of my money!"

• It is true that Michigan, leading 55-0 late in the 1946 game, lined up and kicked a field goal.

• It is true that in 1950, the teams played through a blizzard with 29 inches of snow and more than 50,000 fans sat through it. Michigan's Chuck Ortmann punted 24 times, and the Wolverines won 9-3, despite failing to make a first down. Buckeyes coach Wes Fesler quit a few days later. Ohio State hired the little-known Hayes away from Miami (Ohio).

• It is true that in 1970, a local judge in Columbus dismissed a charge of obscenity against a defendant arrested for wearing a T-shirt that said, "F--- Michigan" because the message "accurately expressed" local feelings about the university and the state.

• It is true that Hayes sometimes bunked his team in Toledo on the night before a game in Ann Arbor so the Buckeyes could sleep on Ohio ground.

• It is true that the lowest-priced ticket available on StubHub on Thursday, for a seat on the corner of the end zone, on the 41st row of the upper deck, would have set you back $530. Binoculars extra.

Go blue.

Home maker points!

Seth and I deserve some home maker points this week. First, we had most of Seth's cooking appliances get donated to another location. As we started making hamburgers Tuesday night, we soon realized that we no longer had any bowls to mix the seasonings into! Thankfully, we were near the end of our Red Vines bulk licorice container, and we massaged the spices into the beef. It worked well!

I made Rice Krispie Treats for the first time in my life, too. It was on an impulse: Rice Krispies were on sale, and I wanted to do something with them! They turned out well--especially for my first time. Although, I guess it's kind of hard to mess up a recipe so simple!

Tonight Seth put the rest of the beef in some macaroni and cheese. Mmmmm...combined with some kettle BBQ chips, we had a delicious meal. While going out to eat is certainly a treat, it doesn't compare with the full circle feeling of fulfillment that I sometimes feel with eating at home. Maybe it's the whole caveman instincts of stabbing the prey, dragging it home, skinning it, cooking it, eating it, and throwing away the bones idea. Who knows.

Seth and I have been starting our mornings with some prayer and Scripture at 7AM. It's right before I leave for school, but it's a sacrifice for him. He usually doesn't have a cut and dry schedule, which allows for plenty of flexibility. Instead of sleeping in, he wakes up early with me. It's been neat to connect in that way with each other and with God in the morning. *insert Tim Allen grunt here*

Thomas Jefferson University is about to sell Philadelphia's most famous painting, The Gross Clinic for $68 million. The painting was originally purchased by alumni for the school for $200! There's quite a bit of discontent from faculty, alumni, and students about the decision, which the University is justifying by saying that the painting will receive much more exposure in a national museum. A Jefferson memorial plaque will always be in display next to the painting. The city has 45 days to match the offer. Many see the painting as a symbol of Philadelphia, which says a lot for a city that values art so much.

Things at school have been going well recently. Today was one of those times when I felt a little lazy. You see, there are six class periods in a day, and I only taught for 4 of them. The other two I had off for planning or tech support. When I think of myself as simply the technology teacher, I feel lazy for not teaching as much as many of my fellow teachers. But when I think of myself as a technology teacher/network administrator/tech support for both schools' staff and faculty, I can justify my lessened teaching! It is crazy how quickly time goes by, however. My success for the day was connecting my newly formatted computers to a color inkjet and a b/w laser printer and sharing them on the school's new network. Woo hoo!!

Free stuff update: Sarah had a meeting for those interested in family medicine tonight, and they had a TON of extra Chinese food! After stuffing gladware to the gills and filling up the freezer, we decided to go door-to-door in her apartment building of Jefferson students to get rid of the rest of it. We were mostly successful in distributing food, and we made several friends along the way. It was cool how this was on the heels of our church meeting last night about building community in our communities, and how God provided a way to reach out to all the people on the 3rd floor of Barringer! One girl was a 4th year who offered to let Sarah borrow her board study books or answer any questions she has about the upcoming years. Another girl seemed a little lonely and was very grateful to meet more people. She said she's always up for hanging out! It was interested to observe the reactions of people to free food. Everyone was asking why, and almost half of the people we saw declined our offer. Guess some people still believe there's no such thing as a free lunch.

A beautiful day to skip school

Talk about timing! I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for late this morning, and my principal said I didn't have to come back to school (since I don't have any classes Wed PM for prep/tech support time). The weather here was GORGEOUS--70s and bright sunshine. I celebrated with a bike ride to the city, sat outside for a while, Sarah and I went for a run, then we joined our friend Melanie to ride to church for a meeting on community (more to come on that hopefully tomorrow). It felt so good to be outside and hang out. Thanks for that, God.

Is it just me, or is our country in trouble when it costs more to park for a doctor's appointment than for the appointment itself ($10 copay for the visit with my insurance and $12 for parking with my doctor's validation stamp!). Wow.

Balance

Does one ever discover balance in one's life? I'm beginning to believe that balance is analogous to humility--just when you think you've got it, you don't.

In other news, I made Rice Krispies Treats tonight. Kind of a spur of the moment thing...I saw Rice Krispies on sale and decided to make them! For those of you outside the Philadelphia area, you'll have to trust me that they taste dandy.

After hearing multiple people at church and school talk about Heroes, I decided to check out the show tonight. I enjoyed it! I'd say it's a good adventure show that reminded me of Early Edition somewhat (may that show rest in peace!). I can't justify watching it by myself every week, but if it was more of a community building experience, I would certainly enjoy it.

A useful gift idea

For those of you shopping for one of those "hard to buy for" shoppers, I recommend the Swiss Army Card Lite. I keep it in my wallet next to my credit cards. It's been a recent lifesaver! The pen has come in handy for writing last minute notes, scribbling down contact information, or paying credit card bills, and the screwdriver function is perfect for taking apart computers. My parents bought this gift for me last year, and I'd recommend it for anyone else!

(I know what you're thinking, and no, I'm not getting and commissions for swiss army card sales...I simply have appreciated my card immensely in recent days)

Microbiology songs

A few posts back I talked about the musical microbiology lunchtime lecture I attended at Jefferson with Sarah. Since I know you all have been on the edge of your seat to have the words, I finally have them online. Enjoy!

Encouragement

Regardless of how this week started, I must say it ended well. I have felt so encouraged the last two days--and for entirely different reasons.

Yesterday was encouraging because I felt like I was truly equipping my students, and they were excited about learning. Most of the ways I've seen other, more experienced teachers teach in my schools have been to be very direct and show the kids exactly what is expected of them. I've been mimicking that style so far. Well, I decided to try something different as we began a new personal profile project to teach advanced editing in Microsoft Word (middle school). I gave the students a sample I created about me, showed them my requirements and a rubric, and told them they were in middle school, so I wasn't going to hold their hand through this assignment--they had to THINK on their own. The results were beyond my wildest dreams! It was great!! The kids were engaged and focused on the task for the entire time period. I felt very encouraged.

I also had a few 7th graders actually THANK me for teaching them some keyboard shortcuts. Just out of the blue! They said "thank you for teaching us these! They work great!" It knocked my socks off.

Then I played a slideshow I made out of the apple orchard pictures for the primary grades, and they were quite pleased as well. Maybe it's the people pleaser in me, but I enjoyed serving all those students in those ways in one day!

Today we didn't have students, as we had a faculty meeting all day (financial planning, study skills, report card info, scheduling stuff, etc.). After we finished at 3, I tackled the donated computers to format them and get them setup for our resource room. Well, I left school at about 10:15! The time went by quickly, and I never even touched the pizza or PB&J I had in the room with me. AND! I got all the computers up and running with the phone support of Peter Van Wylen and some swapping floppy drives. It wasn't exhausting, even though it was a 13 hour day. (actually, I brought one machine home and have been working on it for the last hour) Sometimes, the motivation just kicks in! Thanks, Jesus.

Tomorrow I'm going to go watch the Michigan/Indiana game with Eric Summers. Go blue!!!

Never a dull moment

So...our school's bad week got worse today. On the bus ride to gym, our 5th graders were hit by a trolley. Not hard, but still hit. They were all brought to the children's hospital as precautionary. Everyone is okay, thank God, but it has our faculty wondering how soon this week will end!

Wonderful donation

On my way home from school today, I picked up 6 computers! I had mentioned our school's need for computers to my home group, and two people there said they had a bunch of old computers hanging around at work! So, I dropped by the Center City architecture firm, and they gave them to me! It was great--except that now I need to go through and format them all and reinstall software on them. Creating work for myself isn't so bad, I guess...I'm excited for the kids to be able to use them.

Seth and Sarah are both going to be busy this weekend--Sarah is going to a medical missions conference in KY, and Seth is going to a Christian counseling conference here in Philly. With my extra time, I plan on putting some extra time into upgrading the school's computers. We'll see how it goes!

Speaking of donations, I gave one of another kind recently. Sarah had a clinical skills session on giving IVs, where all the med students practiced on each other. Well, after she practiced on them that night, I volunteered my right arm the next. Note to self: when girlfriend is practicing on you, don't think about what she's doing, the fact that she's new at it, what the needle is up to, or anything as such! Now, I used to get allergy shots in both arms every week, and I also gave blood several times in college. It's been a while since I had my flu shot last year, but I didn't think I had a fear of needles. (once I did need to lie down after giving blood, as my face turned white) Unfortunately, I let my nerves show, and after Sarah successfully removed the practice kit needle, my face turned "a lovely shade of green", and I had to lie down and drink something. I was a little frustrated at myself and for making Sarah more nervous than needbe, but it was really good to give her an opportunity to practice and even provide a somewhat stressful environment to simulate some potential futuristic times during rotations next year.

School was exciting today--for very non-academic reasons. There was a robbery at a store a block from school, so nobody was allowed to leave or come into the building for the morning. Helicopters circled the area as the police looked for the villians. We were allowed to go back to normal schedule by lunch. The 7th grade teacher also had a fight break out in her classroom, and several of the boys had to intercede for her to stop it. She was pretty shaken up. When I picked up her class earlier in the day, it seemed like they were doing whatever they wanted to in the room, so I'm not totally shocked that something like that happened. She is a first-year teacher, and as with most of us, her classroom management is developing. These kids aren't exactly from Hudsonville anymore!

Next stop, home group!

Pics from the homestead

Here's a picture of me at my computer desk in my room.



Here's a picture of Seth and Murphy after photographing a wedding (they don't ALWAYS dress in black to match)



And here's a picture of me on my bed in front of my blue curtains. Take careful notice of how the elaborate wall decor draws you in! That'll change soon.

World Cafe Live

Friday afternoon, our church's home group received an e-mail from one of our members inviting us to a free concert at the World Cafe Live. As it turns out, our church worship leader played and wrote music with several of the musicians when he lived in Nashville. Neither Sarah nor I had been to the World Cafe Live before, but we decided to check it out. We were very glad that we did! The atmosphere at the WCL was very cool: dark lighting, nice tables, small venue, candlelight...wonderful. A simple setup of guitars and a djimbae combined with the singers' beautiful voices created a very camp-like feel. Delightful!

The musicians were Jeremy Lister, Sandra McCracken (wife of Caedmon's Call member), Katie Herzig, and Matthew Perryman Jones. Sarah, Seth, and I went in together and bought five of their CDs for $33. Well worth the money.

Why is it that live music so often sounds better than CDs ? There must be some indescribable, unmeasurable, element to it.

Saturday morning I drove out to the Roxborough neighborhood of Philly to help our church clean out a few rooms for their new service site. Even though Liberti is only three years old, they've grown to over 400 people and, as of this coming Sunday, will have three service sites! I enjoyed serving along with several other members of the community...there is perhaps no better way to get to know others than by serving alongside of them. I believe this is one of the biggest reasons that people return from mission trips with such close bonds with their team. The church that serves together, stays together? =)

If you haven't checked out Liberti's website yet, please do so! We had a bunch of high schoolers from Pittsburgh in the "balcony" (aka: sitting on top of tables) in the back today. They were on a service project, found the church online, and decided to check it out!

The whole service today blessed me. From the sermon tracing communion back to the passover to the children singing "Live a Life of Love" to praying for the groups starting the new site to discussing a Brian McLaren book, I felt encouraged, challenged, and embraced. Somehow, going out to lunch with fellow worshipers helps combine the compartments of home and church into a new compartment of community. I like it.

Would it be called a poddy?

Somehow, this seems like a joke--something someone cooked up in his college dorm room to make his friends laugh. But it's not. Buy one for yourself!

Podunk and Rogers

Here is what Sarah and I went as for Halloween! She as the Podunk County Fair Queen and I as Mr. Rogers. Scared yet? =)

Microbiology: a musical

Happy All Saints Day everyone! This marks my first true celebration of the catholic holy day, as I have off from school today. There are days like this when I'm grateful to be in a catholic school , but I'm sure others will come in due time (ask me again when other schools have spring break and I do not...).

I'm spending my day hanging out. I slept in as much as I could, wasted a bunch of time online, attempted to track down information on United Airline's website and phone support regarding free vouchers, and reading. For lunch, I met Sarah at one of her medical school lunchtime lectures. While eating free roast beef and turkey sandwiches, we watched a lecture from a UPenn professor called Microbiology: A Musical. Indeed, it was for medical students! However, it interested me because the professor put information about microbiology to tunes of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, Popeye the Sailor Man, the Star Spangled Banner, I will survive, Yesterday, and She'll be Comin' 'Round the Moutain. I'll have to hunt for the lyrics and post an example.

My clock says it's almost 2PM already. Slow starts to day certainly make the day go by quickly! I'm not sure if I like that or not. Enough blogging...I'm gonna get going!

An apple a day...

Yesterday I got to help chaperone my school's prek-4th grade trip to an apple orchard called Highland Orchards! We had a great time!! The kids got to stuff a scarecrow, walk through a hay maze, pick apples, make apple cider, eat donuts, enjoy a hay ride, and have a fun day together. Experiences like this outside of the classroom are so good for teacher/student rapport. Instead of giving instructions, I could hang out with kids more and enjoy their company. The weather was great too! It was surprising that we could fund a trip 40-60 minutes out of the city to visit an orchard like that, but we got funds from somewhere to gas the buses.

The 4th grade teacher who organized it did not assign me any specific kids. Consequently, I could just float around and take pictures! And I did:



See more of them!

The teacher joked that I should come on all their trips from now on. I'm fine with that!