I Love my Job, I Love my Job, I Love my Job

It finally happened, I actually had to chant this to myself to get through a job. It was my first student tour of the season, so I will admit to being a bit rusty though I had spent quite a bit of time reacquainting myself with the history and stories that I would be retelling. However, I was ready. Sometimes, though, the one thing you can't be prepared for is the people. Warning signs that I should have seen: they were from the Newport Beach area, there were equal number students to adults, including 3 teachers and it was a private school. From the beginning the parents told me how wonderful and smart the students were. Looking back it is shocking that they were so good considering how appalling their parents behavior. The parents mistook this trip for their kids as a vacation for themselves, here is a list of their atrocious attitudes:

1. They did not understand, no matter how often I said it, that we had a schedule to keep. Hence we were always running late to our next appointment and I had to cut short our visits. They were too busy talking to each other.
2. The parents wanted to leave the students with the teachers and myself and go to Morton's for dinner.
3. After being told they couldn't go to Morton's, I was yelled at from the back of the bus for not giving them time to have a leisurely dinner, which they deserved since I rushed them all day. Ahem, see #1.
   
4. Then at dinner the parents all sat together away from their kids and split 4 bottles of wine.
5. They spent much of the time on the bus bitching about me.
6. When one of the students didn't follow the instructions for an Indian bead activity and used twice the number of beads, the leader asked her to return them but he father interjected asking, "Why can't she have what she wants?"
7. With an hour plus ride to the airport I put on some music relating to the Gold Rush, it had barely started and the ring leader parent told me to turn it off, the kids didn't want to listen to it and put on something they would like.
   

I could go on but I am trying to put this episode behind me. In the end, the only thing I need to worry about is whether the teacher was happy and did the kids have a good time and learn something. The answer to both of those was yes. I also learned a lot from the two days. Fortunately for me, I started another two day tour the next day with a great group of parents and students. The trials for that trip were physical and not mental...camping in 30 degree weather but everyone survived and had a good time in the end.

Each group is very different and that is a great part of the job. The season will be a good one, I am very comfortable with the material and logistics so I can focus more on getting the students excited about seeing history first hand.

Thanks for reading.