Welcome to the thoughts and photos of FLYDDW. Texas, New Jersey, and Arizona living.

Back in 1998, I was talking with one of my old HS teachers.  He mentioned that the graduating class and some younger kids were going to Europe.  He was chaperoning, along with some other teachers and parents.  I asked if I could come along and he was thrilled that I was interested.  I saved my money, got my passport, and planned vacation from work.  I went to some of the pre-meetings to meet the people who was going.

The trip was England, France, Switzerland, and Germany.

I would be in the middle.  There would be older adults - teachers and parents, and younger students. We were going to spend 14 days during this trip - so I'd get to meet all the people.  I started out with the original teacher - we shared rooms.  I tried to be friends to everyone - show the kids that not everyone was going to suppress them.  I played the in-between - with the kids at times (15, 16, 17 years old), and adults at other times.

High School, and school in general, was all flowing back to me.  I could tell that I clicked with some of the kids, and divergently didn't click with others.  Weird kids, preppy kids, smart ones, dumb ones, popular and unpopular.  I spent time alone in England, but hooked up with two of girl students in France.  We got separated from the group at the Eiffel Tower, and made it back to the hotel alone.  Once at the hotel, we were left again as the group went to Versailles.  This is where I was impressed with students of my high school.  We all went down and talked with the desk clerk, and he assured us that we could make it to Versailles all by ourselves.

We took the subway as far as it went, and then a bus.  We arrived at Versailles - just in time to see our tour bus pulling away down another street.  So, instead of turning around to go back, we explorer it on our own.

I pretty much stayed with the kids - I could keep up with them.  They had a lot of freedom, and had more energy than the older members.  In Switzerland, we all had a snowball fight.  After all, Texas doesn't see much snow, and this was probably the first time for many of them.  They turned on me when I hit my old teacher with one - a lob that was suppose to land next to him.  "Derek did it!!".  Boy, thanks a lot!  But, because "I" wasn't a student - no repercussion for me!  That's how I played the whole trip.  I didn't have to listen to rules.  I didn't have to go where we were told.  I actually had a friend who lived in Germany that I stay with while they did "shopping"

All in all, it was a good trip.  I'd do it again in a heartbeat.