Back at home safely
Monday, March 31, 2008
We arrived back in Springfield at 10am and back in Decatur at 10:30. I was so happy to be home after nearly driving 2800 miles up and down the east coast and the south. The overall trip was good, but there were students on the trip who really needed to stay home. Almost every single day there was drama.
On Monday, while visiting Coppin State, little kids threw rocks at our bus and broke the window.
On Tuesday, Bowie State and Howard didn't have time to let us tour the college, so they simply talked to us on the bus and in the stands of the football field. This was a college tour trip. We could have watched a video if that's all they were gonna do.
On Wednesday, Hampton University was awesome. After visiting, we had a nice discussion on the bus, however, after the discussion of why there are so few black males going to school vs. black females going to college, it all came undone when on the the "what's up" students went off on a chaperone. He was cussing and fussing right in front of the hotel and everyone else. Now, why they didn't send him home was beyond me. But instead of having a meeting with all of the chaperones only certain ones were involved in the discussion to send him home or not. My vote would have been to send him home, but I would have been a minority along with J.J. They decided to let him stay--huge mistake. While visiting Norfolk State University, one of the "What's Up" girls got sick. Apparently she forgot to tell them that she had a heart condition and that she hadn't been taking her medicine. The problems is, I saw her taking prescription medication while on the bus. She was sitting right in front of me. But to be safe they took her to the ER and was there for hours. We had to sit and wait for hours to get a report as to whether to leave her or not. She was released from the hospital and the next day we sent her and her friend on the Greyhound back to Springfield, IL. What the girls didn't know was that the bus left at 10:30 on Thursday, but wasn't getting to Springfield until 8:30pm Friday. They said when they dropped them off and got their tickets and found out they were going to be on the bus that long, their mouth dropped. They could have just stuck it out with us for three more days. But oh well.
On Thursday, after visiting NC A & T and fussing at the students for taking money from a "local" who was throwing money at them like they were some hoes at a strip joint, one of the students let the chaperones know that $110 was stolen out of his wallet. The thing is I swore I saw who stole it, but he hid it somewhere. So of course the lead chaperone proclaimed that we would be cutting the trip short and heading back to springfield if the money didn't show up. Of course the money didn't who up, so we had to do some investigating. On Friday it was determined that the same "what's up" kid that cussed the chaperone out was said to be the main suspect. Even though I know I saw anothe guy with a wallet.
On Friday, one of my student came up missing at 3:30 in the morning. We later found out that he and two other students were planning to visit some girls in the hotel and they got caught and ran and instead of coming back to face their punishment, they decided to hang out until the chaperones went to bed. But they didn't know that the chaperones were up waiting on them. Chris, one of the chaperones reverted back to his college fraternity days to punish them. He had them pumping gas for cliets at the gas station they hung out at. He made them stand against the wall in the thinking pose to help them to think about what they did.
The next morning, one of the runaway students fessed up to holding the stolen money for the same student that I said I saw had a wallet that wasn't his. Apparent a night of hazing caused him to realize that he needed to fess up.
By then it was Saturday and time to visit the last college, FAMU, but we were late for the orientation so we missed the Marching 100. Ugh.
FAMU had a carnival waiting for us where I climbed the rock wall. Our students were too busy waiting in everlasting line to have fun. I then decided to venture off with one of my students to the bookstore and along the way we met up with Frat Boy and B.C.
We went to a little chicken shack and got some wings and sat out on the patio and chitted and chatted for the next couple of hours. It was nice to get away from the group. Plus I wanted to get to know Frat Boy a little bit. He was cute. During our chitting, i found out that B.C. had a crush on me. It was funny, my student was telling on him--how he would sit in the back of the bus and ask her about me. I thought it was cute. The whole time, I'm trying to figure out how old Frat Boy is. I don't know too many Fraternity guys that still walk around in their paraphanalia beyond 28 years old. Of course Pat wears his, but only when he goes to a meeting or has an engagement.
After visiting FAMU, it was time for out long 900 mile trek back home. I was exhausted. I don't care how much I tried, but sleeping on a coach bus is nearly impossible, even though I didn't have a seat mate. My hip hurt, my legs hurt, my head hurt. I was just down right hurt. I was so happy to see Springfield that next morning.
As we got on the bus, Frat Boy came up to bit us farewell and I took the chance to let him know that I wanted copies of the hazing pics. He gave me his email and his phone number (just in case, he said). Since then we've been chatting via email. I still don't know how old he is, but I've googled him and I think he's about 25. Bummer.
On Monday, while visiting Coppin State, little kids threw rocks at our bus and broke the window.
On Tuesday, Bowie State and Howard didn't have time to let us tour the college, so they simply talked to us on the bus and in the stands of the football field. This was a college tour trip. We could have watched a video if that's all they were gonna do.
On Wednesday, Hampton University was awesome. After visiting, we had a nice discussion on the bus, however, after the discussion of why there are so few black males going to school vs. black females going to college, it all came undone when on the the "what's up" students went off on a chaperone. He was cussing and fussing right in front of the hotel and everyone else. Now, why they didn't send him home was beyond me. But instead of having a meeting with all of the chaperones only certain ones were involved in the discussion to send him home or not. My vote would have been to send him home, but I would have been a minority along with J.J. They decided to let him stay--huge mistake. While visiting Norfolk State University, one of the "What's Up" girls got sick. Apparently she forgot to tell them that she had a heart condition and that she hadn't been taking her medicine. The problems is, I saw her taking prescription medication while on the bus. She was sitting right in front of me. But to be safe they took her to the ER and was there for hours. We had to sit and wait for hours to get a report as to whether to leave her or not. She was released from the hospital and the next day we sent her and her friend on the Greyhound back to Springfield, IL. What the girls didn't know was that the bus left at 10:30 on Thursday, but wasn't getting to Springfield until 8:30pm Friday. They said when they dropped them off and got their tickets and found out they were going to be on the bus that long, their mouth dropped. They could have just stuck it out with us for three more days. But oh well.
On Thursday, after visiting NC A & T and fussing at the students for taking money from a "local" who was throwing money at them like they were some hoes at a strip joint, one of the students let the chaperones know that $110 was stolen out of his wallet. The thing is I swore I saw who stole it, but he hid it somewhere. So of course the lead chaperone proclaimed that we would be cutting the trip short and heading back to springfield if the money didn't show up. Of course the money didn't who up, so we had to do some investigating. On Friday it was determined that the same "what's up" kid that cussed the chaperone out was said to be the main suspect. Even though I know I saw anothe guy with a wallet.
On Friday, one of my student came up missing at 3:30 in the morning. We later found out that he and two other students were planning to visit some girls in the hotel and they got caught and ran and instead of coming back to face their punishment, they decided to hang out until the chaperones went to bed. But they didn't know that the chaperones were up waiting on them. Chris, one of the chaperones reverted back to his college fraternity days to punish them. He had them pumping gas for cliets at the gas station they hung out at. He made them stand against the wall in the thinking pose to help them to think about what they did.
The next morning, one of the runaway students fessed up to holding the stolen money for the same student that I said I saw had a wallet that wasn't his. Apparent a night of hazing caused him to realize that he needed to fess up.
By then it was Saturday and time to visit the last college, FAMU, but we were late for the orientation so we missed the Marching 100. Ugh.
FAMU had a carnival waiting for us where I climbed the rock wall. Our students were too busy waiting in everlasting line to have fun. I then decided to venture off with one of my students to the bookstore and along the way we met up with Frat Boy and B.C.
We went to a little chicken shack and got some wings and sat out on the patio and chitted and chatted for the next couple of hours. It was nice to get away from the group. Plus I wanted to get to know Frat Boy a little bit. He was cute. During our chitting, i found out that B.C. had a crush on me. It was funny, my student was telling on him--how he would sit in the back of the bus and ask her about me. I thought it was cute. The whole time, I'm trying to figure out how old Frat Boy is. I don't know too many Fraternity guys that still walk around in their paraphanalia beyond 28 years old. Of course Pat wears his, but only when he goes to a meeting or has an engagement.
After visiting FAMU, it was time for out long 900 mile trek back home. I was exhausted. I don't care how much I tried, but sleeping on a coach bus is nearly impossible, even though I didn't have a seat mate. My hip hurt, my legs hurt, my head hurt. I was just down right hurt. I was so happy to see Springfield that next morning.
As we got on the bus, Frat Boy came up to bit us farewell and I took the chance to let him know that I wanted copies of the hazing pics. He gave me his email and his phone number (just in case, he said). Since then we've been chatting via email. I still don't know how old he is, but I've googled him and I think he's about 25. Bummer.
Labels: Back at home
