Washington DC

When I was in the fourth grade, my class went to Washington DC. The class placed recycling bins all over the school, to collect alluminium cans to raise money for the trip. The class emptied the bins once a week, the janitors let us keep the cans in the Wilson 5 storage room. Once a month, our teacher Mrs. Hughes, would take the cans to the recycling place, to be recycled, the class helped to load them in her car. The class collected cans all year, by spring time we had raised enough money to fly to Washington DC for two days.

On the day that my class left for Washington DC, we attended classes like normal, the class was not leaving until after school. At lunch, I hardly had a chance to eat my food, the girls in my grade who were not going on the trip, kept stopping by my lunch table to say, how lucky we were and they wished there class would take a trip to Washington DC. The last bell of the day rang at 3:15 p.m, I rushed back to the dorm to finish packing my bag for the trip. I checked in with the dorm parent, put away my school books, said good bye to the girls who were not going on the trip, as they went off to recreation time. Mr. and Mrs. Kohut had purchased everyone, identical looking blue bags. To keep from getting the bags mixed up, everyone had there names taped to the handle of there bag. After all the other girls had left, I packed two changes of clothes and toiletries in my bag. I carried my bag to the living room, put my bag by the patio door, sat down to watch television until Mrs. Hughes came to take us to the gym. When Mrs. Hughes came to get us, we picked up our bags, said good bye to our dorm parent, went down the hall to the boys dorm, the girls waited out in the hall, Mrs. Hughes went into the boys dorm to get the boys. Mrs. Hughes said that we had to go wait in the gym, for a member of the recreation staff to get a van to take us to the airport.

There were eleven students and four adults on the trip to Washington DC. The students were: Jessica, Chastity, Elizabeth, Heidi, Laura, David, Garth, Ryan, Adam and I. The adults were: Mrs. Hughes, our teacher, Mr. Nail, an administrator, Mr. and Mrs. Kohut, Adams parents. Adams parents were coming as extra chaperones on on the trip.

When the van arrived, to take us to the airport, the adults helped us throw our bags in the back of the van. The school van was large enough for all fourteen of us to sit comfortably. As the van goes to the airport, I stare out the window, watching the city change from grassy lawns to sky scrapers. As we approach the airport, you can see planes taking off and landing. When the van arrives at the airport, we are let out at the front door, the adults help us get our bags from the back of the van. We are told to pair up and hold hands, like little children. We walk into the terminal, cross a large open space to some chairs. Mrs. Hughes tells us that we will eat our dinner now, the adults hand each of us a sack lunch. The sack lunches contained: a bologne sandwhich, a bag of chips, carrots and a cookie for dessert. When everyone was done eating, we threw our trash in nearby trash cans. We pair up again to walk to the metal detectors. A security guard tells us to take off any jewelry or watches we are wearing and to empty our pockets. All of this is put in a silver tray next to the conveyor belt. We place our bags one at a time on the conveyor belt to be scanned. As the bags are being scanned we walk individually through the metal detector. We pick up our bags, watches and jewelry on the other side of the conveyor belt. We pair up again to walk to the baggage check in area, where we hand our bags over to the attendant, who will put the bags on the plane. We pair up again to walk through the airport to our departure gate. The airport is very large, it feels like we walk forever before we reach our gate. It is exciting walking through the airport, I see people riding on scooters, others pushing lugage on wheels and a man pushing a huge tower of lugage. I see people from all over the world and hear them speak in foreign languages. When we arrive at our gate, we sit by the window to watch and listen to the planes take off from the airport. The planes are very large up close.