Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Field Trip

Today Aleena's class went on a field trip to the InterContinental Bangkok hotel located in downtown Bangkok. The father of one of Aleena's classmates is the general manager of the hotel.

Fortunately, there were a lot of chaperons for the trip, so each of us only had two kids. I had Aleena and a boy named Ken. Ms. Patty, Aleena's teacher, told me that Ken was very excited to be in my group.

We arrived at the hotel after an forty-five minute bus ride. Unfortunately, the buses are not allowed to go out of the back gate of Nichada which would save at least fifteen minutes. Upon arrival, the kids were given a drink and snack.

You could definitely tell that Aleena's classmates dad was in charge. He was there for part of the tour, and there were always five or six hotel staff with us. The kids saw a very nice suite, a room attendant make up a bed, treats being made in the chocolate shop, the laundry room, the florist, and an ice carving.

At the end of the trip, the hotel provided a meal of hot dogs, french fries and water melon. I teased one of the Italian moms who ate ketchup on her hot dog, since as everyone knows, that is what kids do. She said that she had never had a hot dog before, and was a good sport about the ribbing.

The kids received a bag of cookies and a room key card (inactive of course). A few of the moms decided to stay down town and left during lunch. This caused a minor issue because one mom was holding the key card of a boy in her group (not her son). This boy was very upset that he did not have his card. I tried to explain to him that he would get his card tomorrow, but he was having none of it. The boy looked to be on the verge of tears, so I told Ms. Patty. She convinced a classmate to give up her card for today, in exchange for the card tomorrow and some unnamed reward.

A few interesting facts about the InterContinental Bangkok:
- It employs over eight hundred people.
- Its laundry room has a washing machine that can wash up to 300 sheets at a time, and it runs almost all day.
- The adjacent Holiday Inn is run by the same management as the InterContinental, and together they have almost 700 rooms.

The way back was faster because where we exited the expressway. The kids in the class were really well behaved. Most of time time Aleena and Ken were holding my hands. The other PreK class also went on the trip, and apparently was not so well behaved. The other teacher decided that she wouldn't go on any more field trips this year.

It was fun. I left my camera at home this time. Honestly, for some things, its just more pleasant to not have it with me. We got back to school just in time for me to swim.

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