ITC Trip #1- Barcelona and Madrid 2014

It was in early March of 2013 that this idea came into my mind. While having dinner on a Friday after work, with a couple colleagues I asked, "What do you think about taking our students out of the country?" Both of my friends and colleagues said, "yeah sure, that could be interesting if it was the right group of students." We finished our meals and did not discuss it any further.

My colleagues at this point did not know I was an actions type of person and if I have an idea in mind that I will go 100% into it. I went home that night and did some research on who provides these services, where could we go and how much would it cost? By Wednesday of the following week I had chosen the tour company and our destination. I went with EF Tours (Education First) due to the fact that their website was user friendly and they had providing tours for over 40 years. If they have survived this long they must be doing something right.

As I approached my colleagues again with this idea I was gung ho and ready to go and just assumed they would be just as excited as I was. I laid out the plans and the cost and neither of them balked at the idea but now had to come to the realization that what I had said only a few days ago was truly about to happen. One of the colleagues liked the idea but was not sure of her future plans and decided to not take part.

As I started to pass out information and gauge student interest I was happy to see how many students had interest but saddened to know how many of them had no clue where Spain was and how we would get there. I had numerous questions about can we take a boat? Can we drive? I had walked into another colleagues room to share with her the information and one of the first people I met when I moved to Memphis was also in the room as we both got hired together from Memphis Teaching Fellows. As I was talking about the trip, she said, "WAIT, your going where? How do I sign up?"

I looked at her and sure said, "I did not think about you at all for going on this trip, my bad!" Next thing you know she was on board and I doubt she knew what she had just signed herself up for. Little did we know how crazy Ms. Madrid would be.

We had a lot of ups and downs with this trip. We sold snacks during the day which led to the district threatening to shut us down and move the trip to the following summer. First off they didn't have the power to do that and our school was about to be taken over by the state so they truly did not care. We did sell roughly $18,000 worth of snacks for just over $9,000 profit.

For all of my students we had our first flight they ever had from Memphis to Miami. We ran into our first delay and plane issue as there was an issue with the GPS system. We had boarded our flight and sat for about an hour as they tried to fix it before we had to de-plane and go to a new gate as they were bringing us a new plane. We arrived in Barcelona about 5 hours behind everyone else and had to get a special transport to get us to where everyone else was. We met in downtown Barcelona by their Hard Rock Cafe and after a short meet up with the rest of our group (Ms. Mary and my parents who had arrived ahead of us) we got to walk around and shop.

The three main attractions that I enjoyed most in Barcelona was Park Guell, La Sagrada Familia and Las Ramblas. We also had a mini scavenger hunt where I had shown the students a set of murals that were on one of the buildings on Las Ramblas. The first person to spot them would get $25 of spending money. Laticia Jackson was the first to spot them and it was just by chance as the boys had wanted to stop at a shop to look at the belts for a moment or we may have missed them entirely.

On our way to Madrid we passed through the town of Zaragoza which allowed for one of my group leaders a chance to get some medication for her foot that was acting up. Our tour director Maria was very supportive and helpful in that time of need. When we arrived in Madrid we got to see the Puerta del Sol, Plaza Mayor and the Prado. We spent a lot of time around the Puerto del Sol as there were many side streets and shops that we could check out. Puerto del Sol is also where there is a famous statue of a bear and a Madrono tree.

We stayed in the Travelodge in Barcelona and the Hotel Mayoragoza when in Madrid. The Travelodge was a rather small and had the bare essentials for a hotel. The breakfast and late night dining were both good options as we spent a good portion of our nights watching World Cup soccer in the lobby. This was also where we had WIFI. Our hotel was about a 8-10 minute walk to Puerto del Sol. The boys and I made that walk one evening about 11pm to see what the nightlife had in store. We were amazed at the activities we saw as there were many people out and about and there was a few sets of street performers. We had a group of college age students who were on roller blades jumping over random things. A few of the boys even took part in one of their jumps as they laid on the ground and formed a long chain of people. We found out that Wanya gets a little nervous and apparently will scream rather femininely as they went to jump over him.

I strongly feel that this group was the best group as it was our first. The kids truly had to persevere and bust their butts in order to get to their goal. I hope these skills and experiences will carry on in their lives.