Saturday Field Trip

I love outings. Especially here, because they are not at all like "outings" in the states. In America, if we plan to go on an outing, there is usually a start time, end time, set schedule, planned food, etc, etc.... Here anything goes.
This week we were invited by our tutors to join them on their sons Kindergarten field trip. Unlike field trips that I am used to, this one took place on a Saturday and all the parents went along....and you could invite friends. We thought it would be a good opportunity to spend some more time with our tutors and meet some new people....oh, and practice our language....all day!
We were told to meet at the bus station at 9:40. What we didn't realize was everyone else had boarded the bus at the school and were coming by the bus station just to pick us up. The bus came by and there was great cheering and clapping as we boarded. Immediately they handed us the megaphone and asked us to introduce ourselves and sing. Sing? Sing what? We introduced ourselves, but avoided the singing. The people around us began talking to us and asking many questions. My poor husband was on his own to figure out what was being said to him. Usually I have to help him hear what they say than he can answer, but we had several different people talking to us....WHEW! Our tutors were in the front of the bus, nowhere near us to help. (I don't really think they would have helped anyway.)

We arrived at a beautiful place about 30 minutes later. A beautiful "park" with trees, mountains, bears, camels, BBQ pit, and a ropes course. Yes, an odd combination, but all together it equaled a lot of fun!!
The first stop was the animals....black bears. I am sure you have heard all those stories about kids falling into the bear's den when leaning too far over the railing, and people getting their hands bitten because they were feeding the animals??? Well, they haven't heard those stories here...... Nor or there signs anywhere that say "Don't feed the animals!!" So, we leaned over the railing and fed the animals. My kids thought it was the greatest thing they had ever done. They had never been so close to animals like this before. The Orr Family farm doesn NOT have black bears who clap their hands and open their mouths bearing their LARGE sharp teeth below you getting your attention to feed them more pumpkin.
Next the kindergarteners were hungry....so we had BBQ! BBQ here is very good. It isn't Dale's or Rib Crib, but all the same can be VERY good. So, after trying to down the cold sweet green bean soup I had a few sticks of meat....then realized I wasn't sure what kind of meat I was eating, so I didn't ask for a while. When I did ask it was chicken stomach, so I went back to my "don't ask" policy. Like I said BBQ here isn't quite like in OK....It was quite a scene with smoke and charcoal and people everywhere!

Our next stop was the ropes course, or as I told Rob, this is where the TV show Survivor must dump all of their used challenges. Amazing. So, Hudson, Rob, Hannah, and the kindergarten teacher's 11 yr. old daughter tackled all of the obstacles. One of the obstacles was a climbing wall with a rope that you had to scale up and back down. Hudson was determined to do EVERYTHING. So, he set off to climb this wall grown men were climbing. The people began to gather around and watch him. Rob helped him and they all cheered when he finally made it to the top, but then he didn't understand how to repel down. He just wanted to slowly go down the rope until he could drop and Rob could catch him. We walked him through how to repel down and they cheered again when he made it to the ground. He was pretty proud of himself.

After the obstacle course (s) it was time for more BBQ. We obstained and decided to eat our sandwiches and chocolate chip cookies we brought. Hudson, Hannah, and our tutor's son all played football while Rob and I taught our tutor to play Uno. Teaching someone to play a game in another language has a few challenges, but we succeeded and we had fun playing together. Soon after, the kindergarteners needed a nap, so about 3 o'clock we headed home. All in all, it was a fun day and we were excited to have experienced it!!