Back from Greece...

...and we all lived to tell the tale!

More on the subject later, but I thought I would at least check in.

I have to say, these were the GREATEST GROUP OF TEENAGERS EVER! It was so much fun to take them on a trip like this. Well behaved, polite, mostly interested in what was going on, and no one got into too much trouble.

Well, OK, that's not entirely true. There was the wadded up pieces of toilet paper out the hotel room window in Athens incident...

And, of course there was the "buying alcohol" incident. Too bad they were not smart enough not to get caught by the other teacher who came along on the trip. They waited an hour and a half outside my hotel room door to tell me that they, "Had done something very bad. Terrible, in fact!" (I, of course, am thinking the worst!) I asked them what their punishment should be and they replied "Well, we shouold be on hotel arrest for the rest of the trip. We shouldn't take part in anything! Not even dinner!" (I am serious here - they are sooooo innocent)

When I asked them if they knew what the ramifications would be once we got back to Canada, they replied, "Well, we know suspension, possibly expulsion. Our parents will know, the principal will know. And we know that it will go on our permanent record for all the univeristies to know!" (Man, it was hard to sustain my laughter. It's amazing how much you can punish yourself waaaaaaaay more that other people can.) Of course, I did not mention that Univerisities couldn't give a rat's ass about this. That, and the fact that it is far more difficult to expell a student these days. ( but they didn't have to know that!)

To prove once more how great these kids are, on the plane ride home, one of the offenders tapped me on the shoulder. He asked if it were possible that I could not mention it to his parents right away at the airport as he would like the chance to tell them himself and since he hadn't seen them in a week, and he didn't want to dampen their excitment of his return.

Wow!

I couldn't ask for anything more. They took responsibility, they punished themselves and they wanted to break the news to their parents themselves. I couldn't have done it better myself. All the things that they came up with on their own was exactly what I was going to have them do. (Except missing dinner and not participating in the rest of the trip. They were on hotel arrest, but they did not miss out on the educational or the nutritional part of the trip - I really didn't feel that this punishment fit the crime considering they may never have a chance to get back to Greece. Plus there was only 1 night left)