Last week, Meredith and I went with about 140 seniors to Atwood Lake Resort for the students’ Senior Trip. Senior Trip is CVCA’s annual tradition of sending all the the seniors in a class on a trip together for several days. We left last Tuesday afternoon and got back Friday morning.

I was not supposed to go on the trip this year, but there was a last-minute chaperon cancellation, so Mer asked if I would go, which I did. I was able to get a small cabin of guys I knew, and because a couple of guys could not make it, I ended up being the official chaperon for only three guys (instead of the usual 7-9). We even were able to each get our own bedroom in the cabins (normally the students have to share a bedroom, since there are only four bedrooms).

My guys brought down an X-box and fully stocked Wii, so they were able to intorduce me to Super Smash Brothers, a game where up to four classic characters (Link, Mario, Donkey Kong, etc.) from Nintendo fight each other for up to ten minutes. You score points based on how you maul the other players, and when you “die,” you come right back. This was an older Nintendo game, so it used the classic multi-button, multi-joystick controller to work. I learned several things:
1) Super Smash Brothers is WAY too hectic for me – too much chaos going on all at once.
2) Being thrown into a video game with minimal conception of how it works lands you in last place every time.
3) The Wii remotes are MUCH better for games than the standard controllers. I suspected that the Wii was fun, and based on my experience with an older game, I was right.

You must not think that we were the only cabin nerdin’ it up. Ombusdman’s cabin had a two-player stand-alone version of Guitar Hero, and if you think that is too cool for official nerdom, then Ombudsman and his cabin held a LAN party, where they networked five laptops together to play Civ III. How cool is that? The last night, Ombudsman took his show on the road (to escape the hordes of boxer-clad Guitar Heroes in his cabin), and we set up the LAN in my cabin for three of us to play Civ IV.

The trip seemed to go pretty smoothly. This was the year that Mer and her co-advisor were in charge, so she was in demand a lot during events. When events were not going on, she spent quite a bit of her time in her (very social) cabin. I dropped in when I could, but I still saw quite a bit less of her this year compared to last year. It did rain some, but the kids seemed okay with that, and it never seemed to rain long. The indoor pool, mostly ignored last year, was a HUGE draw this year.

Each chaperon has official things to do, and mine this year were helping to proctor two of the three AP tests that had to be given during the trip. That was not hard – the kids were quietly taking their tests, and I spelled one of our guidance counselors, so I never had too much responsibility, and I was only “on” for  30 – 40 minutes each of two days. The other duty I had was being with the bowling trip, which is not hard since I get to play. I bowled with two of my co-workers, and I did okay (although I choked away the lead twice in three games after being beaten soundly in the first game). I got around 120 (I think my high game was 125 or so) for the three or four games I played.

Each morning and evening had organized stuff for the kids, and the rest of the time was free time. The morning entertainment included a slightly soggy scavenger hunt one day, and the next day an address on lessons learned in college by the sister of one of our teachers who is an expert on Islam and was heading to Iraq the next day. That was followed up by team activities like horseshoes, games, and tug-of-war (we have teams that compete for pride and a $10 gift certificate (zeugma)). In the evenings, Tuesday night had team naming/team cheer followed by Ombudsman’s Feats of Strength that involved eating or drinking nasty things (I think the barfer count was three this year). Wednesday we had a Christian band play, followed by the Cavs basketball game on a projector. Thursday was our pseudo-formal sit-down dinner and senior share-time.

The most eventful thing to happen was a cabin decided to launch water balloons at students after the dinner while they were still in nice dresses and shirts and such. I did not see the retaliation, but Ombudsman, on a trip back to his cabin to get another network cable, had to get Mer’s co-advisor to put a stop to the 40 or so people that were laying siege to the offenders’ cabin. I guess it was quite a sight.

I had to leave early on Friday to get to a doctor’s appointment, but it seems like the packing up went well. I did have to tell my cabin to put the video games away and pack, which they did. Mer then had to ask them the same later after I left, but they complied again.

The saddest part of the trip was that my trusty HP digital camera broke – it simply won’t power on anymore. I’m afraid it may have been exposed to raw Spam juice when I was helping to set up the Feats of Strength. I’m sad that my blog will be text-only for awhile now.

Nice trip, but I am very glad Mer is not going to be in charge anymore. If I do go back in the future, we should get to spend more time together.