It was not just all work on the trip. We did have entertainment each night as well.

Sunday-Tuesday
This
does not really qualify as entertainment., but from Sunday through
Tuesday night, I was in charge of supervising the lunch-making for the
next work day. While the kids had the right attitude of service and had
fun making the sandwiches, I was more stressed than two pieces of bread
warrant. I just *knew* that the morale of the kids for the entire trip
hinged on getting the correct, well-made sandwich. You never know what
might happen if a smooth peanut butter
person…..MIGHT…..GET….CRUNCHY. Needless to say, I needed to
chill. Fortunately, lunches were taken care of for Thursday and Friday,
so I was let off the hook.

Sunday:
We
were given free time on Sunday to do what we liked. Since I was working
on a decent headache, I decided to stay in the room and read Hamlet. I
like to read what Meredith is teaching so we can talk about it, but I
also wanted to be able to talk intelligently about Hamlet if the
occasion arose on the trip (surprisingly, it did not). I did make it to
worship, and enjoyed that very much.

Food on Sunday was chicken patties and mac n’ cheese.

Monday:
Supper
was great – it was Italian night, so the dining area was lit by candle
light and Italian opera was playing softly (which is the best way to
hear opera for me). We had the introduction of the first of three days
of sausage making an appearance in the sausage lasagne. There was also
bruschetta and salad, all served by the food crew. I do have to say we
ate VERY well all week. Kudos to the cooks!

Monday was game
night in the common room. I am not the world’s most social person, so
my first taught was to flee. But, I forced myself to stay, and I had
great games of foosball, airhockey, and pool with a student. It was
fun. Then I fled…

Tuesday:
Supper was Mediterranean night with gyros (with beef and chicken, not lamb).

I
read some more of Hamlet, before heading down to the church gym to
teach ceili dancing (Irish social dancing). I was not sure how the kids
would react, but I was delighted. They really loved it (they are still
randomly dancing in the halls at CVCA, a week later). I taught two
dances – The Walls of Limerick, and The Four-Hand Reel. Not only did
the kids really seem to like it, but they were really GOOD at it too. I
was really amazed at how quickly they picked it up. We danced for over
an hour. What a great time.

Wednesday:
Wednesday,
we got to go to Cici’s pizza (a pizza buffet). I ate WAY too much (I
have this problem at buffets). The pizza was okay, but the bread sticks
were really good. Yum.
In a nod to my early years, I played a video
game in the arcade, and did well enough that everyone else was leaving
by the time I finished. That would have been a lame excuse for missing
going to Pittsburgh.

After
supper, we took the 40 minute trip to Pittsburgh. I drove my car, and
as one would expect, I got slightly lost. I could see the Incline train
(the place we were going), but it took me awhile to get there. I was on
my way there when Craig reached me by cell phone. The new-fangled
devices! Who would have thought you could get a call in your car?
Anyway, I did meet up with the group at Station Square (a nice shopping
area), which is within walking distance of the Incline. Craig gave us
about 40 minutes to shop at Station Square. Craig had gotten
instructions from Meredith to keep an eye on me and not let me spend
too much. He did give it a game try, but he had no chance when I saw
Station Square had an Irish Import store. I did quite well. Instead of
buying the four CD’s I wanted to get, I got Meredith a replica of the Tara Brooch.
Then, I saw Station Square had a chocolate and fudge shop, so I had to
get to good sized chocolates (remember, I had already eaten too much at
Cici’s). Craig took advantage of Station Square by getting cold sesame
noodles at his favorite Chinese restaurant.

We
then walked over to ride the incline up to the top of a VERY steep hill
that overlooks the downtown. The Incline train was great – I love
things like that. However, once we got outside of the station, I ran
headlong into my well-developed fear of heights. I had to walk on the
road-side of the sidewalk, as far away from that nasty drop as I could
without getting run over. Craig’s destination was this stupidly small
concrete island that JUTTED OUT OVER THE KILLER DROP. Fortunately, it
was closed for repair. There were others, however, so we trooped on,
passing two more of these monuments to folly that were also closed. So,
finally, Criag settled on some benches that overlooked the city, and
that is where we had worship that night.
Here,
I have to admit, I did not do so well. Several of my personality quirks
came to the surface here, so that I did not focus on worship as I would
have liked to.
1) The aforementioned fear of heights was not
lessened, even though I was sitting 20 feet from the railing (that some
fearless students WERE SITTING AGAINST).
2) I could not hear well
for the singing or for Craig’s talk. This made me slightly cranky. I
could have moved, but that would have required going near the edge
again.
3) I have an ENORMOUS aversion for inconveniencing people.
Our group was so large, we took up all the sidewalk space except for
one narrow lane. I felt bad for the people who had to walk through that
lane. It is not an easy thing to walk through a group of 20+ people
that are all singing. This anxiousness distracted me.
4) Even after
11 years of being a Christian, I do not do so well at public displays
of faith. To be fair, I don’t do well at public displays of almost
anything (that goes with being a good stoic Mainer). However, I do have
to face up that it is hard for me to be so public about my faith, even
after all that God has done for me. Sad.
5) I was anxious over
having the students “out in public.” This was not so much for the
students, all of whom were acting great, but for what nasty Pittsburgh
might do to them. Needless to say, Pittsburgh was great, and it was a
wonderful experience. It is hard for a control freak to relax when
things are out of his control.

So, these 5 things made worship
hard for me this night. I still loved going to Cici’s and Pittsburgh,
and will go again if I get to go back. I’ll probably just be worried
and scared again is all.

Thursday:
Supper was Mexican night
with hard and soft tacos. It was also Craig’s birthday! To celebrate,
Craig got to whack a pinata, which he managed to hit with such great
force that it broke loose and hit a student. (It is worth noting that
Craig was blind-folded at the time, so it was an accident). No serious
harm was done (except to the pinata).

We had free time again
this night, so I read more of Hamlet. Most of the kids stayed in the
common room and had a fashion night where they did each other’s hair.
The results (that I saw from pictures) we, um, interesting.

I
also got to sing some worship songs from my college days with a student.
That was a very nice time for me, and the student did not seem to mind
my playing or singing.

After worship, I got to call Meredith and
make sure she was okay (she was). Nate decided to go out and get a
barbeque and have a “guys night” where they cooked burgers and brots.
Since this all was taking place after 12:00, I went to bed.

Friday:

Friday was chili night in the common room.

Some of the kids used the extra down-time to try to catch up on school reading, which resulted in getting caught up on sleep.

The big event of the evening was the “talent” (oops – I mean talent) show. We had students whistling, skits
imitating
what had gone on during the week, some free-form song creation, some
poetry readings, and a dramatic skit from a student group acting out
the clean parts of a romance novel. I was able to be in a couple of
improv skits myself, which went pretty well. It was a really fun
evening.

In worship time, we had a time of sharing about what people had
learned on the trip. That was very nice. The only slight problems I had
was that I was working on the start of a headache, I was tired from the
week’s work, and I was really hot (it was about 85 degrees in the
room). This meant that by the time we got to the worship songs, I was
having trouble staying focused. It was request night, so the songs went
on for about an hour. I did have to get up and leave for awhile in
order to splash some water on my face. Craig’s talk was good, but I was
still having trouble focusing. Funny how many things can distract me
from worship.

Anyway, that is the entertainment of the week. I’ll probably post one more post on the trip to summarize what I learned.