Victoria Field Trip

On June 15, we loaded up the school van once again with another group of students, and went for a day trip to Victoria. The day had a very wet beginning. We arrived in Tsawwassen early, so the students had time to peruse the shops, and the teachers had time to get coffee.

We took the 9 am sailing to Swartz Bay. Because of the weather, there wasn't a lot to see on the first voyage. Thankfully, things had cleared up for the return sailing that evening!!

After spending almost an hour trying to find parking in downtown Victoria, our first stop was at the Royal London Wax Museum. This was, for the students, one of the best parts of the trip. They really enjoyed the wax figures, and particularly, in true teenage fashion, the chamber of horrors.

We were unable to book a tour of the Parliament Buildings for this trip, but did take time to walk through the grounds later in the afternoon.

The larger part of our day was spent at the Royal British Columbia Museum. We first went to see an IMAX presentation about exploring the Titanic under water. The kids didn't enjoy it, but one thing I liked about it was the personal story that was interspersed with the exploration told by an older woman about her experience surviving the sinking. Her parents - and dog - did not. It personalized the story for us.

After the movie, we went to see the Titanic exhibit. Each of us was issued a boarding pass, and would not find out if our passenger had lived or died until the end of the exhibit. I thought it was really well done! The captain greeted us, and told stories at different points throughout the exhibit. As well, there were various stations set up to talk about aspects of the ship's operation, from the purser's office, to the kitchen.

There were several artifacts that had been recovered from the Titanic. What was amazing to me was the pristine condition of some of the china! Several sample rooms had been recreated from the ship. We saw an example of the contrasting first class and third class accomodations. First class was very lavish, by anyone's standard!

They had a wall of ice as an indicator of how cold the water would have been, and then the wall of survivors. On my boarding pass, I was a 25 year old woman travelling in first class. Statistically, I was told, I would probably live. In fact, I died!

There was time after the Titanic exhibit to tour the other excellent exhibits at the museum, but the kids, who are in my lowest level English class, had really lost interest by then. I think it was a lot of English stimulation for them to handle in one sitting. As well, we later found out that a couple of them had thought we were actually going to see the movie Titanic and had even imagined actually seeing the ship. Oh the joy of miscommunication and misunderstanding!!!

We travelled back to the ferry terminal at Swarz Bay in much better weather than that morning. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the crossing to Vancouver. There was lots to see, and the students enjoyed having the freedom to run all over the ferry - inside and out. I enjoyed the views of the Gulf Islands - we're heading to Salt Spring next week - and the solitude (relative) of wind and water.

Surprisingly, after such a long day and a lot of fresh air on the ferry, the students were very wound up for the 1/2 hour drive from Tsawwassen to Surrey! For the teachers, it was a long day that had both good and bad moments. We have already thought of ways to improve this field trip for next year. Overall, though, it was a worthwhile day, and the students did have a good time and learned something along the way.