Last evening my husband and I were talking about Saturday plans. His is always predictable: work. Mine is always different but includes some type of physical activity: gym, jogging or biking. This week's plans included new twist; five students joining me on a bike ride. And, to be quite honest, I was a little nervous about the responsibility.
In preparation for the excursion, I'd driven around town to plan a route with mostly village roads, very few dangerous intersections, and an interesting destination. I'd reminded the students on several occasions to bring water. I'd packed a spare tube, rubber patches and cement, a pump, and basic bike repair tools. There'd been no notes to parents, no permission slips signed, no waivers of responsibility, nothing. Instead I'd gotten a verbal "thumbs up" from the principal - "What a great idea! No problem at all!"
After relating my American-based-too-much-media-hype-teachers-liability- litigation concerns my husband smiled and said, "I hope your day is filled with surprises. Everything will be just fine."
Still not convinced, I replied, "I hope it's only filled with good surprises. I don't want anyone to get hurt."
As it turned out, my husband was right, and the day was filled with many good surprises. Here are three that stood out:
1. Met the Manjung Cycling Team (MCT) en-route to school. I saw a group of men decked out in tight, colorful biker shorts assembling together with road bikes several blocks from our house. I'd heard there was a local bike club but had been unable to locate them. As a result of this morning's ride, I knew their staging location and time and got a Facebook address for future reference.
2. Enjoyed a 25 km ride - the students' longest ride ever with stops at a Chinese temple near the sea and McDonalds for breakfast and ice cream- with delightful, eager, friendly, positive, optimistic kids riding anything from older,slightly rusty mountain bikes, to newer "fixes" and everything in between. They were respectful of riding single file, watching for cars and keeping track of each other. After few seat adjustments (I explained how they are growing and probably needed to raise their seats) and a little air in a couple of tires, we had smooth spinning. My worries had been unfounded.
3. Found the registration page for the 120 km JMFR (Jalan Manjung Friendship Ride) in April. I'd seen the billboard for this ride but couldn't read it or locate any further information, so the search for the bicycle club also yielded the April ride for which my husband and I are both now registered.
As it turned out, the surprises were all good so I have a lot to be thankful for.
In preparation for the excursion, I'd driven around town to plan a route with mostly village roads, very few dangerous intersections, and an interesting destination. I'd reminded the students on several occasions to bring water. I'd packed a spare tube, rubber patches and cement, a pump, and basic bike repair tools. There'd been no notes to parents, no permission slips signed, no waivers of responsibility, nothing. Instead I'd gotten a verbal "thumbs up" from the principal - "What a great idea! No problem at all!"
After relating my American-based-too-much-media-hype-teachers-liability- litigation concerns my husband smiled and said, "I hope your day is filled with surprises. Everything will be just fine."
Still not convinced, I replied, "I hope it's only filled with good surprises. I don't want anyone to get hurt."
As it turned out, my husband was right, and the day was filled with many good surprises. Here are three that stood out:
1. Met the Manjung Cycling Team (MCT) en-route to school. I saw a group of men decked out in tight, colorful biker shorts assembling together with road bikes several blocks from our house. I'd heard there was a local bike club but had been unable to locate them. As a result of this morning's ride, I knew their staging location and time and got a Facebook address for future reference.
2. Enjoyed a 25 km ride - the students' longest ride ever with stops at a Chinese temple near the sea and McDonalds for breakfast and ice cream- with delightful, eager, friendly, positive, optimistic kids riding anything from older,slightly rusty mountain bikes, to newer "fixes" and everything in between. They were respectful of riding single file, watching for cars and keeping track of each other. After few seat adjustments (I explained how they are growing and probably needed to raise their seats) and a little air in a couple of tires, we had smooth spinning. My worries had been unfounded.
3. Found the registration page for the 120 km JMFR (Jalan Manjung Friendship Ride) in April. I'd seen the billboard for this ride but couldn't read it or locate any further information, so the search for the bicycle club also yielded the April ride for which my husband and I are both now registered.
As it turned out, the surprises were all good so I have a lot to be thankful for.
Looks like everyone had BIG FUN! Hurray for an adventurous teacher!
ReplyDelete