Winter is undoubtedly the most difficult part of the school year. From January through March, students wake up before sunrise, go to school in below-freezing weather, work with few breaks or days off, and often get burnt out. But at the end of this long, dreary period, there’s always something to look forward to: class trips! During the last week of March, each grade at Haldane takes a field trip, and students get a break from all the schoolwork to have fun with their classmates. The junior trip is the longest and most anticipated of all: four days in Washington D.C.!
On March 24, the juniors left Haldane and made the six-hour drive to D.C. During the trip, we visited lots of famous monuments and landmarks. Junior Amelia Kaye commented, “The Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial were fun, and they were really pretty because the cherry blossoms were out.” The trip coincided with the short time when the cherry blossom trees all over D.C. bloomed!
We also visited a lot of important museums. The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum was definitely a crowd favorite- when asked what her favorite museum was, junior Lucia Petty commented, “I really liked the Holocaust museum. It’s something that I’ve been wanting to visit for a very long time. I think it’s designed well, and the impact of the Holocaust is really felt in each room.” We were able to connect to the topic thoroughly because the juniors have been learning about the Holocaust a lot in both English and history class for the past two years, reading multiple memoirs from Holocaust survivors and studying World War II. Connections to our studies were a general theme throughout the trip; the Museum of African American History and Culture also supplemented what we’ve been learning in US history.
On a different, lighter note, the National Air and Space Museum was great too- we enjoyed seeing spaceships, a flight simulator, and planes of every shape and size.
But it wasn’t all academic; we also did karaoke, took a haunted ghost tour, played laser tag, and went to Chick-fil-A. And there was plenty of time for goofing off on the bus and in the hotel at night with activities like door dashing desserts, having watch parties, and visiting each other’s rooms. It was a good bonding experience for our grade.
Although the trip was educational, students reflected that having a break from regular school was nice. The last few months of school work were a lot, especially with winter sports and the musical. Into the Woods opened the weekend before the trips, so everyone involved in it left for D.C. immediately after being in intense rehearsals for weeks. This sounds stressful and chaotic, but Petty commented that it actually turned out to be helpful: “I get post-show blues really bad, and I think going straight from closing night to the bus was kind of good because that way I didn’t have any time to be too sad.”
It was a weird transition, but a perfect time for a needed break.
