After our 8th grade class trips to Washington, DC many of the students say their favorite part was riding the Metro. It's definitely a memorable part of the trip, and this time, even more so.
The first night of this trip is always a test run on the Metro to get to dinner and back. We have our groups, get them to the station, on a train, off the train, on to another train, to dinner, and back. I usually have William there with me to be the voice, but he wasn't with me this time. (He was helping someone else and had Edward with him too.) Trying to be heard above the din of the noise of the Metro is a challenge. I knew which way to go and was letting everyone know which train to wait for. After trying to explain the map to a few people I got everyone on, and then we successfully disembarked at our cross-station. The train we needed to get on was already there, so I hurried everyone on it, reminding them which station to exit on, because I wasn't sure I was going to make it on before the doors closed. I had to make sure no one was left behind without a guide. The doors closed, sure enough, leaving me and about 8 others from our group. No problem, until I heard yelling and realized there was a fist fight between a man and woman going on on the platform behind me. Other travelers started yelling at them to stop, and finally a man grabbed the man that was punching the woman and pulled him away. Apparently she started it. I don't know what exactly happened but it ended quickly. That's the scariest thing I've seen happen in a station.
Last night William, Joy and I and our respective babies were headed back to the hotel from Union Station after getting everyone set for their night tour of the monuments. We were about to head down the escalator when a woman approached me in broken English for help getting to the Metro Center. That was our line, so we had her go with us onto the train. She was from Tehran, Iran, and had been visiting family in Boston and was now visiting DC, and it was almost the end of her trip. She loved Edward; she asked if he was our first and kissed his hand and played with him. She said a few things about war and how she hoped it would stop now. Our station was one before hers, so I told her she needed to go one more stop to get to the Metro Center. We shook hands for a long time and I told her it was nice to meet her, and she said it was nice to meet us, and we parted ways. She seemed to have loved her time in America. I wonder what she thought of Americans before she came to visit. Maybe she will go back to her home country and tell them good things.
Today we are going to the zoo. It will be the first real sight seeing we have done; the first two days have been spent helping our families get to where they're going and I've been too exhausted to do anything else. I haven't slept well lately. Right now though, Edward is napping, I'm sipping coffee, William is reading, and all is quiet.
No comments:
Post a Comment