Tour guides, our way

There was so much to see over the course of our trip and we just couldn’t afford to go on a guided tour of everything, so we had to pick and choose. When we decided against a tour of ruins or a cathedral, we had our own system: find another tour and listen in discreetly. Luckily, it was June: tourist season and oddly enough, end-of-the-year academic field trips. If there were two groups happening, we’d divide and conquer and come back to tell each other what we had learned.

I hope our son will be as smart as us!

So here’s a picture of Matt, not very discreetly listening in on a group of school children (3^rd or 4^th grade we think). I chose to stay under the shade of a tree because 1) it was hot and we hadn’t yet bought our straw hats and 2) the mean teacher was causing flashbacks to my childhood where “teacher knows all and students are idiots”.

Example: This teacher was talking about the roman water transportation system with lead pipes. During the war, she explained that the peasants removed the lead pipes, which is why we couldn’t see any today. She asked her listening crowd why. One boy raised his little hand and offered: “Because they needed to make weapons with the lead?” And she screamed an emphatic “NO!!” And corrected “because they sold them!” in a tone that shouted “Duuhhhh!!”

My siblings would understand.