Camden's Class Trip

Camden just got back from his Class Trip. The 5th class (aka 5th grade) went away for a two night/three day trip to a castle called Festung Rosenberg. This type of trip is very common among 5th grade classes in Germany, and the intention is to get to know each other a little bit better in order to form a bond (because they will share many more years together in school). I think one of the other intentions is to promote responsibility and organization skills within the kids. To begin with, I was quite nervous - Camden has only spent the night at a friends' house, but has never had to be responsible for himself for 3 days. I was especially nervous about the food situation, because Camden is one of the pickiest eaters I have ever met, and I worried he may starve :-) He came back absolutely glowing with happiness, pride, confidence, and exhaustion. He shared a room with 2 other "guys," and they; played, hiked, played some more, did a little school work, and then of course watched a little German soccer in the evening. The only bad part, was that it rained the entire time, but he still had an absolute blast!

So.... the kids were due to arrive by bus (at noon ) back at the school. I got there about 30 minutes early "just in case" - I am quite fanatical that way. As I pull up to the spot that we dropped them off at, I saw one of Camden's classmates with their Mom getting in a car, and then I saw Camden's teacher walking away towards the parking lot. No one else was around! I roll my Window down (in the rain), and ask where Camden was. I could not understand everything he said in reponse to my question, but I did understand the word "Haus" (house). I thought he may have meant inside the school, so I frantically rushed around trying to find a parking spot for my monstrous car, when I look over on the sidewalk and see little Camden walking with his suitcase alone towards me. Apparently, the teachers had told the kids to call their parents because they were going to arrive back at the school an hour early. Camden's cell phone battery had died over the 3 days, so he couldn't call me to tell me. I guess one teacher had asked Camden if he had a ride home. Camden told them that he was going to walk home (so the teacher left). When I had originally driven to get him I guess he had seen me pass him on the sidewalk, so he turned back to school to find me. This time last year, he would have been absolutely DEVASTATED had this happened, but as I saw my little man walking towards me in the rain with his suitcase, he had a huge happy smile, and as I was drastically apologizing to him, he said to me - "No worries at all Mom, my cell phone was dead so I was just going to walk home". Definitely a boy who has grown so much, and makes me sooo proud! (a little ironic that this is so similar to the blog post I had just written about my Dad as a boy)