In my last Delta to DC post, we had just traveled to Atlanta and gotten on our train to Washington, DC.

The train ride wasn't terrible. The kids found ways to entertain themselves, as they did at the train station. The next morning I found out that many of the kids stayed awake well into the morning. That did not faze them.

When we finally got into the city we went to get our checked baggage and, of course, the white school got their bags before we did. What happened next was quite remarkable. Many of the kids on the trip hadn't done much traveling. One of my kids on the way to Atlanta explained to me that he had never been outside of the Mississippi Delta. Along with not having traveled many places comes a dearth of social experiences, like using forms of public transportation. My first inclination that my students were in for a bumpy ride came as we were going up an escalator. The kid who told me he hadn't been out of the Delta stepped on the escalator and nearly lost balance. Once he gained his balance he scratched his head and looked quizzically at the movings stairs. I asked him if he'd ever been on an escalator and he replied that he hadn't. To me, this spelled almost certain disaster for the kids, the luggage, and the parents and grandparents on the Metro. Indeed, when we shuffled into the subway car and it began to accelerate, everyone fell over. I had officially become that group of tourists. They eventually did get the hang of things, though.

After we got out to Pentagon City, we took the shuttle to our hotel and checked in. I had set an ambitious plan for the day, but that didn't come to fruition when our train was late getting in, travel took much longer than expected, and everybody wanted to rest for a while.

Once we did all get settled, I did what I could to salvage the day and took the group to Arlington National Cemetery. Things went well though John F. Kennedy's grave-site. It was difficult to get the kids quiet for the site, but the "Silence and Respect" signs did some to help my cause.

I thought that most behavioral problems would not surface much by having an almost 1:1 ration of students to adults. That was not the case, as I learned on the way up to Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. One student talked about another's personal issues and I had a near fight on my hands. Aside from that, the kids learned about the tomb and got a chance to show their respect for those who had paid the ultimate sacrifice.

Since Arlington National Cemetery was the only thing we had time for, we went to dinner at Union Station afterward. I pushed the kids to try some of the food they weren't familiar with. The closest I got was for one kid to get Chinese food. But, I did get one student to try one of my sushi rolls. He had mixed feelings about it at first, but later informed me that he threw it up in a nearby garbage can.

On the way back to the hotel, we had another completely impromptu lesson in culture. My students and their parents began speaking to a woman at our shuttle station and found out that she was from Ethiopia. The encounter didn't last very long, like the one in Atlanta the day before, but the kids were excited to have met someone from Africa.

Tomorrow: Museums, Monuments, Veterans, And A Crappy Hotel