Thursday, October 21, 2010

Field Trip!

Today, we had a class field trip for Engineering Design. Different parts of the class went to different places, and the group that I was with had to go to Caribbean Airlines to see how they ensure the safety of their aircrafts and see how they repair them amongst other stuff.

Since we found out about this field trip a couple weeks ago, we were all struck with that childlike amazement that accompanies such announcements. Memories from our childhoods filled our minds with visions of multiple snacks, long drives and and free roam over our intended destination. We talked happily, made plans and were generally all round happy about our upcoming excursion.

Thursday rolled around, and just like they did when we were in primary school, the maxis that UWI had hired to take us were parked out in front of the gates on the asphalt. We climbed in to the waiting vehicles, laughed rambunctiously at a sign that was posted over the passenger seat (the content of which I would prefer not to mention here) and were soon on our way to Caribbean Airlines.

Our journey there shot down two of our idealistic dreams. We were completely forbidden from eating our drinking anything while in the maxi, so all our hopes of unrestricted snacking were, well, restricted. The next ideal that was shot down was the idea of a long ride. 10 minutes does not constitute as a long ride by anyone's standards. When we finally got there, our other dream was shot down. Since this was an area where they repair aircrafts, we weren't allowed to go anywhere at all. We had to follow around our guide and listen to him talk about what they do to maintain their safety standards. It sounds simple enough, but you should try listening to someone when there's a American Airlines passenger craft trying to take off behind you. Like literally behind you. If you value your ears, never work at an airport or an airline company. Seriously. There's this constant hum that makes it impossible to hear anyone who is more than 10 feet away from you. And you have cover your ears every time a planes flies over the hangar. And it was hot. Really, really hot. Notwithstanding, we got to see some pretty cool things, like the inside of an engine and we got to sit in an actual cockpit (those things are tiny!)

As we finished our tour, piled back on the bus and took off back to school, I couldn't help but think of how much things had changed from our happy primary school days. Field trips weren't even fun anymore. But then I realized that one thing hadn't changed. We were all still loud and laughing probably even more so than ever. I'm glad some things didn't change. Friends are like chocolate syrup. They can make anything taste better.

No comments:

Post a Comment