I was on tour with the Study Tours students to Baltimore and Washington DC for the weekend. With 400 students following you around major cities it's difficult to keep track of them all. That's why every time we got on a bus we did a headcount.
After walking all day from the U.S. Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial, it was time to load up and head over to view The White House before heading back to Rider. Once my bus was boarded one of the counselors started the headcount. 54... hmm... We only had 53 on this bus I thought. So I had him count again. Same result, 54 again. I had the counselor go through the bus one last time as I got the other buses loaded. At the back of the bus there was a student that looked out of place.
On this day, I happened to be on a bus with students from Kazakhstan. These students had mostly darker features. Most of them looked Asian or Mongolian with brown eyes and brown hair. Occasionally, there would be a student that looked Russian with blonde hair and blue eyes. However, this particular student had dusty brown hair and blue eyes. He did not have the "international look" that so many of my other students had. The counselor looked at the student and asked, "Where do you think you're going?"
And as plain as day in American English the kid of about 12 years old said, "I'm going to Rider University."
"No you're not," the counselor replied. "Get off the bus."
With that, the kid said goodbye to his new international friends and departed from the bus. The headcount was back to 53 and the bus headed to The White House for its final stop in DC before heading back to Rider University.
Over the years with Study Tours we had often come up short in our headcounts and had to track down missing students, but coming up with one more than we should have was a first.