On Thursday morning I felt like an absolute zombie after two hours of sleep, however after a bracing shower and some breakfast I was ready to set off on our long journey home. Gastric girl was feeling much better I'm very glad to say. The other teachers had made up my packed lunch for me, and I managed to get another couple of hours sleep on the coach. Our last visit of the trip was to Zaanse Schans, just outside Amsterdam. It’s a pretty outdoors museum with windmills and houses around a lake. It was good to have a break and stretch our legs. It was touristy but interesting with traditional crafts and produce on sale.
Once we were back on the boat at Port of Amsterdam the teachers played cards in the sunshine on the open top deck. We played scabby queen, gin rummy, and Jane taught us to play Hearts which was quite hard but fascinating.
Unfortunately, one more pupil came down with the gastric bug on our way home and the poor girl vomited on and off for the rest of the journey, although she did manage to get some sleep on the boat. I kept a close eye on her, encouraged her to keep sipping water to keep hydrated and reassured her. She was so exhausted that I arranged to get her taken off the boat by wheelchair so that she wouldn't have to queue through security and passport control. The crew member who accompanied us was a very kind man from the Philippines called Benjy and we safely helped her onto the bus at Port of Tyne.
During the last part of our journey home we had an awards ceremony. The award certificates were written on sick bags from the boat, which was both amusing and appropriate. The teachers had made them during the previous evening; Audrey did the bubble writing "Germany 2015" and the illustrations, and Jane and I coloured them in. The awards were of course for things that had happened during the trip such as the pupil who had most asked "are we there yet?" or the pupil who had done the best singing on the bus etc. It was all really good fun and even gastric pupil number three perked up. To my surprise there was one final award - for me! The music teachers gave me an award for "best nurse" together with a "nurse" mug that they had managed to find at the service station, and a beautiful bunch of flowers. I felt very emotional; I really didn't expect it and it was just so nice of them. I really like the music department who have all made me feel so welcome on this trip, and by volunteering to be the first aider I felt that I was doing my bit. It has been fantastic.
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