Friday, January 18, 2008

Travel Group

Ever since we decided on China I couldn't wait to be part of a travel group. I imagined it would be so cool to have this group of people that you got to know who would be there with you when you received your daughter. I hear stories of groups that get together and have reunions, travel mates that vacation together, and just stay in regular contact. It seems like such a great thing to have a group of people who have this shared experience.

I was visiting the forum at the queendom this afternoon and there is a thread about families in your travel group that really drove you crazy when you traveled. The woman who started the thread wanted to avoid being one of the annoyers when she travels. Here are some of the things on the list.

  1. Families who are always late for everything (This one would get under my skin pretty quickly; we are usually the first ones to arrive everyplace we go which gets to be kind of embarrassing after awhile)
  2. People who talk while the guide is speaking to the group (Don't even get me started on this one. As a teacher this drives me crazy (Groups of teachers in one place together are terrible about this, by the way))
  3. People who have children traveling who are poorly behaved (the children, not the parents)
  4. Excessive shoppers (and this is a problem because???; no problem with this one unless it leads to number 1)
  5. People who compare their children to everyone else's

Here are some things that may be added to the list after we hit China.

  • loud and excessive snoring (not telling you which one of us is worse, but I don't think it is me)
  • excessive hogging of leg room on the bus (We're both 6'3" and I am "leggy")
  • talked excessively about how wonderful their new child is
  • talked excessively about how cute/adorable/sweet/wonderful everyone else's child is
  • wouldn't stop kissing/hugging/tickling/talking to their kid
  • wore those ugly Crocs the entire trip (have already bought a tan pair without holes: work for winter in New England and traveling in countries where you don't want any thing "environmental" touching your feet)(Maybe it will just be David that says this)

So, I want to apologize in advance to any of you that may be in our travel group. Can't wait to walk The Wall with you, go shopping with you, and most importantly, get our daughter with you. Just don't be late.

5 comments:

Stacey T. said...

I need to go read the forum....we had a couple people in our group that drove me nuts. 1 couple WAS ALWAYS LATE, never came to group dinners, didn't care about being with us, but always held us up. The other I won't talk about. We had 2 other couples that we instantly bonded with and did most things with them. We had a great time, too! We never heard anyone snoring (never saw any travelmates sleeping). Everyone is constantly oggling the babies, so you might have to bite your lip on that one!!

Steve and Jen said...

Hi Carrie...since we are both teachers let's try to behave ourselves:-) I know exactly what you mean about a group of teachers being together! Maybe it's because we spend so much time with kids that we start to act like them? I can't wait to hear you talk about how cute Annika is and, of course, how cute Grace is!!
Jen

Gail said...

May I add...The BTDT know it Alls.
Can not stand listening to them.
Now I don't mean them talking about their previous adoption and how Forever Day was for them ( I actually like listening to that!) I'm talking about wanting to run the show because they have BTDT.
Makes me crazy.

Two Pearls said...

I am SO happy to report that we had a very big travel group for CAWLI - 19 families - who traveled last May/June, and we had the best experience with all our travelmates! No one broke the unofficial "rules" and we had a great time. Can't wait to see them all at the CNY party!

Anonymous said...

We had 10 families in our first travel group. Three became very dear friends of ours. Two more send us regular holiday cards and updates. Three or four haven't been heard from since. And then there was the G. family (not their real names). With their 2-1/2 yr-old in tow, at whom they screamed every minute of every day (poor thing was only going through an enormous adjustment, so why not yell at her constantly?) It got to the point where, at meals, everyone would hover until the G. family seated themselves, and then scramble for a seat at the other table. Need I say more? Every trip has one.

Your future, punctual-to-a-fault, and not-too-annoying-I-hope travel mate,

Julie


Hmmmm....was that too BTDT know-it-all?