Anyway, we arrived in the rain and Morgan showed us around their property, pointing out where people could choose to sleep. I chose the "TV" room, a futon in the loft of the barn that had been made into a room...hoping no mice or other creepy crawlies. Three girls slept on a bed in another room in the barn, a couple of students slept in the main house, and three girls slept in "the haunted house" or Mildred's house, the old farm house they had been updating slowly. When those three went to bed, they shut off the lights and ended up with bats flying around their heads. They squalked and squealed and turned the lights back on. Then they went to sleep. The next day, it made for a great story...we told them there were other places to sleep and they should move...they chose to stay with the bats and sleep with the lights on. We didn't think anything of it. Well...when they called home and told of the tales of the weekend, their parents kind of freaked out. I guess in the home town areas of two of the girls, teenagers had died after unknowingly being bitten or scratched by bats while they were sleeping. So the parents called the health departments and doctors and then me. It all turned out OK after a number of days of phone calls and emails and more phone calls and hours in the clinic who said they could get the vaccine and couldn't, and another 4.5 hours with one of the students in the emergency room where they thought we were nuts until they talked to the health department too. They all three ended up getting shots after the Health Dean at Vandy sent them all an email reminding them that rabies is 100% fatal in adults (except the one person who doctors put into a chemical coma until they slept it off...and oddity I guess). That was encounter #1.
#2 was on an outing to Dia Beacon in Beacon NY. We went to the Dia Center for the arts and decided to walk downtown to grab a bite for lunch. Mind you, this was in the middle of figuring out where everyone was going to get their rabies shots. We found a nice little deli with a couple of outdoor tables and sat down to have our sandwiches. About half way through the meal we heard a loud CRASHBANG two doors down from where we were sitting. There were a couple of people doing the "what is going on" dance and then a plate glass window crashed onto the ground. I went to check out what was going on and to see if I could help. We all thought it was a brawl in a bar or something. Turned out to be a deer, youngish, who had run through the window of the river and estuary conservancy. How crazy is that? Of all the art galleries and restaurants in that area and it picked a nature conservancy...it was at the end of the intersecting street I guess, but still! A bunch of townies subdued the deer behind a desk and 911 was called. No one was hurt. After I found out it was a deer and before it was subdued, I did have the presence of mind to make the students go inside the deli...I mean, what are the chances that it could have been rabid? Cripes! It was yet another insane moment on the trip that was otherwise a flaw free experience with an amazing group of students who were completely engaged and wonderful. I don't know how many of you have heard my other trip class stories, but they include a girl who was allergic to the sun on a camping and hiking trip through the Southwest, a shopping princess who as it turned out was on pregnancy hormone treatments and went insane in Italy, and a logging baron's son who, among other things, ended up cutting between his toes while trimming his toenails with his exacto knife...sigh...so when we had a great group of students who all got along, I thought we were home free...nuthin' doin'.
A group photo for you of my group at the residency...I will spare you the photo of the deer.
1 comment:
Nice stories! BUt, um, it is Saturday- so I think we deserve an update!
J
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