Worth a trip for great views for miles, is a trip up the Hancock Tower to the Obervatory
http://www.hancock-observatory.com/

and the Shedd Aquarium is amazing!
http://www.sheddaquarium.org/

that is some school trip

Best of all is that the kids are not paying for it. The schools concerned have got funding for it!

I got a quote for insurance today and couldn't beleive it!

8 days away in the USA, party of 17 people total cost of insurance with huge amounts of cover and excess payments of only £15. £68! £4 per head or 50p per day per person! This is with Zurich Insurance from a dept that specialises in school trips and Municipal travel! If they can cover people for that sort of money how do other companies justify charging the sorts of sum they do?

What is the coverage? Is there any Health Insurance? That would be your big expense if necessary.

Health insurance of 1 million £ per person. It even covers loss of money by individuals up to £400 each and up to £2,500 if I am looking after the students money and I lose it! It also covers the costs of family members (such as the parents of students) having to travel to the US if a child can't return home due to illness or injury.

Wow that's incredible.... I paid more than that for two people recently, with a lot less cover.

And what's more if we decide that the trip alone isn't enough and want to do some dangerous sports such as skydiving or Ice Hockey (we won't be) then the cover comes out at £8 per person for the week even if we do a different activity each day we are there!

Why did you pick Chicago? Are you going there to take part in a competiton?

A few years back the group of schools to which the one I teach in belongs made a link with some High Schools in Chicago. Our schools are in Birmingham and the City is twinned with Chicago and that is how the link was started. We have been exchanging teachers on visits for 4 years now. They have sent a couple of groups of their kids over here. This is the first visit we have made with our kids to them.

So it is really just a cultural exchange. Biggest problem we have is access to funding but the schools have managed to scrape together the cash. I reckon the final bill will be in the region of 10K!

Well I thought this trip was going too well!

Yesterday one of the schools who are sending kids informed me that one of the kids they have selected is not a UK citizen! The child holds a Zimbabwe passport! So now I need to find out whether I can take this child to the US and what hoops we have to jump through to do it!

Well- you didn't expect it all to be easy, did you? I'm sure the kids will take away a lot from their holiday.

Well the kid from Zimbabwe will need cgood parents if he/she is coming with us. A look at the US Embassy website tells me that they must ring for an apointment and pay $131. Then they have to travel to London for a 3 hour interview and wait an average of 47 days for a visa (it could be longer).

I have to tell them this tomorrow.

And if you are wondering the reson why i don't know the gender of the pupil is because this trip involves 7 different schools and the pupil is not from mine. All I know is the school has selected a Zimbabwean child for the trip!

Just got back from a meeting with the Headteacher. I showed her the budget so far (£13,000) and probably another £500 still to add on for stuff. She said that it was fine and to go ahead!

I have managed to get the Signature Restaurant at the top of the Hancock Tower for Sunday Brunch.

For transport around the City we are going for 5 day CTA passes for everyone at $18 per head. So we shall be riding the 'L' a lot.

And the pupil with the non EU passport has withdrawn!

Booked 20 tickets for the White Sox vs Clevelend Indians today.

We are also being given free behind the scenes tours of the Adler Planetarium, Field Museum and Brookfield Zoo. They are really pushing the boat out for our group. I just need to book the Lake and Chicago River cruise and we are pretty much complete.

Time is getting short now. We leave on the 27th. The bill has crept up to about 16K now but some of that increase has been caused by the weakness of the £! We have had to knock the signature restaurant on the head as the White Sox have decided to play their game at 1pm instead of in the evening! Apparently the TV company insisted to fit their schedules! As we had already bought the ballgame tickets we had to cancel the Sig! Never mind, we are working on somewhere swanky to take the kids on the Sunday evening instead but it won't be 86 floors up! I am looking to see if we can get up the Sears Tower just for a look out instead. I have just paid for a cruise on the Lake and Chicago river for one afternoon. and we can do Navy Pier while we are there. The host schools have organised behind the scenes tours at Brookfield Zoo, The Field Museum, the Adler Planetarium and Millenium Park for us. We also have tickets for the 'Barrel of Monkeys' theatre but I have no idea what we are seeing!

Its going to be a pretty packed week. We even get to ride around in one of those big yellow school buses!

This is going to be one helluva trip report!

Hope you have a great time.

luci

I have found a pizza place at the foot of the Sears tower that does a Skydeck and pizza buffet deal. So it looks as if we may be taking the kids to the top of the Sears then stuffing them full of Pizza when we get back to street level. I am really looking forward to doing this trip and just watching the kid's faces as we go round the city. All it needed was the ice hockey season to start 1 week earlier and it would have been perfect!

Have a wonderful time, and please write a trip report and send photos! I wish all of you all the best xxx