When Geese Attack!!!!

This week has been somewhat difficult for me at work. Not because the kids are a problem, and not because I dislike my job. But because of my shifts. This week I am currently working the early early shift. Being almost winter, the sun does not rise until after I have arrived at work (I get there at 7am), and due to a few unexpected issues during the day, I have not left work on time and thus, have left after the sun has set! Not to mention, we were also unable to take the children outside to play, so I have not seen the sun since Sunday!

So of course, when we got the opportunity to venture out with the children today, we took it! It was so nice to be outside in the... freezing cold wind and very overcast weather.... but it was really nice to just get out of the classroom. We decided to take the children to the duck pond near by and feed the ducks some bread. The kids were all so excited about this they didn't care about the cold! I on the other hand...

But about half way to the pond, we had just turned down a narrow walkway towards the pond when my students started making alot of noise. As usual, I tried to calm them down until I realised what was causing the noise. About 15 meters ahead of us there was a goose. Closely followed by another goose.... followed by about another 30 geese. All in a long straight line, waddling one behind the other down the path. It was a sight to behold! We stopped and moved right over to the fence to let the line of geese pass. However, a jogger ran past and the geese all stopped moving, standing quite still in their line.

Suddenly, as if thinking with one brain, every goose turned and the line started to waddle back in the direction it had come from. We were sad they didn't parade past us but we were able to then follow them towards the pond. We were a safe distance back and we all loved watching their little tail feathers waddling away.

All of a sudden, as if something out of a Hitchcock film, and again, with that in-sync goose mind control, every single goose head turned. Every single goose eyeballed us, every single goose started waddling (with speed) towards us. My kids started shrieking. And then the geese took flight.... howwever, they weren't that far away from us as they did lift off. I nearly got clipped by one of the front runners.

You can imagine my kids. Most of them took off, running in the opposite direction. Meanwhile, I stood and laughed out loud. A couple of my brave kids stood and laughed with me! But what a sight (and sound) to behold. 30+ large grey geese taking to the air through the trees! Sad I didn't get a photo of that exact moment.

But as if that wasn't enough... we got to the pond shortly thereafter, and started feeding the ducks. It started with 3 ducks, soon becoming about 20. And then the geese gate crashed the party! But rather than stay in the water, they jumped up out of the water, and started chasing down my kids for the bread! We made our way back to the kindergarten VERY quickly after that!



So after all that excitement, I did manage to leave work on time today.... and I did at least get to walk to the train station in the day light. By the time I got off the train on the other end, night had already fallen.