Boston Blackout!!

On a tour of Boston Harbor

Quincy Market

I had been looking forward to the 2012 National AAHPERD Conference in Boston for a very long time. I was so excited to continue to pursue more professional development and check out my first national conference. But on our 9 hour train ride back up to Boston on Tuesday, we got some bad news. There was an electrical fire that blew two transformers, leaving much of the city without power. It was a huge blackout in Boston and even our hotel did not have power. The next morning I was really excited for Day 1 of the conference but it ended up being cancelled because of the power outage. So some of my friends and I went on a tour of the city of Boston! It was my first time ever in Boston so I was excited to learn a little about the history of the city. After all the touring around Boston, we were all ready for the conference the next day but were just disappointed once again. On Thursday AAHPERD decided to cancel the entire rest of the conference because of the blackout. I was extremely disappointed because I really was looking forward to the conference and was excited that I was also going to have a chance to present with one of my professors at a national conference. But a situation like the blackout is not any one’s fault and just really unfortunate. After we got news that the conference was cancelled for the entire rest of the week, we realized that the hotel rooms and train tickets were all paid for already so we would be spending the next two days in Boston. I ended up having a great time with some of my fellow physical education majors and we got to see some really neat things in Boston. Despite the AAHPERD conference being cancelled, we all had a great time in Boston and got to know one another well. Some of the different things that we saw in Boston were the Boston Harbor, Quincy Market, the Freedom Trail and Fenway Park. Another highlight of the trip was when I got to meet up with one of my physical education teachers from high school for lunch. It was also cool to see that wherever we went touring around Boston there were other physical education teachers. For example, when we went on a boat tour of Boston Harbor, we met a couple of physical education professors from Arizona State University and a few professors from West Virginia University. They were also making the most of their time in Boston even though the conference was cancelled. We got to talk to these professors about what the physical education programs are like at their schools and it was interesting to see the similarities and differences. So even though we were not physically at the AAHPERD Conference, we still got to network with other teachers at the same time. I have a lot of great memories from my time spent in Boston this past week and formed some great relationships with my peers which will be helpful in the future when we are all teachers.