A post from the group leader, Ms. Cote…

I am counting down the days until April 15, 2012! As I write this, there are only 29 left until we fly across the Atlantic to our 2012 European adventure. I can still remember when this trip was a dream living only in my mind. I started asking some students if it was something they would be interested in and when I received a few positive responses, I began the process of finding the student travel company that was right for me and for my students. Once I had chosen EF Tours, things started happening quickly. My goal was to enroll six students within a two month recruitment period. I was THRILLED when I had a group of 22 travelers enrolled within two weeks of my first informational meeting. Now, our total group of 28, is making the final preparations for what promises to be a life-changing trip. St. Augustine said, “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” I am so thankful for the opportunity in front of us and the chance to "read"  some pages in our "book" together.

Pre-Trip Group Brunch @ Denise's house!

I'll let the photos tell the story here. Note: If I took a picture of you and didn't post it, it's because it didn't come out well, not because I don't like you!














Food, Fun, Friends, Sharing & Learning.

"Viva La Europe!" by Stephanie

London. England. Paris. France. My soon to be destinations. Yet they feel so distant and unknown to me. If someone were to ask me what I was most excited for, I'd ponder the whole unexpectedness of the trip. Me? Honestly I've hardly ever left my hometown of Springfield. Yet in a little more than a month I will find myself on the streets of Europe. It's a huge deal! This isn't just some spring break trip in Florida; it's a completely different continent. Will I change? Will I feel different when I get there? These are the thoughts I have found myself pondering lately. I mean I think they are acceptable thoughts to have. When we venture far away to a new place we don't know, where we will find ourselves, or as a matter of fact where we will loose ourselves. All I'm is expecting at this point is some sort of unexpected yet unique and euphoric experience. I'm hoping for the best now but in reality I can't really know what to expect from it while I remain here. However I have had a lingering prediction of my moment of enlightenment. You see it goes something like this; I have spent hours on end sitting in a cramped seat with little sleep and lots of hope and excitement. I finally get out of the plane where I have been cooped up for a bit too long; I regain my strength, and head out to collect my belongings. I gather all of my things with some waiting around here and there. And finally after all that is done the group gathers and plans and we exit the airport. It is my first experience stepping foot out of America, all I have ever known. All I know for sure now is that it will be like nothing I have even seen and encountered before. It will be amazing and it will be breath-taking and it just may be life changing. So as I remain here, in this country, counting down the days, saving up the money, pondering, and hoping for the best the truth is that I have no clue what international travel will bring for me and what unexpected things will happen to me. All I know is that this trip is not just going to be a physical journey, but a personal and internal journey that I will learn and grow from; and never, ever, ever forget all that happened and all that changed for me due to it. 

Stephanie

Grade 10

Pre-Trip post from Danielle

As the days continue to tick down until our April vacation there is one thought that seems to stay in my head. So many people wonder why I am so excited for it to come, and then I have to remind them it is my first trip out the country. MY trip to England and France! You would not be able to imagine how many emotions are running through me at the very thought of this trip. The excitement is making me scream every time anyone mentions the trip. I mean I, Danielle, will be leaving the country in less than two months. I never thought I would be able to say that so early in my life. I see this trip as a door to so many opportunities I cannot have
over here in the United States. I have already planned with Elieser and Olivia that we are definitely eating snails. A hope of mine is to someday go to college at Stanford and then continue my studies at Oxford University. Being able to visit there will hopefully help me decide if that plan is what I really want in life. Plus there if the fact that I get to go see Stonehenge. I mean people have heard about Stonehenge since they were small kids and I will finally be able to say I have visited it. I am guessing you know one of my biggest excitements but I will write it anyways. It’s for shopping of course! I swear anytime I think about the shopping over there I begin to have heart palpitations. Just overall, I honestly feel this trip will be the best opportunity in my life. Despite the bad that has happened in life, I will have this experience as a positive good and that can be a strength that keeps me moving forward. I guess you can say excitement is number one but fear is a close second. I will share a phrase that pops in my head every so often. It is “what if the trip doesn’t go how you’ve planned?” You see I have created this fantasy world over those nine days where nothing wrong happens. There are no arguments or fights and I can fill this thirst for adventure I have always had. This is a chance for me to show how far I have come in my life. A chance for me to mostly fend for myself as well as listen to an adult who is not my parent. I am sometimes concerned about whether I'm wrong in my excitement. What if this trip is messed up from the start and is never able to recover? I guess I feel this trip may be a lot more important for me than it is to others. Some see this as there chance to go out of the country again and mark another place off their list of where they want to travel. That is not me though. I have to look at this trip as maybe my only time ever being able to leave the country, which is why I have so many emotions about it. I mean honestly I already feel so accomplished about it. How many minority girls can say that they went out of the country at 15 years old? Not many at all, and yet soon I will be able to say I have. That alone has my mind blown. If I were to push aside the excitement and fear though what is left is how
grateful I am. Grateful to Ms.Cote for bringing the trip to my school, but most of all to my mother. She has told us from the beginning that any opportunity she did not have as a child she wanted us to have, and this is just a testament of it. From the start she did not focus on the significant amount of  money she would have to contribute but instead at how much this trip would mean to us. At the end of the day I wouldn’t even be able to go on this trip without all my mom has done, which is why I’m ending this entry talking about her.

-Danielle
Grade 9

Pre-Trip post from Linnell

As the date quickly approaches school becomes harder and harder. Everything has been a count down: a count down till my next vacation, a count down until I can be in London again, a count down until I get get to see my cousins, aunt, and uncle again, and a count down to the comforting atmosphere of airports that I sometimes feel I have grown up in. I am not one to over plan for something but I have gone through packing, arriving in London, checking in, re-packing, going to the Eurostar, repacking and getting back on a plane over and over again in my mind. Everything is a list; a list I go over again and again. Unfortunately I'm one to pack at the last minute, but as April draws closer I find myself buying clothes and shoes that I know will be good articles for our trip.
  
London is one of those places that gets better every time. I learn more and more about it in school, so when you get there it is like enacting skills you have only read about. London is such an amazing city. Somehow there is a enormous metropolitan area along with rolling countryside, jammed into an area smaller than Rhode Island. The city also manages to combine classic and ancient bits of this great country with very modern and cutting edge ideas. It reminds me of Rome. When you walked the streets you could be on a street with brand new cars and new construction, then take a right turn and there's a beautifully painted church from the Renaissance. I guess that  is what happens when you are in a city that is thousands of years old.
  
All in all I'm excited for London. Not just to return to my favorite city but to share this amazing experience with my closest friends.

~Linnell
Grade 10

A few pre-trip words from Emily

As I start pulling things together for this trip - deciding whether it really was a good idea not to replace my middle school-era passport, ordering euros and pounds, keeping a mental catalogue of clothing items I have to bring, and even teaching myself a bit of French - I am thinking back. I'm remembering the summer after seventh grade, when I first got out of the country without my parents. I visited the South Pacific, then. The trip gave me a taste of the world beyond North America. A couple summers after that, I ticked South America off my list when I visited Ecuador. And now, I'm less than two months away from London and Paris. Each time I've traveled, the experience has held a different meaning for me. The South Pacific trip was what really sparked my interest in other cultures. Ecuador was an emotionally and physically intense month; I trekked in the Andes and lived in close quarters with a small group of people. 

Going to Europe, I'm not entirely sure what to expect. 

Europe has burst to the forefront of history in many places; it's hovered on the edges in others. Without Europe, the United States would not exist as it does. I would not exist as I do. I come from travelers on the Mayflower, from Irishmen, and Scots, and the Swedes who emigrated at the turn of the century. I've learned, through the years, about how the Pilgrims crossed the Atlantic. I've seen how the decisions of world leaders and governing bodies created the situations that brought my ancestors together. I've learned about famines, and promises of happiness, and escapes from prosecution that drew people into the US throughout the 1800s. I've seen how I come from Cogans, Olsons, and Parkers. 

And as I learn more about European history, from the falls of various empires, to the many treaties of Paris, to the recent creations of organizations like NATO and the European Union (and how even new developments tie into so many old ones), my sense of the importance of being conscious of the world around me has only become stronger. My recognition of history's influence on the individual - and vice versa - has become clearer than anything else. 

If I want to move into the world as a culturally and politically conscious being, I need to recognize the importance of experiencing history: not just through the textbook, but through the world beyond the US.  

Any taste of the world beyond our borders is an important one. Though I'm only going to Europe for a brief period of time, I hope my visit will allow me to see just a little deeper into the historically influenced culture of the Eastern hemisphere. 

 

Emily
Grade 11