When someone thinks of a group of high school students on the other side of the world together, it might not seem like a good idea in some senses. However, this wasn’t the case for some Yutan students, who, after the 2023-24 school year, had the opportunity to go to Greece and Italy with a group called EF Educational Tours along with some chaperones that were parents or teachers. I was lucky enough to be on this trip, and it was an incredible experience that taught me a lot.
One of the best parts of going on a trip through a tour program like EF is that travelers get a guide that knows what they are doing and where they are going. This can help get people on the trip a more authentic experience. Our guide’s name was Sofia, and she’s from Greece, so she knew the best places to get gelato and told us a lot of things about Greece and Italy that many other people wouldn’t have known. Another benefit of traveling through a tour company with a bus is being able to see a lot of places in a shorter amount of time. We were also able to skip over many of the long lines in the most popular tourist destinations as well as visiting the more unknown but equally as interesting spots. One of my favorite places we visited was Ioannina Castle because it was a very peaceful and picturesque area, and it seemed like it could have been straight out of a painting.
However, the aspect of the trip that was the most impactful to me was the freedom we all experienced while we were on tour. Although I wished we had a little more free time, I was surprised at the fact that many times, we were told to meet back at a certain spot after a few hours. Sofia gave us recommendations on where to go, we were given safety guidelines and our chaperones were nearby, but we were still given freedom. We were allowed to explore whatever city we were in as groups for a few hours at a time. I think this freedom had a couple different impacts on us as students.
The first was that we were given freedom to make our own choices by ourselves in an environment that we might not have a chance to be in again. This was beneficial to all of us, as most of the group was going off to college and would have the power to make decisions by themselves for the rest of their lives; the rest of us were going into our senior year, where we would be expected to step up as leaders and prepare for our futures. This unstructured time forced us to make our own decisions, even if it was simply where we were going to get gelato for the fourth time that day or where we should go shopping to find yet another souvenir. For example, when our bus broke down in Delphi, we had to decide how we were going to spend the afternoon waiting for a bus, which included looking at shops and finding a place to eat and get gelato for me.
The second reason this time to ourselves and with each other impacted us so much was because we bonded with each other in a different way. It was a completely new experience for most of us, and to get to go on this trip together gave every student there common ground and unique situations to bond over. There are not many other opportunities students will have to try different foods, see unique sights and experience cultures on the other side of the world together while they are still in high school. I know that I talked to people on the trip that I wouldn’t necessarily have talked to in school, and I was also able to deepen my relationships with people I was already close with. This included my sister, who went off to college this fall, so the trip gave us one final adventure together that we will remember for the rest of our lives, whether it was sitting through a 12-hour bus ride, climbing over 400 steps to get a bird’s eye view of Florence, Italy, or going 20 meters underground to see the Roman catacombs.
Although ten days might not seem like enough time to make an impact on someone’s life, this short trip to Greece and Italy definitely had an impact on everyone who went in ways we might not have expected. From the action-packed EF itinerary to genuine and unique cultural experiences to unexpected freedom, this trip definitely impacted me, and I am very thankful that I had the opportunity to go.
