According to Statistica, 18.21 percent of Americans travel abroad each year. At the start of last summer, this statistic included 24 Yutan students, parents and teachers who had the opportunity to travel abroad to Greece and Italy for ten days, visiting Athens, Delphi, Florence and Rome.
“We traveled with EF Tours, who developed a great itinerary for us to follow and gave us an amazing tour director to lead our travel. We started each day with breakfast at our hotel before heading into each city for guided tours of major historical sites there. Between tours, we had free time for lunch and shopping, and then we ended most days with a meal all together before heading back to the hotel,” group leader Ginger Eikmeier said. “It was a great mix of structured large group sightseeing and unstructured small group exploration of the cities we were lucky enough to visit.”
Some of the most memorable experiences in the itinerary were visiting the historical sites. Many of these sites were familiar to the group from seeing them in movies or in the classroom.
“My favorite place to visit was probably Delphi because so much of the history connects to Greek mythology, which I teach,” Eikmeier said. “So it was really awesome to hear our guide telling all these stories that are the same stories that I talk to the sophomores about when I teach mythology. So it was really just neat to see that connection from school to real life.”
Senior AJ Arensberg, having learned Greek mythology in Eikmeier’s class, also noticed its influence in the architecture there.
“My favorite place was probably Delphi, which was one of the Greek mythology temples that we visited,” Arensberg said. “It was just cool seeing how the place tied in Greek mythology to real-world architecture, and there’s a lot of ruins and stuff, and it was pretty cool.”
Senior Millie Dieckman agreed that not only were the historical ties to the places they visited remarkable but also the sheer beauty of the architecture and cities themselves.
“My favorite place we visited was Rome because it’s so historic and beautiful, and it’s a bigger city,” Dieckman said. “But even though [it’s bigger], it’s still very green and lush, so it’s like this weird, really pretty combination of architecture and landscape.”
Even with the great experiences of the cities, there were also some not-as-good experiences. This was especially true when an overnight ferry that would take the group from Greece to Italy got delayed, and they had to wait until the next morning to take the ferry.
“We were the very last people to get on, and it was 10:30 a.m. by the time we were on the ferry,” Eikmeier said. “Because the ferry left so late, we missed our train. So instead of getting off the ferry and taking a short bus and then a quick train, we had a 12-hour bus ride.”
By the time the group arrived at their next hotel, it was 3:45 in the morning. Even so, they still left the hotel that same morning at 7:00 a.m. to venture into Florence.
Despite a difficult situation, the group still made the most of the experience they had.
“When I woke up, I thought, ‘Oh this is going to be a rough day,’ but honestly, it was a great day,” Eikmeier said. “I think Florence, for a lot of people on the trip, was one of the highlights because it’s such a beautiful city. So one of the lessons of the trip is you have to get through some of those bad situations, but then you’ll find the good in the situation.”
Another “good” found by many on the trip were some new lasting friendships.
“I would say it helped create bonds because none of my close friends went, so it really made you get out and talk to everybody else,” senior Ian Dunn said. “It was nice because I learned a lot about other people that I didn’t know.”
While the trip brought some new people together, it also deepened the friendships of others.
“With Jack (Edwards) and Connor (Engel), we were already friends, but it kinda deepened our friendship just hanging out for that many days and doing this stuff together,” Arensberg said. “We documented the whole thing (trip), making TikTok videos of what we were eating and where we were going, so just those memories that we made…will be out there forever, and that was probably my favorite part.”
With the things they learned, the experiences they had and the bonds they created, students and teachers alike would recommend that anyone interested in going on a trip abroad take advantage of the opportunity.
“Just getting out and experiencing different places with more people and a different culture is really good for students,” Dieckman said. “I kinda knew that I wanted to travel and see the world before I went, but after going on the trip, I just want to even more.”
