By Kelli Samson
Here’s what I love about travel: one has to be absolutely, fully present within each moment.
You don’t want to miss a field of sunflowers or your Metro stop. Traveling requires one to leave home and the familiar behind (and sometimes even wi-fi), to immerse into places and experiences and smells and tastes. You can’t do anything about what’s happening back home, so you’ve got to let it go.
And that’s just typical travel. Trekking across Europe for a couple of weeks each summer with a bunch of students from Capital High School (CHS)?
It’s not for everyone.
But I am so thankful it is just perfect for me.
Many of my colleagues in the teaching field might say I am crazy, but I completely love traveling with my students. It doesn’t matter that the school year just ended and perhaps by then I am a little excited for my seniors to move on. The unadulterated bliss of seeing something for the first time is addicting, even when it’s through the eyes of a teenager who is not your own.
CHS has a rich tradition of student travel that reaches back twenty years. Starting in 1994, when their own daughters were high school students, teachers Wayne and Kathy Sortun began the legacy that continues today. The Sortuns organized the annual trips through 2007.
“We loved watching the growth that most of the students made as far as being independent problem solvers. In three weeks time we felt the students learned so much,” explains Kathy.
Since 2008, CHS history teachers Mike Deakins and Steve Hamilton have been at the helm.
This summer’s trip marked Hamilton’s tenth with students. Agreeing with the Sortuns, he states, “I enjoy watching kids who have never been out of the United States slowly open up to the idea that there is a great big world outside that they can learn from.”
This year, thirteen eager travelers (ranging from upcoming juniors to recent graduates) visited six countries over 17 unforgettable, exhausting days. Hamilton and I got the pleasure of starting our hard-earned summer with eleven of the classiest young women in Olympia. Also along for the ride were gentlemen Brent Chapin and Braydn Cox, a pair of best friends from the CHS golf team.
CHS has traveled under numerous educational tour groups in the past, and this year we paired with the folks at Education First.
Our trip began with time in Germany while the Germans were playing in the World Cup. The people of Munich ran around with smiles and wigs of black, yellow, and red. The majority of this year’s group enjoyed our time in Munich the most, “especially riding through the English Garden on bikes,” says Hannah Wahlmark, an upcoming senior.
We traveled in a pink charter bus, affectionately dubbed “Big Pink.” Our students made friends with our tour mates from Pennsylvania and played soccer at every rest stop. Says Hamilton, “I love watching kids forget the social classes that are in high school. They all feel out of place. Kids are more human when they’re traveling.”
From Germany, we spent an afternoon in the Austrian city of Innsbruck, then pushed on to Italy. We sweltered together in Venice, Rome, the hilltop Umbrian town of Orvieto, and Florence.
We rejoiced at the stunning beauty of the Swiss Alps along Lake Lucerne. Our comfortable hotel was in the farming town of Seelisberg, high above the lake, where we took great delight in an amazing thunderstorm one evening, hearing only cow bells and the low rumble of thunder. Upcoming senior Cox marks playing soccer in the Alps near our hotel as the highlight of his trip.
From Switzerland, we made our way to France, hanging out in the smaller towns of Colmar and Munster. This year’s trip ended with time in the great cities of Paris and London, where we made it up the Eiffel Tower with almost no line because everyone was busy watching France play in a World Cup game.
Though the trip is fast and keeps up a furious pace, it gives students a little taste of many places that Europe has to offer. Many return on study-abroad programs in college or on extended vacations when they’re older. This year’s group especially wants to return to London and Paris.
Priceless Life Lessons:
“The trip helped me become comfortable with the uncomfortable.” – Katie Davis
“It helped me learn how to do things on my own.” – Rachel Erickson
“It helped me become a more independent thinker.” –Taylor Kerr
“From here on out there will be a lot of references to Europe in my education and life that I will be able to understand more from being there myself.” – Torie Mount
“I feel future solo travel and going to college are way less terrifying now!” – Paige Whitener
“It gave me a different perspective on cultures and their histories.” – Bradyn Cox
“This trip has shown me that there is so much more to the world than what I was experiencing before.” – Carolina Watts
“This trip has made me more aware of money and how hard it is to manage life.” – Madi Peoples
At some point along the way, Wahlmark said, “We’re like a big, traveling family.” And it really does feel like that. Our roles as teachers have to shift in order to allow the students to soak up all of the opportunities. We have to trust and learn things together. I love that I get to know them in a way which I would not have been able had we only interacted in one of my English classes.
These kids make me excited for when my own two girls are teenagers, and that is saying something.
For more information on the 2015 CHS Europe trip (which will have a Greek and Italian focus), follow the Facebook page CHS 2014 Europe Trip, which will soon change to the year 2015.
