Basking in the Afterglow of a European Adventure

Well, it's been five days already and I can't believe that just now I am sitting down to write.  A week ago right now, I was sleeping in my hotel room in Rome, Italy.  Thinking back on it, it all seems still a dream...

It all started for me back in December.  It was the second to last day before Christmas break and Ivan, the social studies teacher who runs the school's annual sophomore Europe trip, asked me if I wanted to join in.  I'd always imagined what it would be like to be asked, and I wasn't ever sure if I'd say yes if I was, but I did, and I did so excitedly.  Hey, you've got to take opportunities in life and this was one I'd be an idiot to pass up.

The three months in between being asked and actually going went by oh so quickly, and before you knew it, April 2nd came and I was on a flight to Amsterdam.  This trip wasn't one like I'm used to, though. It was a working trip as I was one of five chaperones, plus Ivan, to accompany 41 tenth grade students to 8 cities in 4 countries in Europe.  Being the school's ESL teacher, none of my own students were going, and so I was the only chaperone who didn't know any of the kids beforehand, but I was told they were a great group of kids, which they were.  

All in all, the trip was awesome!  I got to spend 12 days with six great people and 41 good kids and we experienced a lifetime's worth of adventure.  We started off in Amsterdam, then moved on to Paris, Zurich, and Lucerne, and the Italian cities of Verona, Venice, Florence and Rome.  We saw windmills and clogs, the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, the Vatican and Switzerland from over 4K feet. We ate macaroons and pizza and lots of cheese, checked out Lamborghini's and Ferrari's, two Coliseums, the canals of Venice and experienced the Renaissance splendor of my favorite European city, Firenze.  

So stay tuned as I share some of what I experienced on this wonderful 12-day dream trip.  The experience was inspiring, to say the least, and it's left me dreaming of future adventures...