Student Ambassadors

Every two summers I travel with a group of my students to Europe. I find that the experience makes them better students and that they grow and mature in immeasurable ways during the trip.

This summer was my travel summer. I was off with a group of seventeen for a two week tour in France and Italy. Prior to our departure, I always emphasize to my students that while they will be traveling and seeing many things, they also serve as ambassadors from the United States in every little thing that they do and say while abroad. For many of the Europeans that they encounter, my students are the very first “real” Americans that they meet. The students are not the stereotypical television characters that Europeans see on the U.S. sitcoms that are broadcast there. They’re real.

I took another group of "real" American teenagers this year, and I was quite proud of how they represented our country. After a few days in Paris, even my Latin students were greeting the Parisians with a smile and a “Bonjour.” All of my dear students attempted to order their food in French, and they smiled big smiles and replied with a heartfelt “merci” when they were understood.

My students met folks in southern France and in Italy with smiles and laughter. They waved and greeted cheerfully people that we passed in train stations and in public parks. They were prompt and polite.

Sometimes American travelers are viewed by natives in other countries as loud and rude. Many Americans travel to other lands expecting English to be spoken to them. They expect things abroad to be like they are at home. We Americans have also been fed the message for so long that “what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,” and that tends to be the vacation motto for many of us. But what happens in other countries helps to form an image of what Americans are really like, and that’s why I stress to my students the importance of their behavior while we travel.

One of my students even came to me during the trip to tell me that she had experienced rude American teenagers herself and that she completely understood my message of student ambassadorship. All of the students became increasingly aware of their noise levels in hotels and public places. They even monitored each other’s respectful behavior.

The U.S. was very well represented by this group of students from Catoctin High School. They let those that they encountered in Europe know that America’s youth is pleasant, fun-loving, kind, and respectful. It made the trip even more worthwhile.

Simple Lessons Learned Overseas

Every two summers I travel with a group of my students to Europe. I find that the experience makes them better students and that they grow and mature in immeasurable ways during the trip. I often tell people that I come back with a completely different group of students—same bodies, of course, just very changed young people!

This summer was my travel summer. I was off with a group of seventeen for a two week tour in France and Italy. As we landed in Paris, I thought of all the new experiences that awaited my students.

The first adventure was the trip to the ATM. For many of my students, the trip to Europe is their first experience handling their own finances. For some, they blow several hundred dollars the first day, not realizing that their money needs to last for ten to twelve days more. They also learn that the euro and the dollar do not have the same monetary value. When they check bank balances online, this is a quick realization.

Many of my students are very eager to try out their language skills. It’s usually about that time that they realize how very fast people talk. I love the stories about how they used their language skills to find their way back to the meeting place or negotiate a price at an open-air market. Their confidence levels increase dramatically, and their grins let me know that they are quite proud of their accomplishments.

My students also experience new foods. I always tell them that they cannot say that they don’t like something unless they try it. They know that I’ll accept and “I don’t like this” if they’ve experienced it. This trip, I had several brave ones try the escargots in France. They eagerly ordered, but once the plate of shelled creatures arrived at the table, some were a bit hesitant. A few of the boys were the first to try. Their reports of “it’s good” were the springboard for others to try. Not everyone liked, but those who were adventurous did try.

We saw many beautiful sites on the trip, and I think my students began to realize what a wonderful place this world on which we live truly is. They saw natural beauty and the beauty of structures that were thousands of years old. I heard more than once that we didn’t have anything like what they were seeing in the U.S.

The kids traveled by bus, train, plane, and boat. They toted luggage from place to place, and drank and ate many new things. Some things they liked, and some they didn’t, but they experienced them. My students encountered people of different colors who spoke very different languages and wore very different types of clothes, and they began to realize that while people are all very different, we are still the same in so many ways.

And with all of these learning experiences, I also think that they soon realized “there’s no place like home.”

This blog post ran as my column, "The Empty Nest," in the Sunday, August 7th edition of the Frederick News Post.

Take-off

Every two summers I travel with a group of my students to Europe. I find that the experience makes them better students and that they grow and mature in immeasurable ways during the trip.

This summer was my travel summer. I was off with a group of seventeen for a two week tour in France and Italy. We flew out of Dulles International Airport, which for me was not a new experience, but we were excited to be flying on an Airbus 380. The A380 is the world’s largest commercial aircraft and has a seating capacity of 525. Even my airline pilot husband was thrilled about the plane that would be taking us to Europe.

What I hadn’t planned on was my reaction to my students’ experience on the flight. Many of them had never been on an airplane before. Some were scared. Some were excited. When we were called for boarding, we all took our seats on the upper level of the aircraft. I checked to see that all of the kids were in their seats and secured. Then I buckled my own seatbelt as I had so many times before.

The huge aircraft backed out of the gate and began its taxi to the runway. I could hear my students giggle and chatter at the prospect of taking off. I leaned back and smiled. It was so good to hear and feel their excitement.

As the plane picked up speed for takeoff, I turned around to watch my students. I was totally taken off guard by what happened next. My student, Maranda, was seated diagonally from me next to her sister. Maranda had never flown before. As that A380 moved faster and faster, Maranda’s grin grew bigger and bigger. When we lifted off the ground, she squealed out an announcement that we were in the air. The shear delight in her eyes was priceless.

That’s when I started to cry. Takeoffs and landings had become old hat for me. I had forgotten the shear wonder of flight. Maranda let me experience it all over again. I felt the plane shift and turn and was once again amazed by something that had become so common place in my life.

Yes, I travel with my students so that they can have rich experiences and learn about other cultures and ways of life, but what they fail to understand is how enriching these trips are for me. I learn and experience things anew by seeing them through my students’ eyes.

Maranda taught me on this trip how special all of the little things in life are and how if we pause and think about all the tiny, wonderful things that happen to us on a daily basis life is indeed a miracle. I learned that I need to pause and take time to smell the roses. There are so many of them around me.

Breaking the News

I knew something was strange the day after Mother’s Day. Early that morning, I had fixed my coffee and sat down in my office to check my email. The first message that I opened was from my daughter. There was no subject in the subject line. That should have been the first indicator that something was up.

I clicked open the email and read what my daughter had written. She said that she and my son-in-law, Bram, were going to have to change their vacation plans and it was important that “we discuss it with you and Daddy.” “Our phone isn’t working,” she continued, “so we were hoping you guys could Skype with us around 10:30.” I immediately replied that that would be fine, I would make sure we were both on Skype at that time.

I hit send, and that’s when I began to realize that something was up. “Why would they have to talk to both of us about their vacation plans?” I thought to myself. It didn’t really matter what they wanted to do for their vacation, they certainly didn’t need to consult us. And since when would my daughter want input from me on something like her plans. So, I picked up the phone and dialed her number in The Netherlands. It must have rung fifteen times. “That’s odd,” I thought, “We just spoke yesterday and the phone was working fine.”

About an hour later, I tried calling again. Just like before, the phone rang repeatedly with no answer. I thought about sending her another email, but I reasoned that we would discuss the matter in just a few hours, so I could wait.

But in truth, I couldn’t wait. Something was going on, and in my gut, I knew it. What vacation plans did they have that might possibly affect me and my husband? They were due to come home in September, but there weren’t any plans that we had that couldn’t easily be changed. She could have simply said what she needed to in an email or when we spoke on Mother’s Day.

My husband and I were in the truck heading back to the house after some errands when it hit me. “She’s pregnant,” I said. “That has to be it.” Tim thought that I had completely lost my mind. “How do you get that she’s pregnant from vacation plans?” he asked. But deep in my heart, I knew that I was right.

By the time we got into the house and turned on the computer, I had several emails and Facebook messages from my daughter. We were late. It was 10:40pm her time. We signed on to Skype and were greeted with various pleasantries. “OK,” I finally said. “Tell me about these vacation plans.”

“We can’t come home for Christmas this year,” my beautiful daughter was saying. “The baby is due on the 20th.” And with that my dream for the past three years was fulfilled. I’ve been practicing and preparing to be a grandmother. Now it was really going to happen. What a gift!

Daddy's Little Girl

Since my daughter and son-in-law told us that we were going to be grandparents, I have enjoyed watching the various phases that my husband is going through.

Not long after we got the call from our daughter, my husband sat in his recliner and out of the blue said, “Our baby is going to have a baby.” I’m not really sure that he believed it was possible. It wasn’t so much that our baby was pregnant, but I think he was stunned that we were old enough to actually be grandparents.

It seems like it wasn’t very long after that he mentioned his back ache. Sometimes it takes him a bit longer to get going in the morning. And he keeps asking about the “old guy” in the pictures with me. His impending grandparenthood is quickly aging him!

But yet sometimes he acts like he’s getting younger. He babbles about games that we can play with our grandbaby, and he reminisces about some of the best movies we watched with our children. I can see him planning the schedule of play time with the grandchild.

He gets excited, and then his realistic self steps in. “The baby’s not here yet,” he’ll tell me. He reminds me that I shouldn’t keep making all of these plans. She’s just finishing her first trimester…things can happen.

Then there are those quiet pensive times when I’m certain that he’s asking himself the same thing that I keep asking myself. Where did all that time go? It seems like twenty-eight years have just flown by.

I watch him gaze at our baby girl. I know that he just wants to hold her a bit longer. Just like I do. Our baby. And yet, I know that he is as excited as I am. We get to share that special joy of parenting with her, and with our son-in-law.

Now, we just have to come up with names! What do we want this new baby to call us? On to the first challenge of grandparenting!