MT High School provides a number of opportunities for students, one being the chance to travel to foreign countries. Over the summer of 2023, German teacher Herr Peris took a group of students through European countries.
This trip was not only for those who take German. Of course, the majority who went do, but there were also students that went just for the experience or to be with friends in a new place.
The group was away on their trip for 12 days, spanning from June 18-30.
“I thought this was a good time because I got…to relax after school ended and was eager to travel,” said junior Zaara Seemeen.
The students visited six countries total. It was advertised as a Germany trip, but was more of a Central Europe trip: Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Austria.
“These places offer lots of cultural experiences and real world practices for many skills the students have worked on for years,” Peris said.
Education First (EF), an international education company, organized this trip, and has put together many other trips abroad for MT. EF built the entire itinerary and provided the group with hotels, breakfast, and dinner.
EF provided a tour bus to take the students place to place. The students were in Europe for just under two weeks, and spent two days in each country. The students were kept busy throughout the trip.
“We were pretty much doing/seeing something different everyday, so I was never bored,” said junior Zaara Seemeen.
The original trip was 10 days long, with two days reserved for travel. However, there is a choice offered by EF to add two extra days to Budapest and Vienna. The group ended up doing the two day add-on and went to Vienna, Austria to see the Parliament Building, Ringstrasse, Neues Rathaus, Hofburg Palace, and the Schönbrunn Palace.
“I honestly think the total length of the trip was almost perfect, but the time we spent at each location could have been split up better,” said Senior Sean O’Brien.
“Seeing the Berlin Wall felt very surreal,” said junior Kate Peers. “After learning so much about it and seeing pictures of famous paintings on the wall, seeing it in real life was really neat.”
Not only did Peris chaperone the group, he also selected the locations. “The cities we went to are also not the most common for high school student trips and I liked that,” he said.
For many of the tours, there was a tour guide that the students went with. However, there was time built in the itinerary for them to go explore the country on their own. Students were also able to eat European foods, such as Wienerschnitzel, a traditional Austrian meal.
If you didn’t get a chance to go on the Central Europe trip, but would like to travel abroad, EF is offering a trip to Italy in 2024.
