Marion students and others return from Europe
Staff writer
Katie Whitaker always will remember the trip she took to Europe during the summer of 2004.
Not only because of the beautiful landscape, centuries-old history and structures, and once in a lifetime experience, but also for something more personal.
"I fell down a mountain," she explained with a laugh. "I stepped in the mud and down I went."
"Another girl fell into a bog," she added.
Whittaker, who will be a junior this fall at Marion High School, was a member of a tour group which visited Ireland, Wales, England, and Paris, France, June 2 to 12. The group of 27 — which included Marion students and adults, as well as several teens from Kansas City and McPherson — was led by Marion resident Diana Costello, MHS English instructor.
The funny, personal anecdotes were just a few of those shared June 21 when several tour members gathered at Marion Presbyterian Church to swap photos, reminisce, and enjoy some Irish homemade bread, compliments of Costello.
As for the trip itself, Whittaker loved it.
"My sister went on the last trip. She told me how awesome England was and that I had to go," Whittaker said. "She was right."
As for herself, Whittaker said she was always interested in Ireland and that country did not disappoint.
"Ireland was beautiful," she said.
Whittaker's cousin, Mary Krier, a recent McPherson High School graduate, also was impressed.
"I would have to say it was the best experience of my teenage years," Krier said. "I went to the best place in the entire world."
Marion resident Paula Johnson said she "had a great time."
"I went with my grandson, Paul, and daughter, Tonya Hodson. We rode seven airplanes, seven buses, two boats including one ferry and several subways.
"We did a lot of walking," Johnson said. "It was an endurance trip."
The trip was the second time leader Costello had taken a group overseas. Although many of those attending were MHS students, the tour was not a school event. In fact, several youth from other cities signed up as did a number of adult Marion residents because they had always wanted to visit the area.
"There's just too much liability nowadays for schools to be able to send kids on trips like these," Costello explained.
However, Costello feels the learning which takes place on such trips makes the experience so much more personal when the teens study classical literature in the classroom.
"I love the learning that takes place out of classrooms. This year we took freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and one graduating senior," she said. "When they read about these places it makes their faces light up in the classroom."
Two years ago, Costello led her first trip to Europe. That tour included venues featured in Geoffrey Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales."
"We studied 'The Canterbury Tales' and we had walked it," Costello said. "The places we were in people had walked hundreds of thousands of years ago."
Costello arranged the tour through Explorica, a student travel organization. The group flew out of Wichita to Washington, D.C., then to Dublin.
The trip included visits to Killarney, the Ring of Kerry, a sightseeing tour of Dublin, a ferry ride to North Wales, sightseeing in London, and sightseeing trip to Paris.
Since the students who sign up to go are just like any other tourist — and not on a school trip — they are considered to be adults.
"I tell the students and their parents at the onset that 'they're adults and they will be treated like adults'," Costello explained. "I know I can trust them and they were very responsible. They have to be. They're on their own part of the time."
During free evenings, tour members are encouraged to explore and return to areas they may have visited only briefly during the day.
"A group of six can see so much more than a group of 27," Costello explained. "So they have to be able to take subways, buses, and ride the metro."
Those attending are expected to finance their own trip, which cost approximately $2,000.
"Two years ago when we went we held fund-raisers. This time I told them to get part-time jobs. All the payments are made online so I'm not involved in that at all," she said.
"Some made deals with their parents so it was a graduation gift or whatever. But most of the kids paid for it themselves. Several parents said they wish they were going," Costello said.
With all the bad press in the world about Americans, Costello said she had some concerns about terrorism before the trip, but nothing happened.
"We were in France right before their election on Sunday. The terrorist forecast was high, but we didn't know anything about that. Security wasn't a problem and nothing happened," Costello explained.
"We didn't know anything was out of the ordinary," she added. "If I'd been a parent back home I'd have been panicked. They were hearing all this stuff."
Costello said she was a little worried the group might not be treated well while in France because of an experience she had while visiting as a student in the 1970s.
"Before we did anything our French guide taught us some basic phrases and told us to never start conversations in English," Costello related.
Using the phrases they had learned, tour participants would ask an individual if he or she spoke English.
"If they said they spoke English we'd say 'Merci' and speak English," she said.
Language also posed a bit of a problem while in Ireland because of the strong brogue.
"Our bus driver in Ireland was just fabulous. He'd say something and it would take a few seconds for it to register just what he was saying," Costello said with a laugh. "So we always had this delayed reaction."
After listening to the bus driver for awhile, group members began to understand his speech pattern, which helped while out and about.
"There's a big difference between English spoken by the British and our American drawl," she said.
Since communication between the States and the Isles was not totally reliable, Costello said she told parents and spouses not to expect phone calls.
"Explorica offers a digital web site tour library. Parents can log onto the web site and check from home how we're doing. I told them to look at the web site and if they see pictures of their kids they know everything is OK.
"On about the third day I realized we hadn't taken a group shot so I had everybody gather together so we could take one," she said.
The Marion people experienced a number of unique things.
"We found just about everything — from start to finish — amazing. One of the neatest things was during a visit to Ring of Kerry (a group of islands on the coast of Ireland). There's only about 10 days a year when you can actually see all the islands because it's so foggy," Costello explained.
"On the day we were there it was a brilliant, bright day. People told us 'You are so lucky!'"
Costello and other members of her tour commented on how welcome they felt in the countries visited.
"Everyone was so friendly. They wanted to meet us and talk to us," she said.
Adults enjoying the trip were members of Costello's family including her mother Jean Case, and sister-in-law Mickey Lundy, both of Marion.
Also attending were Mary Krier, Jared Loehr, Whitney Wear, Amber Richmond, Sarah Williams, Katie Whitaker, Michelle Miesse, Chelsea Arnhold, Barbara Loehr, Alysha O'Dell, Meredith Moore, Erin Loehr, Paula Johnson, Paul Hodson, Katie Zogelman, Molly Rhodes, Tonya Hodson, Dorothy Youk, Joel Zeiner, Tyler Stubenhofer, Jeffrey Richmond, and Casey Nelson.
As for the personal anecdotes, Johnson said her daughter, Tonya Hodson, had a couple interesting experiences.
"Tonya had a friend in England who had a Steerman (bi-plane) and she got to fly it," Johnson said. "And while on the ferry between Dublin and North Wales she got to perform with a folk music group.
"There were some men from Scotland playing folk music and Tonya played the mandolin along with them."
Johnson said while traveling by Limerick, Ireland, teacher Costello had the students write limericks.
"They got to be very hilarious," she said. "The kids were absolutely great and made the whole trip a lot of fun."
