Youth and Travel

[endorphin_junkie]

I am so excited right now. I just got off of the phone with my FIL who was visiting me and my Girls last weekend. While we were catching up I told him that my 15 y.o. daughter Marley has an opportunity to go on a student exchange to Germany next spring and that I have been making arrangements and saving for my 17 y.o. Elizabeth to go to Australia to travel with some friends of ours who live there before she goes to University. I want this so bad for the Girls and have been scrimping and squirreling to get them there. Well Grandad is giving Marley $1000.00 towards her trip and Elizabeth $2000.00 for hers!!!!! OMG I can't believe he's doing this!! Sometimes thank you just doesn't feel like enough!

I've been coast to coast in Canada and seen a bit of the States but have never travelled abroad. I would love to hear your stories of travelling abroad in your youth and the lasting effects your travels had on you so that I can share them with my soon to be world travellers TIA

Take Care
Laurie

 

[Tamster]

Wow Laurie...that is so awesome and so incredibly kind of your FIL. This is something your girls will always remember.

My DS#2 has spent the last 3 summers in Italy and each and every time he comes home with an amazing sense of family and culture. He has become pretty fluent in the language and has made some amazing friendships with people from all over the globe.

Make sure your girls take lots of pix!

 

[allwildgirl]

Oh Laurie, that's fantastic and how generous of Grandpa!

I pretty much grew up in Europe. Moved there when I was 12, came back when I was almost 22. I wouldn't trade that time for anything. It was an amazing experience and I have such great memories and, I think, a wider life experience and better insight into different cultures than I would have had I just stayed put in Burlington.

I don't envy the Australia trip. Waaaaay too many spiders

 

[aschendell]

I went to France the summer in between my junior and senior year of high school with the French Club...It was such a wonderful experience!!! I still have many memories and keep in touch with one of the girls who was on my tour....

So nice of Grandpa to help out with the finances!!!

My husband is currently working in Moscow. My daughter and I are going to visit later this week and I cannot wait for her to experience going to another country! Your girls are lucky to have this experience and it will certainly open their eyes to how things are in different parts of the world.

Congrats and good luck!

Debra

 

[sparrow]

Laurie,

My family lived overseas from the time I was twelve, when my parents moved to Saudi Arabia. It was the single most amazing experience of my life, living in a culture so completely different from this one. I've thanked my parents many times for having the courage to make such a huge change in our lives. My sister and I also got to live in London for our high school years and while London is not the Middle East, it is a different culture and exciting to explore. In those years I was lucky enough to travel all over Europe, including the then Soviet Union, and also to Thailand, Hong Kong etc.

Your kids are suprememly lucky to have this chance!! I would advise them to take every (safe!) opportunity presented to them on these visits. If there's a visit to the opera, GO, even if opera is not your thing. If there's spelunking, be the first in line to spelunk. Don't waste time and energy talking about "how we do it back home." Just jump in to the culture and have a ball!

I hope they have a wonderful time!!

Sparrow


My garden is filled with papayas and mangos
My life is a mixture of reggaes and tangos
Taste for the good life, I can live it no other way
- Jimmy Buffett

 

[MCunningham]

My mother worked for the State Department and we travelled all over the world: Quito, Ecuador (lived there 2 years); Paris, France (just visited a lot); Rabat, Morocco (lived there 3.5 years); Djibouti, Djibouti (lived there 3.5 years).

I attended bilingual schools (Spanish/English) and then a French Catholic missionary school where my sister and I were the only Americans and had to learn to speak/read/write French fluently... we were a big attraction!!

My world travel taught me a lot about other cultures, and opened my eyes in a way that children living in the States their whole lives cannot dream of. I think it made us a lot less materialistic because we lived among peoples who scrounged garbage heaps for food, and I believe it made us better humanitarians... we volunteer at orphanages, we give large donations to humanitarian organizations, we give blood every two months... we see how much these actions are needed. Consequently, we had a lot more "awareness" than other kids our age, which can be a blessing and a curse, but I always counted myself among the lucky ones.

I think travelling abroad is the best thing for kids. I hope to do the same when I have children.

Also, my experiences led me to my current career... a translator of Spanish, French, and Arabic! Without my travels, I never would have thought of doing it.

Go for it!!

 

[seeking_guns]

Laurie~
I agree with everyone here that this a tremendous opportunity for your girls!! How lucky for them. My parents immigrated here from Germany, so I was lucky enough to have made a number of trips abroad as a kid and teenager. The life experience that they gain from this will be invaluable. I recommend that they see as much as they possibly can. Flights from city to city within Europe are now often even cheaper than the train. (I saw deals this summer for 19 and 29 Euro one way!) And I, too, suggest they take lots of pictures and keep a travel journal. If they go in with an open mind, this will likely be one of the best experiences of their lives.

Cathy

 

[Miss Lee]

What a kind and wonderful FIL you have!! And how exciting for your girls!

I never had an opportunity to travel in my youth but my DH did. He was an exchange student and went to school in Germany, then went back one summer and worked in a lodge in the Bavarian Alps.

He maintained close ties with his host family and on our 15th wedding anniversary we went to Germany and visited them. We also booked a reservation at the lodge where he had worked. We had a fabulous time!

In his youth, my DH couldn't/didn't foresee the lasting ties he would form and how this experience would come in handy throughout his career. He now collaborates with several doctors and scientists in Germany.