Summer is a time where high school students allow room for themselves to breathe and finally relax. They thoroughly embrace their time away from school, knowing all too well how soon they will have to return. For those that spent most of their time close to home, summer consisted of long days on the river, at work, or even binge watching netflix series to escape the blistering heat. While these students stuck to a pretty regular summer schedule, there were also those who got the opportunity to travel to different places all over the world and learn about some fascinating cultures and history.

Allie Foresterer, a fellow wildcat, got the chance to spend almost the entire summer in Australia. Her trip “down under” was the result of what she saw as a long overdue visit with some close family friends. Allie and her sister visited the beautiful coastal city of Melbourne, Australia. She was astonished by the locals’ personalities, noting how funny and friendly they all seemed to be. When mentioning this, she told a story about how a simple trip to the grocery store turned into such a memorable experience. As she sat in line, waiting to check out of the grocery store, a middle aged woman struck up a conversation with her as if it were nothing. “I couldn’t believe how nice everyone was. It was truly amazing,” Forester claimed.

One of the more interesting things that Allie found on her trip was how impressive the laws of animal and land conservation were. She explained how cool it was to see the animals in the wild and said how inspiring it was that everyone in the country works so hard to protect them. After adventuring for seven weeks, Allie sadly had to return to reality and head on home. Fortunately, she had plenty of stories to tell and says that she dreams of revisiting the wonderful city and even plans on living there when she is older.

The Durig family sent their kids all over the world this summer. Lila Durig, now a Junior, followed in her brother’s footsteps and visited Argentina through the same exchange program that he had the previous year. Dawson, the brother, really encouraged her to give it a chance. After hearing all about her brother’s trip, Lila had some idea what to expect, but wasn’t sure how her experience would match up next to his. She described her arrival at the airport and first greeting with her new host family as very exciting but also terrifying. Lila stayed with a family of five: two little brothers, a sister her age, a mother and a father for two and half months. During her time in Argentina, she went to school with her host sister, taking all of the same classes as her host sister and she would also hang out with her friends. In those two and a half months, she learned to be just like the locals. Lila laughed as she said, “ I thought I was prepared but then I realized almost immediately that I wasn’t at all.” She knew some spanish from a classroom setting, but discovered fast that it was a lot different trying to incorporate in her everyday life. She explained that, “school was hard because of the language barrier, “but by the end of her trip she was almost fluent. As we are all familiar to, school here means putting in a lot of work and it runs on a very tight schedule, but in Argentina, Lila described their school to be very “laid back and easy going.”  She loved that they put such an importance of family and social life. For Lila this trip was a once in a lifetime experience and she was so thankful that her brother had encouraged her to take on life in another country for a couple months.

While Lila was off experiencing life in Argentina, Dawson, her older brother was eating raw meats and watching sumo wrestling in Japan. Dawson and his mother went on a 20 day trip to Japan to visit his mother’s old friend. Dawson said that he was really just along for the ride as his mother caught up with her long time friend. To get around, Dawson and his mother used the train as the main transportation. Dawson thought the train was super interesting because it was always jammed packed with loads of people and he noticed how “unusually clean” the whole system was. He thought it was a great way to get around until one day he got on the wrong train and got lost in a city he was very unfamiliar with. As frightening as this experience was for him he learned how polite everyone was and how much they were willing to help even when there was a language barrier causing communication to be difficult. He said that he met a lady who “walked 3 miles out of her way” to lead him in the right direction. Dawson explained to me that traveling is an awesome way to get a better understanding of the world and although you might have some weird experiences, you learn so much on your way.  

These are just a few of the wildcats that had international experiences this summer; learning about other cultures, speaking different languages, and trying new exotic foods. The one thing that all of them seemed to have in common, whether they were in Japan, Argentina, or Australia is that they wouldn’t trade their experience for the world. They all explained so many of the different things they learned while they were gone and seemed to have made memories that will stick with them forever. Although some saw summer as a way to avoid all learning experiences, these, and many other wildcats, dove head first into new territories, learning more than they’ve ever known about so many different people and places.