Last day in Italia

Sorry I haven't written in awhile... By the time we eat and get everyone settled in their rooms, I am wiped out, so I apologize. We are enjoying our last Italian meal in Italy right now and about to get ready to head to the train station to catch our overnight train to Paris. We have had a fabulous time in Italy this past week or so. The kids have been doing so well and I hope and expect Paris will go the same way. I will blog more detail about our time in Italy as soon as I have Internet again, but otherwise know that things here are a-ok. I'm loving traveling with Ll of them and some of them now officially have the travel bug and are talking about wanting to come on the high school trip with me next year to Australia, new Zealand, and Fiji. I'm giving you. Heads up now! :-) Till then... Ciao.

Loving life in Italy

Hello again. Sorry it has taken me so long to post again... We have had some fabulous but exhausting days. Our time at the turtle sanctuary was amazing. The students got to see some of the injured turtles, water some plants, and adopt some of them. I think we broke a record for most turtles adopted that day for all the People to People groups. From there we went to lunch at a Greek woman's apartment in the middle of Athens. It was wonderful. She squeezed us into her place and set up tables on her balcony, living room, dining room, and den. She is a teacher in her 60s and was a fabulous host. After this we headed to a beautiful ancient theater where the students got to see how you could literally hear a coin drop on the stage alllllll the way in back seats. It was off to our new beautiful hotel from there. It was right on the beach, so the students had a chance to take a quick dip in the salt water pool before dinner. The next day we headed to Olympia and had an hour long tour. I know I learned a lot about the original games, so I hope the students did as well. They got to run some races on the original Olympic field, which was so cool for them. They also got to see where the Olympic touch is lit for every Olympic games. It was pretty hot, but they handled things really well. I know I was really shocked at how little was left and the. The ones that were standing were ones that were put back together by the excavators. From Olympia we departed for our overnight Ferry ride. It was a pretty decent sized boat... Almost like being on a mini cruise. They had a helipad on the top floor so the kids were able to run around, dance, do whatever... Basically blow off some energy. :-) When they woke up... We were in ITALY!!!!! :-) we headed to have a late lunch in Pompeii and then had a personal tour of the excavated city of Pompeii. Our hotel was RIGHT NEXT TO the excavation site. So cool!!!! Today we were off to Mt. Vesuvius!!!! A-MAZING!!! Everyone seemed to really love it and some even said it was their favorite part of the trip. They got to go all the way to the top and walk around the crater... I know a lot of them go some great pictures. We made a quick stop in Naples to see a beautiful church and are now at another beautiful hotel in Rome. We are off to the Vatican tomorrow... I think the kids will be in awe of what they are about to see. The students keep misplacing a losing things from time to time so I am trying to limit them on what they bring with them day to day to avoid losing anything further. :-) I'm going to go try to upload some more photos tonight and tomorrow. Till then....

Hanging in Greece

Hi everyone. Things are going really well here in Greece. This is our last night in our first hotel and we had a nice long day today hanging on a beautiful beach in Greece and doing some shopping. The kids had the beach practically to themselves with a snack bar and then our restaurant for lunch was right there as well. The island was a beautiful place to get to walk around and the ferry we took was a great chance to be on the water for about an hour or so and see the amazing mountainside. Yesterday we got to see Athens. Our first main stop was the Acropolis where the Parthenon stands... Well, barely stands. It is a fun walk all the way to the top, but boy is the rock pretty slippery. I know I slipped on the way up, but the kids seemed to do better than I did. :-) I have no words for the Greek dance lessons... They had so much fun with this. I have some video and pictures. I'll let them speak for themselves. The kids are constantly making me laugh and they are doing nothing but smiling the whole time. I know I'm biased but it think I have the best group here!!! Kudos to all of you parents... You would be proud! We will be at the turtle sanctuary tomorrow. :-) I am going to start posting pictures as soon as I can on my photobucket account. I will email you the login and password. Good night from Greece. :-) Lisa

Hello everyone! I will be using this blog and TRY TRY TRY to keep it updated as much as I can while we are traveling. I am hoping some of the students will participate and blog on the site themselves as we go as well. I can't wait to get to GREECE!!! WOO-HOOO!!!!