We’ve come to the end Posted on January 26th, 2015 by Mary Joos

Hello to all of the friends and family members following along with this blog. As I type, the group is checking into their flight at the Dublin airport.  This morning started (or last evening continued for some/most….) at 2:15am with the hotel wake up call. So be prepared, your students will be EXHAUSTED when you see them or talk to them in Minneapolis in about 24 hours from now.

The 2:15 wake up call (or staying up all night) is only one reason they will be exhausted.  A lot of adjectives could be used to describe this trip.  Incredible, awesome, long, short, challenging, different, comfortable, scary, beautiful, life-changing, etc… but know this the words they use will change with each telling, because each memory of this trip will bring out different emotions.  There is no way that we can explain it all to you in one sitting, especially after traveling for over 24 hours.  Be patient.  It will all come out eventually.

We have all learned about the olympics, culture, food, politics, language, music, dance, history, art, wellbeing, public transportation, sport, health, and even some spanish farming from our guide, Dagmar.  A class like this may have a theme, it may have a syllabus, but there is no way to express all the lessons we have learned that could never be learned in a classroom alone or even through our everyday lives in Minnesota.

So thank you!

Thank you to the students for being incredible to travel with for these last 2.5 weeks.  They were courtesy, timely, and responsible as well as being fun and energetic and interested.  They were a great group!

Thank you to the college for working with us to create this experience.

Thanks to Aaron Banks, for having the vision of these trips many years ago and for continuing to pursue these opportunities for the students.

Thanks to all of you for supporting us for the last year of planning, saving, spending, organizing, packing, traveling, viewing pictures and listening to us go on and on about it all.  We hope you see the value of your investment into our experience.

Good morning/night/will we ever know what time it is again???

Mary