Reporter’s Notebook: preceded by reputation

“This experience allowed me to gain new friendships with people that I had not normally hung out with in my day to day activities,” —Maddy Johnson, a junior at HVRHS

Residents of other countries outside of the United States often have preconceived notions of Americans — especially teenagers.

A group of 39 HVRHS students and chaperones from Northwest Connecticut traveled to Germany, Austria, and Italy in the span of nine days in April. As spectacular and enriching as the experience was, I couldn’t help but notice that we were judged as American tourists.

In Florence, Italy, when passing a group of European teenagers, I overheard, “oh never mind they are Americans.” I found it interesting how just by a glance in our direction it was clear we were foreigners. Some comments, however, had more negative connotations. A biker trying to weave through a crowd muttered, “annoying Americans.” This is how we are seen, as bothersome foreigners even though tourism is a big source of income for places like this. According to The Florentine, in 2015, international tourism brought 2.5 billion euros to Florence, Italy, the place that we were in for the longest time during this trip. That was a 5.2% increase from the previous year.

“Although Americans can be seen as pushy overall as a group, I have never had a problem individually, people have been very kind,” said Deron Bayer, history teacher at HVRHS, and chaperone for the recent trip.

Despite the muttered comments, I had other experiences where we had interesting conversations with foreigners. In Germany, we talked to local teenagers in Munich. They were very interested to hear about America, New York City, if we owned a house, and if we were rich. These questions about us and our lives back in America show how we are viewed.

No matter how our group was seen or reacted to, the experience of traveling internationally was incredibly influential for the students and chaperones that had the opportunity to go.

Students in San Gimignano, Italy, from left to right, Mia Dodge, Ibby Sadeh, Olivia Peterson, Mia DiRocco, and Danny Lesch.Celeste Trabucco

“When I grow up I want to travel and this was a good introduction to traveling internationally,” said Maddy Johnson, a junior at HVRHS who went on this trip.

The travel program EF tours packs so much into so little time — art, history, education and more. We went straight from the airport onto our coach bus with our tour guide, and to our first location in Munich.

Bayer explained why he thinks these trips are so important — “what students got to do by going on that trip was to go to a classroom that was outside of our country … you are learning about yourself and learning how to interact with different people.”

Especially because our school and community is small in size, these types of activities and opportunities have impacts on students’ school experience.

“This experience allowed me to gain new friendships with people that I had not normally hung out with in my day to day activities,” Johnson said.

Traveling brings education to the next level, offering new perspectives, although sometimes judgmental ones, and forging new connections.

“In this part of Connecticut we are very secluded, there is not much to do or see so traveling allows students to see a much broader perspective of the world,” Johnson said.