Student Travelogue: HVRHS Travel Club explores Iberia

La Sagrada Família basilica in Barcelona, Spain.

Danielle Melino

Student Travelogue: HVRHS Travel Club explores Iberia

Vibrantly colored buildings lined the crowded streets, inviting tourists to stop and stare at their joyous shades of yellows, pinks and blues. A ceaseless swarm of visitors slowly meandered among souvenir shops and gelato stores. Beneath our feet, carefully laid tiled roads twisted in patterns of black and white. In the distance, beautiful homes were perched among the mountains, creating the illusion that we had been magically transported to a fairytale village.

While Sintra, Portugal, felt like the perfect place to explore, other locations the Housatonic Valley Regional High School International Travel Club visited during our 12 days abroad were each unique in their own way. After spending four days touring sunny Lisbon, peaceful Évora and coastal Algarve, we continued to Spain and experienced the lovely climates of Seville, Costa del Sol, Granada, Valencia and Barcelona.

Thanks to the fundraising from Northwest Corner: Students Without Borders and the annual Wine Dinner and Auction last fall hosted by the White Hart Inn, 21 students, two teachers and our principal were able to travel to Portugal and Spain over spring break. Overcoming a few hiccups in the schedule, our tour guide, Samuel, guided us through any challenge and determined the best ways to get the most of our time abroad.

Every student gained something from the experience. Some of us had a wonderful time watching a demonstration of how tiles are made that are similar in style to those in the Alhambra, while others relished seeing the famous works of Antoni Gaudí and exploring old cathedrals with beautiful stained-glass windows. Many of us loved trying paella, a Spanish dish consisting of rice, mussels and shrimp, while some marveled at the Moroccan coastline and the Barbary macaque monkeys in Gibraltar.

Monkey in Gibraltar.Elinor Wolgemuth

By the end of our whirlwind travels, we were thoroughly exhausted. After trying so many new foods, exploring beautiful palaces and cathedrals and speaking some Spanish, everyone was immensely grateful for our opportunity to experience other cultures.

Elinor Wolgemuth is a junior at HVRHS and visited Spain and Portugal with the Travel Club over spring break. She plans to travel to Thailand with the club in 2025.

The HVRHS International Travel Club would like to thank and acknowledge the 21st Century Fund's support for of this trip.

The views expressed here are not necessarily those of The Lakeville Journal and The Journal does not support or oppose candidates for public office.

Latest News

East Canaan's CowPots to face the 'Sharks'

Amanda Freund of East Canaan will appear on the television show "Shark Tank" on April 4 to pitch CowPots.

Photo by Ruth Epstein

CANAAN — Fans of the television show “Shark Tank,” stay tuned. On Friday, April 4, Amanda Freund of East Canaan will be facing the panel, imploring members to invest in her unique product: cow poop.

Freund and her father Matthew Freund produce and market CowPots, which are made from the abundance of manure found on their dairy farm. Matthew Freund, realizing cows were producing more manure — 100 pounds per cow per day — than was needed for fertilizing fields for crops, came up with the concept of the pots. Years of trial-and-error experimentation finally resulted in success. In 2006 he began selling the biodegradable pots using 100% composted manure to local stores. Now the pots can be found in outlets across the country, as well as internationally.

Keep ReadingShow less
Hotchkiss lacrosse ices Kingswood Oxford 19-0

LAKEVILLE — The Hotchkiss School opened the girls varsity lacrosse season with a big win in the snow against Kingswood Oxford School.

The Bearcats won 19-0 in a decisive performance March 26. Twelve different players scored for Hotchkiss, led by Coco Sheronas with four goals.

Keep ReadingShow less
HVRHS releases second quarter honor roll

FALLS VILLAGE — Principal Ian Strever announces the second quarter marking period Honor Roll at Housatonic Valley Regional High School for the 2024-2025 school year.

Highest Honor Roll

Grade 9: Parker Beach (Cornwall), Mia Belter (Salisbury), Lucas Bryant (Cornwall), Addison Green (Kent), Eliana Lang (Salisbury), Alison McCarron (Kent), Katherine Money (Kent), Mira Norbet (Sharon), Abigail Perotti (North Canaan), Karmela Quinion (North Canaan), Owen Schnepf (Wassaic), Federico Vargas Tobon (Salisbury), Emery Wisell (Kent).

Keep ReadingShow less
Thomas Ditto

ANCRAMDALE — Thomas Ditto of Ancramdale, born Thomas David DeWitt Aug. 11, 1944 in New York City changing his surname to Ditto at marriage, passed peacefully on Pi Day, March 14, 2025. He was a husband, father, artist, scientist, Shakespeare scholar, visionary, inventor, actor, mime, filmmaker, clown, teacher, lecturer, colleague, and friend. Recipient of numerous grants, awards and honors in both the arts and sciences, a Guggenheim and NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts fellow, he was a creative genius beyond his time. In addition to authoring scores of papers, he held several patents and invented the first motion capture system and the Ditto-scope, a radically new kind of telescope. He was a pioneer in computer generated video, film, and performance.

When not hard at work, he was always there to help when needed and he knew how to bring smiles to faces. He loved his family and pets and was supportive of his wife’s cat rescue work.

Keep ReadingShow less