Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Czech Me Out: My trip to Eastern Europe
I just returned from spending ten days as a chaperone on a school trip to Berlin, Krakow, and Prague. Three countries, three languages, three currencies, four airplanes, forty-five students, two overnight trains, five concentration camps, fifty miles of walking...countless rewards.
The trip, obviously for educational purposes, was designed by an amazing teacher at my school who wanted as many of her students as possible to get a first hand look at the material they had been studying all year (specifically the atrocities of the Holocaust). This is her fifth year doing the trip, and my first year going. I can not put into words what it felt like to walk through the death camp of Majdanek, which was quickly abandoned by the Nazis at the end of WWII and has been practically frozen in time ever since. There was one bunker simply filled with thousands of shoes. Seeing a tangible item belonging to a prisoner at the camp was an eerie and extremely haunting experience. Walking through the gas chambers was something even more intense. Right before we reached the chambers, there was a window overlooking the grass outside. One person took a picture of the window and I asked why. She responded that it was her last glimpse of the world before she would have to change the way she looked at everything around her. All of the students shared this feeling as they held each other for support and searched for lessons in such senseless acts.
Apart from the significance of witnessing history, the trip was also a wonderful way to expose students to the best education they can possibly get: international travel. Some of them had never even been on a plane before, and they are already hooked. Spending time abroad is one of the easiest ways to appreciate the small things which we take for granted every day. Communication, for instance - it feels fantastic to convey a message to someone who doesn't speak the same language that you do. Somehow you manage, using sign language and smiles, to understand one another. I mentioned Starbucks in an earlier post. Yes, it feels pretty good to get a cup of coffee in the morning on the way to work. But drinking cappucino in a cafe in Europe can last all day and never get old. It also makes you acutely aware of how loud Americans are, among other things. And as I grabbed a caramel frappucino in Berlin, I was reminded about how extensive our influence is, despite our flaws.
The trip, obviously for educational purposes, was designed by an amazing teacher at my school who wanted as many of her students as possible to get a first hand look at the material they had been studying all year (specifically the atrocities of the Holocaust). This is her fifth year doing the trip, and my first year going. I can not put into words what it felt like to walk through the death camp of Majdanek, which was quickly abandoned by the Nazis at the end of WWII and has been practically frozen in time ever since. There was one bunker simply filled with thousands of shoes. Seeing a tangible item belonging to a prisoner at the camp was an eerie and extremely haunting experience. Walking through the gas chambers was something even more intense. Right before we reached the chambers, there was a window overlooking the grass outside. One person took a picture of the window and I asked why. She responded that it was her last glimpse of the world before she would have to change the way she looked at everything around her. All of the students shared this feeling as they held each other for support and searched for lessons in such senseless acts.
Apart from the significance of witnessing history, the trip was also a wonderful way to expose students to the best education they can possibly get: international travel. Some of them had never even been on a plane before, and they are already hooked. Spending time abroad is one of the easiest ways to appreciate the small things which we take for granted every day. Communication, for instance - it feels fantastic to convey a message to someone who doesn't speak the same language that you do. Somehow you manage, using sign language and smiles, to understand one another. I mentioned Starbucks in an earlier post. Yes, it feels pretty good to get a cup of coffee in the morning on the way to work. But drinking cappucino in a cafe in Europe can last all day and never get old. It also makes you acutely aware of how loud Americans are, among other things. And as I grabbed a caramel frappucino in Berlin, I was reminded about how extensive our influence is, despite our flaws.
