How are you involved with the Europe trip?

(Social studies teacher) Will Ellery is in charge of the trip. I have tended to be the spokesperson for the trip for the past few years on the video announcements. I do a little bit of everything. The chaperones this year are Ellery, myself, James Ziegler, Amy Skeens-Benton, Phil Hobson and Jen Marlow.

Are you excited for the trip?

Yes, I am. It’s really a fun time. You’re flying into Paris, and Paris, France, is unlike anything else you’ve seen around here. You’re leaving London. You get to see things that you never see here. You get to go up the Eiffel Tower, and you get to go into Buckingham Palace. It’s a totally different environment. The culture is so different from the United States, and it’s sort of the thing that, for me, kicks off the summer. I’ve never been to Versailles, and I’ve always wanted to go, and finally this trip I’m going to Versailles. It’s pretty neat.

What should students expect?

Well, they should expect that they are going to get their money’s worth. They’re going be up at the crack of dawn, and we’re going to keep them out until 11 o’clock at night to see everything that we can possibly see. They expect to have a good time, they expect to eat good food and they expect to do it in a safe manner. And we provide all of that. Even if you’re not a fan of history, there are names that you’ve heard as a Carmel High School student. For example, you go to Normandy and you see a cemetery, and you really put an image to how many guys made the ultimate sacrifice for the United States – and to free Europe at that time, and you just stop and realize in the moment, ‘Wow, that’s pretty amazing.’

What is your favorite part about the trip?

My favorite part is to be able to… it’s the unexpected things. We have planned out a whole bunch of things that we do and they’re neat and everything like that but it’s literally when were going down the street and there’s a person there that’s saying “Hey come here come here come in” and you go into their restaurant and there’s nobody there and it’s a mom and pop kind of restaurant and then the next thing you know is that they’re making you meals and putting on music and youre dancing with them and you don’t even know who these people are and they’re just so welcoming and open and everything like that. And that’s the greatest thing. You also get to sit down and really get to know kids. It’s one thing to have kids in class but that’s more of like a teacher student kind of relationship but now you’re experiencing something together. And you really get to sit down away from carmel high school. And talk with them and get to know them on a totally different level that you don’t get to do at Carmel High School.

Is there any part of the trip that you don’t like?

(Laughs) Is there any part of the trip I don’t like? Um… It makes me nervous to have so many kids in my responsibility. Because there have been moments where I had uneasy feelings about what was going on and I didn’t like it and I get very protective of the kids. Very protective. Because they don’t realize in certain cases that maybe something sketchy might happen and that makes me nervous and the other thing that makes me nervous is kids getting hurt. We’ve had kids get hurt over there and you know there looking for comfort or they’re looking for they’re parents. And you know sometimes Mr. Dillon doesn’t quite do it. And that makes me nervous: me taking care of these kids.

What would you say to a student who is considering going on the trip next year?

Go. Don’t even put a second thought into it. And convince your parents. Because it may seem like a lot of money to you to go but you’re going to see things that would cost you three times the amount that you’re paying now. It’s a fantastic trip. It absolutely is. You get to meet people you get to see things and you get to know other people from Carmel that you may have never known anything about. And its such a good time. Every year I go, it’s such a good time.