Kim & two of her students during their visit to Paris
Meet Kim, a foreign language teacher from Michigan and an expert world traveler. Kim shared a few of her favorite educational travel spots and top tips, so that you too can lead successful student tours across the world.
Name: Kim
State: Michigan
Subject taught: French, Spanish, and a Hybrid Language course (Japanese, Mandarin, Arabic)
Number of countries visited: 12
Favorite food: Japanese
Other fun facts: Loves music (was an organist for over 20 years), voracious reader (always has novels in French and Spanish going along with two or three books in English), amateur photographer (always comes home from a tour with about 1,000 photos to go through), plans to retire to southern France (not sure how yet…)
French Studies in France |
Study French in the heart of Nice at the Azurlingua school. After class, bask on beautiful Cote d’Azur beaches while touring the calanques of Aix-en-Provence and Cassis. |
Spanish Studies in Spain |
Study Spanish at the University of Salamanca in Spain. Tour Madrid’s Calle Mayor, Gran Via, Cibeles Fountain, Columbus Square and Royal Palace. Eat tapas in Toledo. |
Adventures
Favorite destination: Anywhere I haven’t yet been, and Paris, of course.
Place you most want to visit: Amsterdam. Why I have not been there yet, I do not know!
Amsterdam & Paris |
Eat Dutch Pannenkoeken and Parisian crepes. See the Amsterdam canals and Anne Frank House. Tour Latin Quarter and Montmartre in the “City of Light.” |
Favorite part of travel: The ability to experience other cultures with the immediacy that being there brings with it, and the perspective it gives me on my own culture.
Favorite travel story: So many to choose from, but here is one: I was on an Explorica Teacher Convention in Tokyo and Kyoto. It was in July, so the heat and humidity were amazing! In Kyoto we went to several shrines, and during our second stop we ran into Leonardo DiCaprio, who was in Japan to promote the opening of the movie “Inception.” He was there with his mother and sister, taking in the sites much as we were (except for the bodyguards). As many of the teachers on our tour were women, it goes without saying that this really made our day. We saw him at another shrine as well, which helped us to forget the heat and gave us some great photos and stories to take back with us.
Tokyo, Kyoto & Osaka |
Explore the chaotic, neon-filled capital of Japan in Tokyo, and sample a traditional tempura dinner. Race on a bullet train to Kyoto to visit the Kinkaku-ji Temple and watch a Kimono show. |
Best Explorica experience: By far this would be our trip to France and Spain in June 2008. The night before we were leaving Madrid, Spain beat Germany to win the Euro Cup, its first major title in 44 years. All the students bought Spain jerseys, and a large group went to the Plaza de Colón to watch the game on the huge outdoor TV screen, after our Tour Director found out all of the pertinent information for us. They were greeted enthusiastically by the hundreds of Spanish fans with chants of “USA!” and we all celebrated with the population of Madrid by singing, dancing, and hugging in the streets and on the metro as we made our way back to the hotel. We flew back to the US the next day, tired but so excited that we had been in Spain for such a momentous occasion! Those kinds of experiences cannot be planned into an itinerary, and are one of the magical things about travel that I love.
Favorite Explorica tour (so far!): As all of my tours go to France and Spain in order to accommodate both groups of language students, it is hard to pick a favorite. However, I have to say that the Paris, Biarritz and Barcelona Tour (with a Madrid extension) is one of my all-time favorites. Besides including both Paris and Barcelona (my two favorite cities in France and Spain), the stops in Biarritz and Bilbao are simply magical.
Paris, Biarritz & Barcelona |
Visit Notre Dame Cathedral on Ile de lat Cité, Paris. Shop Mercat de la Boqueriá while walking along Las Ramblas, Barcelona. And visit San Sebastián, Biarritz. |
Best travel tip: Prepare ALL participants (students, parents, chaperones) as fully as possible! This includes things such as the amount of walking to expect, the role of the Tour Director, expected behavior and consequences for infractions, possible food considerations (such as when and where to buy snacks), hotel size, possible free time activities…and the list goes on and on! Something of central importance: cultural considerations. For example, the French rarely speak loudly enough on public transportation for others to hear. As you can imagine, this is not the norm for American teenagers! Pointing things like this out ahead of time can reduce the cultural misunderstandings that travel can engender.