“The air is cleaner. The water is cleaner. The food is more natural. The grass is greener. The sky is more blue. The clouds look like a painting!”
This is what I told everybody who asked what France was like. Being in the small, rolling hills town of Yssingeaux, everything seemed more beautiful. I couldn’t stop talking about it.
While I was in awe of the beauty of the countryside, there are so many different aspects of life that the West Ottawa community has been surprised to discover during their international travels.
West Ottawa community members have voyaged all across the world, from South America to Asia, finding many unknown factors of life while going abroad.
Jr. Lauren Espy commented on the fact that Tiananmen Square in China is open to the public despite the tragic occurrences there. It may come as a surprise to many that the infamous Square hasn’t been transformed into a monument of sorts. “I was there, but I didn’t know what it was at the time,” Espy said. After she learned about the history, her visit has a much different memory.
Students have been frequently surprised by the kindness towards visitors in the places they have travelled. Sr. Max VanGrouw said that the biggest difference he noticed when he went to Spain this past February “was a general care for people and things around them.”
As VanGrouw perused the streets of Spain, he frequently noticed the citizens giving food to the homeless and picking up litter they found on the ground, which is not something he is used to seeing here. He was especially shocked that drivers would stop for him to cross the street, even at unmarked intersections.
“I almost caused an accident on the first day because I didn’t understand that they were waiting for me to cross,” VanGrouw said. This was especially hard for VanGrouw to get used to while in Spain because he has almost been hit by multiple cars here while training for his track season, and he has adapted to be extra careful.
“The biggest difference was probably that most of the water wasn’t drinkable so we had to use bottled water as our water,” WO Alumnus Jackson Field said about Guatemala. Being in a country with little clean water was an eye-opener for Field in terms of appreciating what he normally would take for granted.
“I didn’t realize how much I open my mouth in the shower until I was there… it definitely taught me to be more aware of my surroundings and what I’m doing at any given time,” Field said.
Other community members have noted the shocking similarities between our society and those they had the privilege of visiting. For WOVA Principal Tung Nguyen, this was the focal point of his sister school exchange program trip to France this year. “Even though the language, schedule, calendar, subjects, etc may be different from that of our own, at the core the students and staff had similar goals and values when compared to WO,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen noticed that the students he visited at ESCY had a strong dedication to the experiences they were building. Many students spoke another language and took advantage of their school’s travels to other countries as a cultural learning opportunity. Some students even travelled near an hour each day to attend the school, or stayed in on-campus dorms for the week if they lived even further. Nguyen compared this to the intense numbers of school-of-choice students at WO.
“The most important similarity is the need to connect with others and to be a part of something that is more than yourself. Their students wanted a sense of belonging the same as ours. They were eager to try new experiences and to learn in authentic ways,” Nguyen said.
However, Superintendent Tim Bearden noticed many differences within the schools that he has visited. Through his ventures at schools in France, Italy, Spain, England, and Japan, he has come to deeply appreciate our school system here. Bearden said that “the American experience that includes the arts, athletics, clubs and lots of student / teacher interaction feels like a richer, more complete experience” in comparison to the lecture-heavy studies he has witnessed outside of the states.
Bearden was additionally surprised to discover that the world doesn’t seem so busy outside of what we typically know. “Life seems a little slower. One of the things I appreciate about all of those countries is the time people take to appreciate simple things in life,” Bearden said.
Jr. Caedmon Kephart also noticed this quality of life during his trip to Japan last year. “There was no honking, all the cars were very quiet, even in the biggest cities everything was so muted,” Kephart said.
Additionally, Kephart was intrigued by the lack of communication between people on the streets. As opposed to a place like downtown Holland, “when you passed someone on the street, nobody looked up or made eye contact or smiled or waved, they simply pretended you weren’t there.”
As a perspective from the other side, WO exchange students from Italy shared some of the differences between their home country and ours. Soph. Elisa Alboni said, “The biggest difference is the freedom we experience: I’m used to walking or taking public transportation to everywhere coming from a big city and here I always have to ask for rides as I cannot drive.”
As a typically independent person, Alboni misses this freedom she had in her home country, but Soph. Alice Caruso enjoys that West Ottawa students have so many choices for courses, clubs, and sports through the school. Even though she is not used to switching classrooms for every class, she loves being able to take a wide array of courses instead of focusing on a singular topic.
“That’s why I came here, to experience the American high school that is completely different to the Italian one,” Caruso said.
Travelling is a great way to build character, gain experience, and learn culture. There are so many opportunities that other cities, states, and countries can offer outside of one’s comfort zone.
Bearden said, “I love travelling and visiting other places — it makes the world feel smaller to have friends and memories across the globe, and I value those memories and experiences much more than things. We learn so much about ourselves, life, and the world by travelling and experiencing how others live!”
