Riversides’ annual Europe trip offers unique homestay program

This spring break, a group of lucky Riverside students will be traveling to Vienna, Austria with Riverside’s unique homestay program.
The 16 day trip leaves March 8 and returns March 22. Students will be staying with host families and experiencing Austrian culture up close and personal. The students will spend a weekend with the host families and during the two week trip explore Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. The first day, students will be welcomed by the Principal of an Austrian school and spend a day in the school. Students will also get to watch a Mozart and Strauss performance, visit the Palace, tour Prague and, of course, have lots of time for shopping.
“The best part for me is definitely the homestay, and getting to know the people,” said PE teacher and trip sponsor Mr. Mario Luongo, “The way that they host you and where they take you is great. We get to go into all the nooks and crannies and see all the really cool stuff that normal tourists don’t get to see.”
Luongo encourages students to go because when you go on a homestay trip you make a lifelong friend and pen pal. “We’ve had students go back to Austrian students’ weddings and even in the summertime, when our student’s families are traveling in Europe, they stop in Vienna, Austria and stay with the families they were with when they were homestay students.”
Luongo added that there are many benefits to an international trip. “Past students that have gone on the trip have enjoyed meeting the people, sampling all of the different food and experiencing the freedom of two hours a day to go shopping,” said Luongo. “I would encourage students to go on this trip because it is really an eye opener. There are employers today that want to know that you’ve have some life experience, that you’ve travelled and you understand international ways of life. And the more you travel, the more you realize that we are all the same and the barriers that people set up in their minds don’t really exist.”
This is Riverside’s seventeenth trip. The Europe trip goes somewhere different every year. In the past students have been to Greece, Turkey and lots of other interesting places. This trip is still open to join and if you are interested contact Mr. Luongo or Mr. Chee.
Photo courtesy of panoramio.com