Venice

Then yesterday (Wednesday) we drove an hour with the buses after breakfast to a different part of the coast and took a boat to the city of Venice! Even from a distance, it looked so cool to see so many old buildings right on the water. When we got off the boat, we took a group picture and had free time for 5 hours. We couldn’t do anything in a group because the streets and bridges are very narrow and with 94 exchange students, that just wouldn’t work. I was with Johnny, Sam, Izze, and Jess for the morning and afternoon, and together we initially got pretty lost, but acquired a map from a very helpful native, and found our way back to the main city. When we were lost though, it was so quiet and peaceful with the residential houses having the laundry drying over the streets, the boats floating in the narrow canals, and the natives going on walks. It was such a contrast to the inner city where all the tourists are. When we did get to the heavily trafficked portion, we took a lot of pictures, got some lunch, and made several stops just sitting by the water of the Grand Canal. The weather was also gorgeous, but a little on the hot side. It wasn’t even 80 degrees, and I was uncomfortably warm! I’m not going to make it through the Arkansas summer when I get back! Before we knew it, we had to meet back at the boat together and head back to the hotel. After dinner we had a brief meeting where Doris, our main exchange coordinator and chaperone for the exchange students in Austria, told us all how great the EuroTour has been together, and she wished us oldies the best of luck in the years to come. We got our “certificate of achievement” for completing our year abroad too. We did this that night because that it was the last evening of EuroTour, and even during the conference in the coming days, we won’t all be able to be in one room again. There were some tears, but this is only the surface of how emotional the next weeks will be as we say goodbye to our newbies, the exchange students we’ve known since August, our host families, our host town, our school friends, and the country of Austria itself. When that sad meeting was over, we had free time until 1 am, about 3 hours. I went swimming again, and made another sick sandcastle with Johnny, until we were told to move to another beach because apparently that one was private property. It was a great time in Italy, and now we are driving back to Austria for the district conference. I’ll reflect on the whole EuroTour then. Italy was great though!