The Chance of a Lifetime

By Olivia Hamel

On February vacation during the school year of 2010-2011, an exciting event is taking place that the Spanish II-III students will be lucky enough to participate in. A trip to Spain was planned, for the students now enrolled in the level III Spanish classes, and is being offered to some of the more advanced students enrolled in the level II Spanish classes. Although the price seems steep, $2,895, for each student, it includes airfare, hotels, 2 meals a day and tours. Students will only be required to bring spending money for 1 meal a day and money to purchase souvenirs if wanted. The price is definitely reasonable for all that is included, and not to mention the fact that, for some students, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. To have almost everything included is rare and usually only offered to larger organizations that are going on trips such as these, because of the fact that they most likely receive a group rate on most expenses. So the question is, why not snatch up this opportunity while it was there?

The departure day is February 22^nd and the students will return on March 2^nd, the flight will be six to seven hours depending on whether or not the flight is actually a direct one, if not then it will be expected to be longer due to lay-overs.

Seeing this marvelous opportunity for what it was, many of the Spanish II-III students jumped at the chance to travel across the world and embark on an amazing journey. Seventeen students are planning on taking this trip, this school year, along with two staff members from the school, Senora Hassett and Ms. Gelineau. Senora Hassett, one of Hopkinton High School’s Spanish teachers, is a veteran traveler. She has been to Spain, twice before, with students. When questioned about her previous two trips, she stated that her favorite place to visit was El Hambra, a Moorish fortress, or in other words castle, located in Southern Spain. She also stated that it was on the itinerary for the planned trip coming up. Along with that historic site, many more are on the itinerary to be visited such as, El Prado, which is a museum of fine art, The Valley of the Fallen, which is where soldiers were buried due to the Spanish civil war. Duly noted this trip will be an amazing learning experience along with the opportunity of a lifetime.