Following the Equator | EF's Educational Travel Blog

One of my own

In my time with EF, I have been lucky enough to attend many conventions and events where I meet staff from other EF offices. Talking to current staff, I have often heard the opener, "I went on an EF tour in high school." I always asked who the tour director was; it was fun to hear about.

People on tour always say they will stay in touch, and they often do. It is much rarer to run into people outside of another tour. Back in 2000 when I was working in our London office, someone buzzed to come in. She had been on a tour with me in 1993 and now worked for Northwest Airlines and was visiting London. She had found the EF office by chance and was meaning to ask if anyone knew me. In 1998 an ex-participant from a tour was in London working for a year. We met a few times; she developed her support for Arsenal football club and was able to enjoy them winning the championship that season.

Despite such marvellous meetings, none of my own was working for EF, until April of last year. I received an email from Kevin Lynch. He was on tour with me (A Capital Connection) as a student in 2003. I remember his group well. The group leader, Doug Tieszen, was one of the most engaging I have travelled with; few others will spend their first jet-lagged evening in Europe chatting about Kurt Vonnegut with me. A small group (seven plus Doug), they were superb together and so much fun to be around. Kevin sent me a photo with his email, taken outside our London hotel. I remember the hotel, the Blakemore, and the photo. I had, fortunately, forgotten my haircut.

Kevin had left high school and made his way to Denver and EF via college in Idaho and is now working as a regional accounts coordinator. He genuinely shared how travel with EF had made such a difference to him. I am lucky to have been part of it. One of mine, working for EF. I am so proud! Get him on as many conventions as possible; I want Kevin to share his tale with the world!

Helping cheats prosper

I heard a report on English radio last week that said more students than ever are cheating in exams (I took this to mean that more than ever have been caught.). Anyway, I seem to stand alone in seeing this cheating as a good thing. Students are taking electronic devices into exams and using them to call up the facts required. I would like to think they are saying, “I don’t need to memorise all of this stuff; I will always have the facts at hand. Let’s spend more time on concepts.” There is always a place in education for stuffing the well with basic facts; perhaps we don’t need to stuff them so deeply any more.

I thought about this when I sat down to write my first posting for this blog. My first tour was in March 1993. I had a general idea of what was expected, but I had one overriding concern: What do I talk about?

Of course, I could babble on about the sites in as much as I knew them and punctuate the day with nuggets of advice on food, public transport and currencies. But what would I actually talk about? How could I be educational? I stumbled across an idea that has served me well ever since: Talk about what you enjoy. My early tours were littered with commentaries that were not much more than lists of historical events padded out with a few hilarious tales. Subsequently, I realised that I was not offering too much more than could be found in any good history book (and a few bad ones).

So, I adapted. I began to talk less about what I had learned and more of what interests me.  Suddenly, I found myself discussing writers I enjoy and their views on travel. I played classical music to groups, read poetry and went through local newspapers with them. I know most tour directors bring their own interests to the microphone; it is a wonderful liberty we are granted. On tour, local city guides do a first-class job of stuffing the wells of knowledge; I am there to concentrate on concepts. I am excited to introduce new ideas on how we look at the world around us, what it means to be somewhere else, who we are when we travel and why we are that way.

A good friend used to introduce the role of the tour director to potential new recruits as someone who is “different.” Not a teacher, parent, sports coach, employee or any member of an association from home, but a whole new person for students to prod and ask questions of. I revel in that role.

So, if students on my tour take a quiz on the bus, they are welcome to cheat and look up facts. However, they won’t find the answers online to many of the other questions we ask each other during a tour.

Staff Spotlight: Paul Mattesini

Starting next week, Paul Mattesini, one of EF’s best-loved tour directors, will begin posting weekly to Following the Equator. Look for his advice and musings on everything travel-related. In anticipation of his blogging debut, a little bit about Paul:


The early years: I was born and raised in the UK. At the age of 15 I took a break from school and traveled throughout Europe for five years, before returning home and completing night-school leading to the University of London, where I studied history.  


EF career path: I joined EF in 1992, and have since led more than 200 tours to 50 countries. I spent a year in Boston working in the Customized Department and I still check most customized itineraries each year. These days, I lead several tours a year, but I also work with product development, designing and adjusting tours, and look after the tour director website.

The EF family: I spent two years managing the London regional office (1999-2001), where I was responsible for allocating tours and hiring and training tour directors. I liked Michelle McHale so much as a new tour director that we married in 2004! We have a 2-year-old daughter, Izzy, and another daughter due April 25th.

Living the good life: Having lived in Spain for a few years, we are now back in rural England with a growing collection of chicken, sheep and rabbits.


Hobbies: Love backgammon, dancing with my daughter, keeping bees and cooking. As the son of an Italian chef, I was cooking from the age of six on.

Favorite sport: Arsenal football (soccer). I was a former season ticket holder, and once bought a flat so I could live less than a mile from the stadium.


Best travel destination: Thailand, without a doubt. I love it.


Favorite tour destination: Iceland was superb. Prague is a favorite city.

Around the world with EF staff: Recollections from Dublin, London and Paris

By Catherine Henkels, EF Tour Consultant

In October, I embarked on my first EF Educational Tour. I had traveled to Europe before on my own and with a group, but never on an EF tour and I was excited to find out what it was all about. The tour I went on was Dublin, London and Paris, a tour that visits three countries in only 10 days. The advantages of traveling with a group became evident pretty quickly, as it would be difficult to see as much as we did in such a short time.

I traveled with a group from Indianapolis, Indiana, and there was at least one person on the tour who had never left the state before.  The EF staff greeted the Hoosiers at the airport in Dublin, and despite many hours of travel, they were happy to be there. In what I soon learned would be a recurring theme throughout this tour, we didn’t let jetlag slow us down.

The first day in Dublin we took a walking tour to gain our bearings, and after dinner, most of the group ventured out to see what Dublin was like at night. The group leader decided that boys and girls should split up for the adventure into the city. My colleague, Emily, and I accompanied the girls to explore Dublin by night. We walked around the Temple Bar area, where street performers drew crowds. The students got a kick out of seeing the human statues and the different styles of the locals. Dublin was definitely a nice introduction to Europe for this group, which was comprised of many new travelers. There was very little in the way of language barriers and there was no need to use public transportation, as Dublin is a smaller city and easily walkable. We could gain our bearings and adjust to our new surroundings, without adding the additional maze of mass transit systems.

Our 10 Best of 2009

Thank you to everyone for reading, sharing and supporting Following the Equator in 2009. We sure enjoyed posting great stories, facts, tips and profiles about educational travel and the group leaders who make it possible.

We're already planning some exciting new things for 2010. Most of all, though, we want to hear from you. What do you want to read and see on this blog—more interviews with teachers, more amazing travel photos, more fundraising and recruiting ideas, more tidbits about the things to see and do on tour? Let us know at equator@ef.com.

As we look ahead to an exciting year of travel in 2010, we thought we'd take a quick look back at a successful 2009 and our 10 favorite blog posts of the year. Feel free to post your own comments below.

Focus On: Royal Observatory, Greenwich

Every once in a while, political leadership and science come together to advance man's transportation possibilities, and end up leaving some truly lasting marks.

Forty years ago today, efforts by scientists and astronauts at NASA, coupled with the inspiring will of the late President Kennedy, placed the first men on the moon. That day in 1969 left us with a quote for the ages, an enduring image and a lasting marker (OK, maybe not so lasting, but the sentiment surely is).

More than 300 years ago and across the ocean in England, King Charles II commissioned the Royal Observatory at Greenwich to better chart the night skies as a way to improve navigation. The lasting marks that Charles & Co. left behind: the Prime Meridian (i.e., 0° longitude, the arbitrary place chosen to divide the world vertically); and growing out of the Prime Meridan, Greenwich Mean Time ("GMT"), the world's "official" time, from which all the world's time zones are calculated (e.g., my time zone is GMT –5). 

Groups traveling on certain EF Educational Tours itineraries to the United Kingdom will visit the Royal Observatory at Greenwich.

Although EF offers no tours to the moon (yet), there are domestic itineraries that include the Kenendy Space Center. And, of course, EF offers tours all over the world, any of which are great for seeing the moon—and your world—from new angles!

Photo: neiljs via Flickr (CC license)

Focus On: Lake District

About halfway up Great Britain, in the upper reaches of England and just before the border with Scotland, lies the Lake District.

It is a stunningly beautiful landscape of lakes and "fells" (mountains), old stone walls and rolling green countryside. It's a rural paradise, like Switzerland with lower mountains and (charmingly) lower levels of perfectionism. 

William Wordsworth, one of the premier poets of the English language, is a product of the Lake District. This is one of his most famous poems. Wordsworth's residences—Dove Cottage in the village of Grasmere (his home from 1799 to 1808) and the nearby Rydal Mount (1813-1850)—are both open to visitors.

Photo of the Week: Stonehenge

The mysterious origins of Stonehenge give it an aura that has marveled visitors for millenniums. That aura gives nearly all photos of the legendary stone structure a magical, mystical quality.

This photo of Stonehenge—taken by Running_Machina, who submitted it to the EF Tours group on Flickr—is no different.

If you have your own travel photos, please add them to the EF Tours pool on Flickr. We select a new Photo of the Week every Thursday.

Photo: Running_Machina via Flickr (EF Tours pool)

Photo of the Week: London Eye

The London Eye—Europe's biggest Ferris wheel that rises nearly 450 feet over the city and opened in 2000—has been compared to a much older European icon.

"The Eye has done for London what the Eiffel Tower did for Paris," wrote noted British architect Sir Richard Rogers, "which
is to give it a symbol and to let people climb above the city and look back down on it. Not just specialists or rich people, but everybody. That's the beauty of it: it is public and accessible, and it is in a great position at the heart of London."

I love the perspective of this photo of the London Eye, which was submitted to the EF Tours group on Flickr by Skaines.

Do you have great travel destination photos? Submit them to the
EF Tours pool on Flickr. We select a new Photo of the Week every Thursday.

Photo: Skaines via Flickr (EF Tours pool)

Group Leader Spotlight: Linda Piccolo

From attending a Wiccan wedding at Stonehenge to bribing a housekeeper to let her see the suite where Agatha Christie wrote her novels, Linda Piccolo has had her fair share of adventures while traveling abroad with her students on EF tours.

The high school English and theater teacher from Montana has even been inspired by her travels to write a play, which was published and performed by one of her drama classes last year.

In this installment of the Group Leader Spotlight, Linda shares some of her experiences, describes how important travel is for students and hints at her next travel-inspired play.

Group Leader Spotlight: Chad Brannon

Traveling has always been an integral part of Chad Brannon's life. Now, as a middle-school science teacher in Alabama, Chad is making travel an important part of his students' lives, too.

And he has the stories to prove it.

Ask him about the effect that educational travel has on his students, and he'll tell you a story about the boy who once had no direction but now credits his tour for opening his eyes, or the boy who traveled to Costa Rica and now wants to major in Spanish education and help underprivileged kids speak English, or the girl who came out of her shell after braving the zip line through the Costa Rican rainforest.

Chad—pictured above on the right with his co-group leader, John DiPlacido—is preparing to lead his fourth tour with EF, taking his students back to Costa Rica in June. He took some time out of his busy spring break to share some of his favorite stories with us:

Photo of the Week: Changing of the Guard

The Changing of the Queen's Guard outside Buckingham Palace is one of the most popular (and most photographed) sights in London.

This photo was submitted to the EF Tours group on Flickr by ls1rks. If you have any good travel destination photos, please submit them to our pool on Flickr. We choose a new Photo of the Week every Thursday.

Photo: ls1rks via Flickr