Following the Equator | EF's Educational Travel Blog

Global Citizen Spotlight: Lucy Chen

“Almost a week later, and I’m still jet-lagged. I guess it's just my body telling me to never ever leave Europe mode. Not that I want to. I spent 10 days being my crazy self, boarding too many flights, exploring picturesque cities, eating too much chocolate, running on four hours of sleep each night, playing pretzel on top of the Swiss alps, visiting Willi-Graf-Gymnasium in Berlin, painting blocks to recreate the Berlin Wall for the 20th anniversary, being photographed and videotaped 24/7, eating doners (yum), being way too American and tourist-like, yodeling, lying down on the streets of Berlin spelling "Berlin," doing the same in Prague, making new friends, writing too many journal entries, laughing, crying, and doing so much more. Gosh, I miss it…so, so much. Life was so surreal those 10 days…”

I wrote that in my journal a few days after I came home (which then seemed like the most boring and trivial place on earth) from my EF Global Citizen Scholarship tour of Berlin, Munich, Prague, Lucerne, and Dachau. Even eight months later, typing on my friend Bridget’s Facebook wall, I found myself again reminiscing about some of the same exact moments. Yes, we’re still friends, and collectively, along with Aswar, Matt, Sajda, Sharvani, Lindsay, Dizz, Shawaunna, and Kylie, we probably still remember all our adventures in Europe like it was yesterday.

This past summer, I was honored to represent the youth of the United States on a scholarship tour of Berlin, Munich, Prague, Dachau, Lucerne, and Washington, D.C., as one of the 10 national winners of the EF Global Citizen Scholarship. Yes, as a Chinese-American, I grew up with Mandarin and the dialect of Shanghai being my first languages, and in high school, I was taking the most challenging classes, learning about the world, and studying French. At the World Affairs Council of Philadelphia, I also tackled international issues, serving on the Student Advisory Council and as Model Senate Chair of the Foreign Relations Committee and Model UN Chair, but this trip made everything real.

Focus On: European license plates

If you find yourself in a tour bus on a highway somewhere in central Europe, looking out at the license plates of the cars passing by, you might think Europeans have devised a public way to grade drivers.  

There are cars whose license plates bear an "A"; presumably they are the best drivers. Then there are those license plates marked with a "B"; good drivers still, one supposes, but could be better with more road practice. Before you know it, license plates marked "D" and even "F" pass by—with drivers either oblivious to their poor grade or defiantly refusing to let it bother them. 

Suddenly, as you wonder why you haven't seen a "C" driver all morning, an "E" drives by. An extra rung on the ladder of shame before hitting "F," perhaps? Then a "P." A driver graded on a pass/fail basis, maybe? Then an "NL." Not Listed? No License? 

If the grading-system hypothesis is beginning to feel like a stretch, it's because it is. The letters represent the country the car (and driver) is from. "A" is Austria. "B" is Belgium. "D" is Germany (Deutschland). "E" is Spain (España). "F" is France. "P" is Portugal. And "NL" is the Netherlands.

Follow EF's Global Citizens on Twitter

EF's Global Citizens become world travelers next week.

Ten inspiring U.S. high school students were selected to receive tour scholarships through EF's annual Global Citizens essay contest. These outstanding Global Citizens depart this weekend on an incredible educational tour to Berlin, Prague, Munich and Lucerne.

The best part is that you can follow along on Twitter. Each day on tour, a different Global Citizen will tweet about their experiences. You can follow them at twitter.com/efglobalcitizen.

EF Tour Director Alex Luther—a Germany native and good friend of Following the Equator—may occasionally be tweeting during the tour, as well. You can follow Alex at twitter.com/AlexLuther.

Photo of the Week: Mount Pilatus

One of the wonders of traveling is seeing the seemingly simple things for the first time. Sometimes, it occurs in the most spectacular setting.

Imagine seeing snow for the first time—on top of Mount Pilatus in Switzerland. That's what happened to whittykitty32055, who submitted this photo to the EF Tours group on Flickr.

"First time I saw snow, and it was absolutely gorgeous to look at," the photographer wrote. The photo is proof positive.

If you have photos of your own travel discoveries, submit them to the EF Tour pool on Flickr. We pick a new Photo of the Week every Thursday.

Photo: whittykitty32055 via Flickr (EF Tours pool)

Focus On: Gotthard Tunnel

The Alps are something of a Tower of Babel in Switzerland—they're the dividing line separating the German-speaking Swiss (about 65 percent of the Swiss population) from the Italian-speaking Swiss (about 5 percent).

And the Alps also demarcate sunny and cloudy: Switzerland's Italian-speaking region (known as Ticino) has nearly 300 days of sun a year, while the German-speaking regions just over the Alps can (and often do) remain mired in clouds for months.

Fortunately, there's the Gotthard Tunnel (Gotthard, if you're approaching from the German side; San Gottardo, if you're approaching from the Italian side). A railroad tunnel has been there since the 1880s, but it wasn't until 1980 that a road tunnel was built, allowing tour buses and cars alike to avoid the hassle of the Alps by just driving right through them.

Group Leader Spotlight: Ian Lowe

Ian Lowe, a teacher and former football coach at Lethbridge Collegiate Institute in Alberta, Canada, first began traveling with students on the football team and in the high school band. After seeing the value these experiences provided to the program and his students, he promoted trips to Europe, and his travel program took off from there.

Now, Ian travels with a large group of students every year. He even has parents calling him, trying to get a head start on enrolling their children.

Ian (above right) shares his thoughts with us on the importance of student travel, advice for new group leaders and how traveling with students is like coaching a team.

Group Leader Spotlight: Dan Ware

It can happen at any point in life, but once you’ve been bitten by the travel bug, it’s hard to sit still. And with four trips on the horizon, Dan Ware—a history and geography teacher at Rock Bridge High School in Columbia, Missouri—is doing anything but that.

Whether he’s traveling on an educational tour to Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam or exploring Austria, Germany and Switzerland, Dan understands the importance of the lessons that take place outside of the classroom. To integrate his tours into his classroom lessons, he takes advantage of the credit option EF offers and also makes sure to teach his students some of the life skills they’ll need for traveling abroad at his pre-tour meetings.

Over the years, Dan (pictured above on a school visit in Kenya) has learned a few tricks for holding a successful recruitment, too. He shares some of his secrets:

Our 10 Best of 2008

This is the 320th post of 2008 at Following the Equator, and we decided to commemorate our blog's first full calendar year with a top-10 list of favorite posts.

We had a lot of stories, videos, photos, interviews, tips and perspectives about educational travel. We launched some regular weekly features, including our Tip of the Week and Photo of the Week. We debuted Life on Tour, introduced EF on YouTube and EF on Facebook and promoted the EF Tours group on Flickr (above). And, along the way, we encountered a lot of inspiring travelers.

Following the Equator also was nominated for a Blogger's Choice Award and finished fifth out of 1,177 blogs for Best Travel Blog. Thank you to everyone who supported our blog in 2008 by voting, reading, sharing, commenting and subscribing. We're looking forward to an even more successful 2009.

Life on Tour's Top 10 Moments

Six strangers brought together on one educational tour through Switzerland, France and Italy. That's Life on Tour. EF's reality web series produced countless memorable moments, as the student travelers made it up Mount Pilatus, up the Eiffel Tower and up to their elbows making pizza in Rome.

Now that the first season is complete, I watched all 10 episodes again and compiled my list of the most memorable moments of Life on Tour.

Let us know what you think of the list and post your own comments
(or even your own list) below. And be sure to cast your vote for your favorite moment in our Life on Tour Poll.

Europeans and authenticity

A few weeks back, I wrote triumphantly about my 9-foot Christmas tree. I didn't get into the guilt I felt over the fact that the tree was artificial—i.e., not authentic ("That's another post," I thought at the time—voilà). The Europeans I lived among in my time abroad would have taken one look at that plastic monstrosity and been mortified. In fact, a visiting European friend had just that reaction.

Europe specializes in authentic, as I discovered during my eight years there. Household coffee is made in old-fashioned stove-top Bialetti contraptions; no plugs to plug in or clocks to set. A Coca-Cola ordered at a table comes in a glass bottle, not in a plastic bottle, or from a syrup/water mix sprayed into a paper cup. Shoppers crowd outdoor streets lined with centuries-old storefronts, rather than admittedly spectacular but inescapably faux enclosed shopping malls. Building materials used on homes are still primarily stone, brick and mortar, wood and slate; vinyl siding has thankfully yet to become popular.

Life on Tour Poll: Favorite city

The student travelers on Life on Tour have already visited a trio of Europe's most amazing cities in Switzerland, France and Italy. Where would you most want to travel?

poll by twiigs.com

Rear Window

In anyone's house or apartment, there's usually one window, door or balcony that offers the most picturesque view of the world outside the four walls.

My four most recent houses (OK, three apartments and now finally a house) have each been in a different country. In each home, I made a point of identifying the best view and taking a picture of it.

Here they are: