By Clara Atwell, Reporter
This summer many Vashon High School students left the Pacific Northwest behind to see the world.
Sophomore Mia Knight and junior Sam Knight spent two weeks eating delicious pizza, gelato, seafood, and traveling from one beautiful place to another in Greece and Italy.
In Italy they stayed in Venice, Portofino, and Rome. They explored Venice by taking a boat tour along the grand canal and exploring alleyways lined with souvenir, clothing, and gelato shops. In the fishing village of Portofino, in Northern Italy, the Knights relaxed on the beach and took a beautiful hike along a cliff, which was a favorite memory of both of the siblings.
“I love hiking in general,” said Sam Knight. “It was really cool to do it in this new place [and] to see all the views once we got to the top.”
In Rome they visited the historic Colosseum and went to Vatican City where they got to visit the breathtaking Sistine Chapel built in 1473 under Pope Sixtus IV. It is most famous for the breathtaking paintings, by Michelangelo, that cover the ceiling. This chapel is located within the Apostolic Palace where the Pope lives.
Out of all the places they traveled, the Knights favorite was their last stop in Santorini, a Greek island famous for its white houses lining cliffs by the sea.
“[I liked it there] because at night the whole hillside would be lit up and people would play music,” said Mia Knight.
Here they took a boat to an Island which is home to the famous volcano Thera and rode donkeys up the steep hills of Santorini.
Senior Lauren Jenks took a different approach to vacationing when traveling to Laos for most of July to do community service with Rustic Pathways. She worked on three projects in different villages, mostly focused on building school structures. Jenks also learned a lot about the culture in Laos, which is very different from Vashon.
“The people there were so much more welcoming and thankful for every little thing,” said Jenks. “Also, small villages were all oriented around their religion, so for villages in Laos they all operated under Buddhist principles, like giving the monks rice every morning and so on.
“That also meant more conservative dress, women aren’t even allowed to shower naked, they have to wear sarongs. Also the food was completely different… a few bowls of chicken feet here and there, but really good fruit shakes and a lot of rice.”
After hosting Lidewij van der Vaart, a dutch exchange student for a month, sophomore Adri Yarkin went to stay in the Netherlands for most of August. Here, she made friends with the locals, experienced the biking lifestyle, picked up a few phrases of Dutch, and learned more about the Dutch culture.
“The Dutch are a lot more formal in their greetings and farewells than Americans. They kiss each other on the cheek three successive times,” said Yarkin, commenting on the differences between Dutch and American culture. “People there all dress very fashionably and almost everyone conforms to that.”
Yarkin and van der Vaart traveled to Amsterdam for a week by themselves where they stayed in a house that was twice as old as the United States. They also visited Giethoorn, a small island that can only be reached by boat, where they stayed in a cabin with five of van der Vaart’s friends.
Although Yarkin had a wonderful time immersing herself in Dutch culture, she appreciated her homecoming.
“I not only missed my family and friends and wallabies, but I really missed hills too,” said Yarkin. “Hills are great, they give such a sense of security.” It’s funny that when you experience something as incredible as traveling abroad, when you come back you treasure your home a little more.