Day One: The Gathering

The first day of any Eurotour is always the most underrated days of the trip. Why? Because this is where the whole group is together for the first time since our initial orientation meeting. This is where I get to start learning the names of everyone, and where you get to see how the group is really going to gel.

For those of you unfamiliar with these types of trips, we always need to conduct an orientation session early in the winter. The purpose is to guide all of the participants through the itinerary of the trip, logistical details such as what to pack, and lay out trip expectations.

At the orientation Anthony Borgo does a great job of informing everyone about the itinerary. Why? Because this is his fourth time leading this trip and knows the schedules stops so very well. You can feel the passion and excitement growing. Karen then leads everyone through the logistical details. She does a great job because she is so very experienced at travel and this helps to alleviate a number of apprehensions about these details. My part? Well, let’s just say someone needs to play the bad cop. I run through the ground rules and expectations. This is, after all, a Georgian College trip. And on this trip we are all ambassadors of Georgian College.

On the day of our departure the faculty travel to the airport to meet all the participants. Once at the airport, we start meeting everyone and are pleasantly met by the fact that, despite having left early, we are not the first ones here. This is a great start – if some of your participants are at the airport early and everyone else is well on time, you know that this is an strong indicator that you are dealing with a responsible and enthusiastic group! Fantastic!

Once we have mostly everyone checked in, I start attempting learning names. The group seems to get a kick out of my going through, asking a name, and then repeating everyone’s name again as I add to the list. Some of them get a little tricky by shifting positions when my back is turned on that part of the circle. Nice try Connor, but I saw that (thank goodness I got his name right!). Sometimes, by demonstrating that you are not afraid to show your fun side, everyone becomes a little less apprehensive about travelling with everyone else. We are going to be together for twelve days after all!

Once through security, we get the opportunity to chat with some of the group over some coffee. We share stories, ideas, experiences from the previous semester, and even touch upon a couple of deep topics. As faculty, we start to get a real sense of what everyone is excited about and even what they are apprehensive about.

Apprehensive? Absolutely! For some of our participants this is the first time that they have ever travelled out of Canada, maybe even Ontario.

Everyone gets on the plane, and off we go. I myself try to snooze for a couple of hours after watching a short movie – The Revenant. Okay, maybe only short if you have 152 minutes to spare on an eight hour flight! However, Leonardo di Caprio definitely deserved that Oscar!

Looking forward to Rome!