When spring break came around this year, many people at Dimond were looking forward to having a great time off. A new season was coming, and a week long off school was just perfect to get ready for spring and all the adventures it had to offer.

On the other hand, there was a group of nine students and two adult chaperones who were looking forward to their educational trip to Spain.

The students who went on the trip were Dimond Sophomores Mariyn Drake, Dylan Asplund, Bryce Stevens, Andrew Masley, Rion Haworth, Nina McGettrick, Lila Watson and Taylor Jolley. Dimond Freshman Aubrey Hickel also went on the trip.

The two chaperones were the Dimond Curriculum Principal Christian Caldarera and the Dimond Spanish teacher Virginia Vinales.
Vinales had been to Europe multiple times before, and by now she adapted to the life in a different continent. She was excited to go to Spain as she had a lot of things she wanted to do already knowing some of the country.

Vinales said, “I have been to Europe multiple times, and I actually studied in Spain for the summer of 2018. This trip was from March 9-18.

“We to a lot of museums and historical sites which I liked, and also I was really happy with the fact that most of the kids came back more proficient in Spanish.”

Caldarera had also previously been to Spain, but even though he already knew what to expect of the country, he still was amazed by some of the things he saw.

Caldarera said, “I loved all the painted glass, historical artifacts, the culture and just everything about it. The food was also really good.

“Everything was just amazing. You have to see it for you to understand me.”

Hickel was the only freshman on the trip, so she did not have the experience of creating memories with some of her favorite friends, but she did have a good time creating memories that she certainly will not forget.

Hickel said, “We started off in Madrid and went shopping, and there was a lot of cool things we saw, and it was actually really fun. We saw a palace, and it was cool as it was where the king and queen had lived.

The best part of the trip was probably the tapas that we ate at what became my favorite restaurant. I really liked meeting a bunch of new people, and I made a lot of new friends.”
Drake said, “We went to a lot of cathedrals, and to Madrid, Costa del Sol, Toledo and Granada.

“What I didn’t like was always having a tour guide because they would always say random stuff about what we were looking at, and it went by really slow. I also didn’t really like going to like four cathedrals because they all looked the same to me.
“I liked practicing my Spanish by going to stores and restaurants. I liked the small cafes the most because they really focused on making the food instead of getting the food out to the customers.”

Stevens had never been to anywhere like Spain in his life before, so everything was brand new to him. He had a lot to see and a lot to try also.
Stevens said, “On the first day of the trip, we had three flights in total; Anchorage – Seattle, Seattle – Amsterdam and then Amsterdam – Madrid. When we finished all of our flights, it was probably like 1 pm in Spain, so we went to our hotel to put our luggage away and hopped on a bus to go downtown and have our first tour.

“After all that, we had dinner with the groups from other states. This is practically how it went for the next eight days when we went to Toledo, Costa del sol, Seville and Granada.

“In each city we had a bus tour and Patricia, our main tour guide, would take us to walk around everywhere. Then they gave us a place and time to meet, and then we’d go shopping and eat lunch on our own.”
Stevens added, “There were lots I liked and not much I didn’t like. I loved the fact that we met up with groups from other states because it’s just a lot of fun to meet new people and make new friends on a trip like this.

“I liked all of the walking we did because of how close everything is in Spain and just the fact that I was in another country/continent, and a lot of kids don’t really get to do something like this.
“Everything there is made fresh and you can tell when you’re eating it because it just tastes so much more better than anything here. Even at McDonalds, you could taste the freshness in the patties.

“If I were forced to choose a favorite though, I’d honestly go with the fruits. I don’t have a reason for it other than I like fruit.”