I went to Italy & Greece at 16. I wasn't on my own (I went with a group), but I can just imagine how my parents felt watching me head out on my own. I woke up one morning to a message left at the hotel desk by my mother at 2 am, to "throw out the laundry detergent".

Well, I thought that was a little bizarre (something wrong with the laundry detergent that couldn't wait six days???) After a lovely and wonderful trip, I came home to solve the mystery of the laundry detergent... Turns out that my mom saw something on TV about cops finding white powder in people luggage and beating them up first and asking questions later. She coul;dn't sleep until she'd left me that message!

Trailfeathers

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I didn't help that the cruise ship in Greece sank recently!

My first international trip was a cruise ship that went to Greece, Turkey, the Ukraine, and Bulgaria. I found out on the news a couple of weeks before I left that an extremist group in Turkey declared "war on tourists" and they were beefing up security in tourist locations as a result.

I tried to hide the information from my mom--no sense worrying her about little details like that, right?--and I thought it would be pretty easy since she doesn't really follow the news much, but one of her clients told her about it after she told them I was going to Greece and Turkey. *rolling eyes*

And WHY would you tell a mother that? I was pretty surprised at all the soldiers walking around in Turkey carrying some mean-looking guns, but it all worked out well enough. Alas, I missed the big excitement. The day after I left Turkey a huge earthquake hit it knocking down thousands of buildings and killing thousands of people, and I read about all the locals who were camped in the park outside of the hotel I stayed at in Istanbul afraid to go back indoors.

If only I stayed one more day, I would have had some REALLY interesting adventures to tell then! =)

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It's a big world out there and I hope this is the start of many adventures to seeing it!

Definitely have him write some online journals of his adventures. ;o)

Which reminds me.... I still need to write about my Hawaiian adventures. My job is never done! =)

-- Ryan

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I just worked the flight from Philadelphia to Seattle and we had a group of about 20 students from Germany onboard (teenagers).

I'm glad you didn't get the flight from Seattle to Chicago to Washington DC that Lucky Charm and his class were on! 40 noisy hyper over-excited rowdy eighth-graders. I actually am not all that worried - his older brother took the same trip when he was in eighth grade, and they use the same tour group agency every year, so everything's all organised. And the teacher in charge puts masking tape on the outside of the hotel room doors when she locks them in at night, to prevent escapades. I bet the flight attendants wish she could put the masking tape over their mouths!

Going to Italy and Greece sounds like a great opportunity! Your son is probably having the time of his life.

Mariette

Man, a trip across country trapped on an airplane with eighth graders-can't get much more "fun" than that!! Says someone who teaches eighth graders =) I can promise you there was just A LITTLE DRAMA on that airplane. Eighth grade seems to be the height of the DRAMA years.
Fortunately, this trip is mostly Jr and Sr HS students (17 & 18yo) so they sort of know how to behave-at least his group-they met up with other students from CA and NJ. That in itself will probably lend itself to some cultural "exchanges" (we're from rural NC).
My son did take a trip to DC his Freshman year and the teacher used the tape on the door trick to "keep them inside". I thought that was pretty smart.
I don't think that is necessary this time....I hope!
Thanks everyone for the feedback-it is reassuring to hear from everyone.
Ryan, the Turkey trip story wasn't really too reassuring for a mom, but I get your intent ;)
Santa brought him a beautiful handmade leather journal for Christmas. I hope it has more than 2 pages written in it when he gets home! He also took 2GB memory for his camera so I'm hoping he remembers to use it!
He's on the ship to Greece right now!

When I was in high school we did a Latin class trip to Italy (and technically Swtizerland). It was a group of about 20 who were basically from "poor, farm country" in rural Ohio. To give you a visual, if you are standing on top of the high school building, looking left you can see one house and many fields; looking straight you can see a sawmill, (big) creek, and another field; to the right is TWO houses, three more fields and some indian burial grounds; behind is a whopping 4 houses (I think), two small fields and a big hill. I graduated in a class of 66. Now that you have the background, on to the point. We had the priviledge of travelling with another group of students. The culture shock was that they were from Beverly Hills. LOL That may have been more of a learning experience than the trip itself.

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the Turkey trip story wasn't really too reassuring for a mom, but I get your intent ;)

Well, perhaps, but remember, you're son isn't going to Turkey, there is no "war on tourists" in Greece, and I never did feel an earthquake in Turkey, but I *have* felt one in North Carolina.

When the big one hits, you'll be glad he's in Greece and not North Carolina. ;o)

-- Ryan