Many people say two is better than one, and Dallastown’s World Language Department took this saying to the next level last summer by providing students with two international travel opportunities.

Over the years Dallastown students have taken trips spanning the globe, from Europe all the way to South America.

These trips offer a plethora of activities and sights, while also letting them experience authentic conversations in their respective language.

This year, the World Language Department has treated their students with not just one trip, but two.

Spanish students traveled to Panama from June 9-17, and German students traveled to Germany from June 20-28.

Sra. Garrett, who is now entering her 25th year at Dallastown, has been a part of a multitude of trips throughout her years at Dallastown.

“We’ve been to Costa Rica, Mexico, España (Spain), Peru, Ecuador, but we have never been to Panama,” Garret adds.

Garrett tried her best to make the trip as open and available for every Spanish student in the school as possible.

“We had 52 students go on the trip, as well as 12 adults travel to Panama, which was crazy,” Garrett says.

the 64 people were split into two groups, with one being monitored by Garrett, and the other by Sra. Pomraning.

The students and adults who went on the trip tried their best to make sure to be organized and compliant with what was going on at the time.

“Keeping them (students) together was interesting, we each had two different flights at two different flight times, departure times, and arrival times. Then within the country, we flew north into David, but our flight was delayed for several hours. But everything worked out great in the end,” Garrett says.

Once the students stepped foot into Panama, they saw things they’d never seen before.

“We went to the Panama Canal. We saw a ship go through the locks,” Garrett said. This process of ships going through the canal can take hours, but they were lucky enough to see the ships be mostly finished with the process.

“The process of water flowing in and out was amazing inside the Canal,” she adds.

Junior Suresh Venkataraman went on the trip and was pleasantly surprised with what he saw.

“It was surprising with the infrastructure and because of this, the Panama City epicenter was very nice compared to other underdeveloped countries I have been to,” he explains. Suresh went to India a couple of years ago, so this experience of being in a new country isn’t so new to him.

Overall, did the Dallastown students enjoy the trip? They did.

“I had a lot of fun!” Junior Jack McDermott says. “My favorite part of the trip was the zip lining. The line was on top of a mountain, so it was fairly high. And as for the view, it was so pretty”.

Only a few days after students returned from Panama, Frau Roberts led her  students into Europe to visit Germany, with the addition of Austria, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland.

“There were 16 total people on the trip and had our own bus and bus driver as we traveled around Germany, to Austria, through Liechtenstein, and to Switzerland,” Roberts says.

While on the trip, Roberts’ crew enjoyed some of the local cuisine.

“Most of the food was wonderful. We had foods like Wienerschnitzel (Austrian Origin) and Spaghettieis (German Origin),” Roberts explained.

With the students having lots of unique food on the trip, they also took time to see unique monuments and buildings.

“We saw one of King Ludwig’s castles Linderhof in Bavaria, Munich, the castle in Heidelberg, and the Lion monument in Lucerne, Switzerland,” she says.

As for the enjoyment the students, they were pleased with the trip and experienced many new things.

“It was a trip of a lifetime, none of the students had ever been to Germany, and some had never even flown in a plane before,” Roberts says.

Junior Lilly Sanderlin agreed.

“Traveling to Germany was a great experience to learn more about the culture, how they live and they language they speak. The architecture and food were amazing and so were the people. I had an amazing time and I highly recommend it,” Sanderlin said.

Although these trips were enjoyed by all that went, it came with a price. Both trips were connected to EF Tours, which covered their room and board, airfare, and more. Overall, both trips equated to around $3,000 per person, excluding personal expenses like shopping.

But as for the students, they thought it was worth every penny.

“I’d gladly go again,” Jack McDermott said. “It was well worth the money.”