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Horizon teens visit France amid national protest

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Contributed by: Nick Engdahl on 4/14/2006

Despite national strikes, demonstrations and riots in Paris, over 20 students and faculty from Horizon High School in Thornton visited both the French capital and Barcelona, Spain over spring break from March 25 to April 2.

While the political and social chaos in Paris did lead to some disruption in travel and change of plans, the students were able to climb the Eiffel tower at night, take a Seine River cruise, visit the Louvre and travel to the Loire Valley to see the chateau.

In Barcelona, they toured Guell Park to see the work of famed architect Antonio Gaudi, saw the landmark Sagrada Familia Cathedral and visited the site of the '92 Olympics.

The group of French and Spanish Honor Society students, (along with several adult family members and HHS faculty), were led by myself, Nick Engdahl, and Janine Erickson, world language teachers at Horizon.

Regular meetings had been held in advance of the trip to prepare students for their experience. The volatile situation in Paris was also discussed and planned for.

While students were not directly exposed to rioters or violence, they did come into contact with a heavy police presence in Paris and small groups of strikers and demonstrators.

We had to switch restaurants at the last minute to avoid large demonstrations and were unable to visit the Palace of Versailles due to the strike. The museums, metro, Eiffel Tower closed shortly after our departure for Spain.

I've led student tours for over 20 years and was confident the students could travel safely.

Having traveled during times of terrorist bombings and hijackings in the '80s and '90s and in the period immediately following the September 11 attacks, I knew how to avoid dangerous situations and not put students in direct contact with potentially violent situations or people.

On a more positive note, the group was reminded of how small the world really is when they bumped into Drew Carey on the cable car to Mont Juic in Barcelona.

They came into contact with world events again when they flew from Munich to Boston on the return with Christian Science Monitor reporter Jill Carroll, who had recently been released by Iraqi insurgents.

Nick Engdahl is a French, Spanish and world literature teacher at Horizon High School.

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Submitted By: Gordon Feliciano

posted on 4/15/2006 @ 10:24:04 PM

(Not Rated)

My wife and I just spent 7 days in Paris from March 19th through the 26th on a business/pleasure trip and about the time that the student riots were starting to pick up. We were lucky in that we were able to visit the all of the major attractions in Paris as well as the Palace at Versailles, however, toward the end of our stay, we began to see a significant increase in police presence. A friend of ours who lives must south of Paris served as our guide and kept us out of the areas that were considered unsafe, but just seeing the crowds and the police gathering was enough to make us uneasy. Despite what was going on, my wife and I both had an incredible time!

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