“The mark of a good travel experience is culture shock.” Rick Steves, Travel Guru

In the March/April issue of the AARP Bulletin, 2025, Rick Steves was asked how a trip leads toward a career in travel. He replied, “This travel has a value. I came home with a strong feeling that the world is filled with good people. It’s filled with joy. It’s filled with love, it’s filled with diversity that we should not be afraid of, but that we should embrace and celebrate. And you won’t know that unless you get out there and see it for yourself.”

In the early ‘90’s, with the new organization established to facilitate international travel with university students and several of my Thomas More College students inquiring about such an experience, I decided to test the program with a London/Paris trip and Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities as required reading.

Our group numbered twenty, mostly TMC students from varied departments, some spouses of non-traditional students, and two elementary school principals. The trip was organized around tours. All arrangements made for us. As we arrived at our hotel, we noticed the façade of the building covered with open scaffolding and workmen around all the open windows to rooms. I cautioned that nothing of value should be left in rooms, hoping that the group would take me seriously. Then we headed up the stairs with our luggage. The elevator wasn’t working that day.

Each day began with our in-hotel breakfast, then climbing aboard our large tour bus parked at the curb of our hotel for our day out with our guide. Evenings were free for our pleasure.

Was there any culture shock? Doubtful. Our primary encounters were with fellow tourists at tour stops.

This trip was my test of the options offered by the organization. Might there be another way offering more with immersion?

A few years later, a group of graduating seniors, education majors, requested a summer trip through Europe. Because I knew them very well, had been their advisor for three years, their professor for most of their education courses, and they knew me well, too…I’d involve them in the planning, what to see, where to go. For a prep-seminar, I brought in my small rolling piece of luggage, fully packed, and unpacked it to indicate what was and was not needed and demonstrated how one could carry valuable documents and money inside one’s clothing. A female nursing major joined our all-girls group.

At departure, everyone was ready having chosen small rolling carry-ons and everything was secure. We headed to Rome.

Our lodging in Rome was with the Sisters of Notre Dame, the Mother House of the local sisters in Park Hills, colleagues on the faculty at TMC.

On one of our days in Rome, one of the teaching sisters took education folk to visit her international school; a nursing sister took our nursing grad to her hospital. I’ll let the student journals speak for themselves: “It still amazes me that so much diversity is able to be brought together into one ‘f’amily’ of teachers, faculty, and students, fifty-two different languages.” Education major.

The administration and faculty at the school were most generous in providing information for comparison with American education: Italy as a socialist state, no license or certificate to teach though teachers often had earned other credentials elsewhere, English as a second language had two teachers, an eighth grade diploma, high school of five years for one of three areas – classico, linguistico, scientifico, the range of grades by ages and subjects included, tuition and salaries for 170 days of school, offered the International Baccalaureate degree in Language or Science. (Covington Holmes had a similar International Baccalaureate program at that time.)

And at the local hospital…“I learned so much about the foreign health care system and major differences when compared to our health care system: schooling vs. non-schooling for nurses, private vs. public hospitals, distribution of medication, health insurance and its availability, pay of nurses and doctors, care of patients during an emergency.” Nursing grad. Culture Shock? You bet.

Later, in Florence Italy, she had her photo taken with the Florence Nightingale statue there. The founder of modern nursing was British but born in Florence Italy and named for that city. Our nursing grad was beaming.

A benefit for these comparisons were, of course, the advanced experiences graduating seniors had in their course work and clinical experiences. All working to support the contrasting and comparing that came so naturally on site.

With profound thanks to the Sisters of Notre Dame.

We returned to our lodging to freshen up, then headed downtown for dinner at a local restaurant and conversation about our day before enjoying a “Rome at Night” tour. After the delicious meal, one student headed to the ladies’ room, returning with some essential information for all of us…the facility was located at the foot of the restaurant’s basement stairs. She finally found a button on the floor for the toilet flush. Culture Shock? Yes.

Our trip was thirteen days: Italy (Rome, Florence, Venice), Switzerland (Bern, Interlocken), France (Paris and Calais), England (London), all via public transportation.

Ever students, these graduates created lists in their journals to document their experiences. There were seventeen forms of transportation or people movers: airplane a first for one of them, taxis of several kinds, autobus and double-deckers, various ancient elevators that one operated for oneself, Eur-rail trains varied by country, couchettes for overnight travel, gondolas, vaporetto, funicular, paribus, hydrofoil across the English Channel, Metro and Tube in Paris and London, shuttles, Black Taxis in London. Unintentional variety. Yes…culture shock but liberating!

“Skills developed: Use and exchange different forms of currency, communicate with slight language barriers, successfully use difference forms of transportation, bettered my map skills, better equipped to teach about different places and people, able to find the way to adapt to new ways of working things like flushing a variety of toilets.” Education major. Yes, liberating.

As I finish this review, I realize that their liberation and freedom to travel was demonstrated when we were in London with our last day unplanned. The students felt free, eager, and capable of following their own pursuits on the final day. Shopping, a particular short bus tour, a matinee of Buddy Holly stage production, etc. Such joy as we gathered for dinner that evening.

“My attitude toward Europe in general has changed. Before our trip, I was afraid to travel abroad probably for fear of the unknown. Since our trip, I am more confident in traveling and would not think twice about traveling abroad again…actually, I’d like to go to….” Education major.

“In fact, I still find it hard to believe sometimes that I was actually in Italy, Switzerland, France, and England. Yet the realization hits me again and again as I experience the sights, sounds, and memories of each place through television programs, movies, commercials, articles, etc. I can’t describe how awesome it is to me to think that I have been to these places, too.” Education major.

The recent death of Pope Francis and the election of Pope Leo kept the Vatican and its cathedral in the news. I think I know of seven people remembering our Vatican Day when we stood in awe in the Sistine Chapel and then atop the cathedral’s dome, stepping out of the door on the cupola to span the world of the Vatican. Breathtaking beyond words.

My own joy multiplies as I realize the impact such travel continues to have on their personal and professional lives. Culture shock becomes curiosity satisfied and encouraged, knowledge, skill, confidence, appreciation, perceived barriers removed. Life changing.

Judy Harris is well established in Northern Kentucky life, as a longtime elementary and university educator. A graduate of Thomas More, she began her career there in 1980 where she played a key role in teacher education and introduced students to national and international travel experiences. She has traveled and studied extensively abroad. She enjoys retirement yet stays in daily contact with university students.