Wylie Students Traveled to Iceland This Summer

From Wylie High School teacher, Emily Taylor:

“As a foreign language teacher, I have sponsored various trips around the world with students. The purpose of these trips is for students to experience another country and language in an educational environment. My goal is for them to be immersed in another culture and learn about the differences and similarities that exist. Much of the time, these trips are the first time the students have traveled outside of the country and it is an eye-opening experience in many ways. My students learn independence and flexibility when traveling internationally and gain confidence through their interactions with new people and places.

We absolutely loved traveling to Iceland because it is drastically different in many ways from our home state of Texas. It is one of the safest countries in the world and the people are welcoming and eager to teach you about their Viking heritage. We learned about the renewable geothermal energy that Iceland uses to heat a large portion of the country, were able to experience an otherworldly landscape, and learned a few Icelandic words and phrases (which we mispronounced consistently!). We visited the original Geysir in the Golden Circle (where English adopted the word ‘geysir’ from), hiked the Eyjafjallajökull glacier, walked beside and under many waterfalls (Seljalandsfoss, Skógafoss, & Gullfoss) and visited Friðheimar where they breed Icelandic horses and maintain a geothermal greenhouse just to name a few. Our trip was so exciting and unique! We even had one student try Hákarl which is the national dish of fermented shark. It was quite an experience!

The students that traveled to Iceland are Nikki Levens, Nancy Barrios, Haylee Batey, Clayton Whitefield, Luke Henning, Kelly Morris, Nicole Wilkins, Faith Womack, Ava DePrang and McKenna Jones.