Published Aug. 4, 1996|Updated Sept. 16, 2005
There were some surprises and disappointments for three Hernando County teenagers who spent part of their summer abroad as diplomats. But Ricky Blundell, Matt Rocker and Peter Shumacher each returned home with a lasting impression of Northern Europe, its people and its customs.
"I didn't really know what it was going to be like. It was real fun. It was a great experience," said Blundell, 13, an eighth-grader at Powell Middle School.
"I didn't like coming home," said Rocker, 15, a ninth-grader at Central High School. "Our stays were too short in the countries."
Said 14-year-old Shumacher, a ninth-grader at Springstead High School: "I'd definitely go back. If I had the chance I would. If I had the money I would."
It was the first trip abroad for the three teens, who traveled with a group of 30 delegates and three chaperons as part of the People to People Student Ambassador Program, an overseas exchange program for junior high and high school students.
Candidates are chosen through a random computer search. Finalists are chosen through a stringent selection process that includes interviews and geographical knowledge of their destination.
The teens traveled to Europe in June to bolster their cultural knowledge about the countries and have fun.
Blundell said the best part of the 23-day trip was the food. He said Europeans eat up to four meals a day, usually open-face sand wiches.
"The best was the food in France. They had good beef. It was really good. They served a lot," said Blundell, who ate at the Hard Rock Cafe in almost every country he visited.
He also liked the fresh milk, potatoes, meatloaf and thick bread soaked in butter that he ate while he stayed four days with a family in a 2,000-square-foot home in the Danish countryside.
Together they toured famous castles, boated, spent time at the family's summer cottage, and swam in the North Sea.
"And it's really cold," Blundell said about the ocean water.
Blundell quickly learned how to exchange currency and haggle, purchasing inexpensive souvenirs from street vendors instead of paying higher prices in stores.
He took two elevators to the top of the Eiffel Tower, where he saw a stunning view of Paris. Then he took the stairs back down the second leg of the 100-story climb.
"You could just see forever. It looked like the city never ended. You could see the horizon, and they were still building," Blundell said.
He said the worst part of the trip was the seven-hour flight back to the United States and the five-hour layover in New York. There was a 10-hour layover on the trip to Europe.
"I wanted to go back," Blundell said.
Rocker was looking forward to browsing the Louvre, one of the world's largest art museums, in Paris.
"It was not all that it was cracked up to be," said Rocker, who saw the Mona Lisa at the museum. "Which was cool," he said, except about 80 people were gathered around the famous painting, which was under thick, bullet-proof glass because "some crazed tourist came in and shot it."
Rocker said he was not concerned about security on the trip.
He said, for instance, that he felt perfectly safe in Denmark, where people sat at street cafes until the wee hours of the morning, having coffee and dessert.
"The people were very, very friendly, on the contrary to what you would meet here. They were willing to go out of their way to help Americans," he said.
Rocker visited a theme park in Sweden saw the English crown jewels and learned the history of some of England's kings, dungeons and gruesome beheadings. He also visited world-famous Speakers Corner in London's Hyde Park, where he debated strangers.
"I think everybody in the group got into an argument with somebody," Rocker said.
While it was tough to decide which country he liked best, Rocker said, "I think London was my favorite (city)."
Shumacher said he did not know what to expect when he arrived in London. He said he thought it would feel like being in another world.
"I thought it would feel like a totally different place I wouldn't recognize," he said. "But it's still just like a regular, big city."
Shumacher, whose grandparents are of German ancestry, was eager to visit that country and see remnants of the Berlin Wall.
"I was not impressed with Germany," he said. "There were a lot of punk people with colored hair."
As for the Berlin Wall, he said, "It wasn't all that I thought it would be. People were peddling pieces (of the wall) that weren't real. I'm sure after a while they wouldn't still smell like spray paint."
Shumacher said he was also put off by the rudeness of some Europeans and the way they drive.
"The people in Paris are really crazy drivers," he said. "They go fast."
However, not all was lost. Shumacher said he enjoyed Paris' tunnels and castles and the Tower of London in England. The tour bus he was riding even wound up on MTV, which was filming at the Love Parade in Berlin.
"(Friends) said they could see some people on the bus making faces at the camera," Shumacher said.
He said the Swedish countryside was beautiful where "the mountains met the water." He stayed in the home of a Swedish couple whose children were named Michael and Peter.
Shumacher also liked the weather in Europe.
"It was a lot nicer. I like cold weather _ colder than Florida anyway," he said. "But I wouldn't want to be there during the winter. Especially Sweden. They get a lot of snow."
