Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Gurdon High School student returns fom touring Europe

LaDonna Sade Lasker, 17, who will be a senior at Gurdon High School this fall, returned from a 20-day European tour June 28 with a new respect for American culture.

Lasker, daughter of Sharon and Ronnie Lasker, said part of that respect came from realizing the advantages Americans have with such things as air conditioning in motels and good water being easily accessible.

Lasker was with a group of 43 students and chaperons from the United States, sponsored by the People to People Student Ambassador Program of Spokane, Washington.

Concentration camps

Another part of the new respect Lasker said she now has for America came from gaining a more accurate understanding of the World War II concentration camps.

Lasker said, "Part of my stay was in Austria. The sad part of that was learning about the concentration camps and what actually went on."

Lasker said her reaction to being next to where the tortures happened was one of "extreme emotion."

Lasker toured the cemeteries nearby.

"It really hit me hard when I realized the head stones did not mean a thing," she said. "There were bodies stacked on top of bodies in mass graves."

Tour route

Lasker said the group of students and chaperons came from Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Florida.

They left the United States on June 9 from the Dallas, Texas, airport, flew to Atlanta, Ga., and then to Rome, Italy.

The group walked everywhere while touring Europe. Students averaged about 300 miles total, which amounts to around 15 miles in a day.

"The hardest part was going up or down hills," she said. "Nothing in Europe seems to be flat."

As to Italy, the group spent between two and three days in Rome, went to Jesolo, and spent two nights in Venice.

They went from there to Austria for a few days, took a one-day tour of Switzerland and ended the European adventure in Paris, France.

Host family

While in Europe, Lasker stayed with the John Polland family, on the outskirts of Vienna, Austria.

"Our first connection was shaky. I did not see them go to church when I was there. Still, I told them about my Christian beliefs."

Lasker said the Pollands had 14-year-old twin girls, Nadia and Ninia.

"I got to go to school with Nadia and Ninia," she said. "They learned mostly concept and theory, and they have to go to class nearly the whole year round."

Lasker said the Pollands stayed in a four-story home.

"We went to where the teens hang out. At 16, everything is legal; drinking, clubbing, smoking  all of it, but you have to be 18 or 19 most of the time to drive," she said.

Scavenger hunt

Lasker said her favorite part of the trip was when she and her fellow students were turned loose on a scavenger hunt in Rome, Italy.

"We spent one entire day with a map and the other people in Rome, looking for names of statues, monuments, the Piazza Novana, dates and times," she said. "We walked an hour and half searching for those things. And then we walked all day after that unsupervised."

As for the formal tour of Rome, the group saw Romulus and Rhemus and the cremation site of Caesar in Italy. They swam in the Adriatic Sea, which was clear water.

But with their bodies not being used to European food, finding a McDonalds was something Lasker said was even more exciting than the swim.

Switzerland

The group landed for a day in Zurich, Switzerland, where many buildings made of stone, marble and gold.

"We spent longer than originally planned at other places so we only had time for a one-day, fly-by tour of Switzerland, but we did see a lot of its beauty," she said.

France

The last stop on the European tour was in Paris, France.

"I have never ridden so long in an elevator as I did in the Eiffel Tower. That is one tall building," Lasker said.

The group also saw the Palace of Versailles and the Mona Lisa painting.

Money exchange

Lasker said in order to get around on her trip, she had to exchange her American dollars for Euros, a money type that was used everywhere but Switzerland.

"Italy, Austria and France had Euros, but Switzerland still has Francs," she said. "I remember the exchange value in France between a $1 and a Euro. We had to give them a dollar for 72 cents worth of Euros."

Go if you can

Lasker said she would recommend to any student who was invited into the Peoples program to go if at all possible.

"Getting out of the country has given me a lot of pride in being an American," she said.

"There are students involved in this from middle school, high school and college."

Lasker thanked all of those who contributed from Gurdon to make the adventure possible.