To scratch her adventurous itch, Blue Valley Spanish teacher Jill
Gouger left her home in the midwest and saw many places around the globe in June and July of 2015. In her travels, she visited many unknown regions of the world.

“[I] toured the Parliament building in Hungary,” Gouger said. “I walked through the spice markets in Turkey, climbed up the tallest towers in Prague, visited castles in Transylvania and hiked up the mountains in Montenegro.”

Gouger said she visited these regions to fulfill her desire for adventure.

“We wanted to be out in the cities,” Gouger said. “[We wanted to] be out in the towns, exploring, meeting people and really getting a feel for the community.”

There was an issue with travelling between Turkey and Bulgaria via bus, Gouger said.

“Because they were doing some repairs to the rail lines in Turkey, we had to take a couple of buses to get to the border,” Gouger said. “Many times there would be an official, and you’d either get off the bus or give your passports to an official. [The official] would take your passports, and you would drive to another area and then after everyone’s passports had been checked, [the official] would return on the bus, and they would give you your passports. Typically, they would give the box to a driver, and [the driver] would distribute them.”

The driver had forgotten to receive the passports, and Gouger had to wait for three-and-a-half hours on a bus for her driver to return with the passports, she said.

The bus was not the only issue with transportation.

“Once when we were on a bus from Macedonia to Kosovo, our shuttle driver was too busy flirting with the girls up front,” Gouger said. “So, not only did he almost get us in an accident three times, but then he got pulled over by the cops.”

Gouger said then missed her bus, and the next one would not come until 12 hours later.

“We had an unplanned overnight stay in Kosovo where we met a nice waiter at a restaurant, who spoke English and happened to be a very big fan of Tech N9ne,” Gouger said. “So he started quoting Tech N9ne songs for us as we ate our pizza.”

At the end of the vacation, Gouger said she temporarily had a difficult time returning to school.

“It was a rough transition without a lot of downtime to sleep,” Gouger said. “But just like students, getting back into the swing of school always seems difficult. But once you’re in it, it isn’t a problem.”

Senior Tanner
Maupin believes the vacation was justified.

“I think the more [teachers] learn about the world, the better,” Maupin said. “[Teachers] can also inspire us to learn more about the world by telling us about their experiences.”

Gouger said she encourages other students to travel globally if they can handle it.

“If you want to have everything really well planned out with no issues whatsoever, I suggest you never travel internationally,” Gouger said. “If you want to have fun, experience life and have a lot of cool stories to tell, then keep an open mind.”