$120,000 worth of complaints

“God, this sucks,” an American student paying $4,000 to tour around France and Italy said to me as he was forced to learn about the famous architecture of Florence. His earpiece dangled by his hip as he refused to listen to the information provided by the Italian tour guide. Many of the other 30 students in the group seemed to be sharing his sentiments with rolling eyes and scattered conversations based more about hangovers than Michelangelo.

I hadn’t heard him the first time since I had my own earpiece in place. I will confess the information being delivered wasn’t earth-shattering, but I was intrigued at times, and since I had been invited to tag along with the students from the small Iowa college on their visit that day, I was just happy to randomly be there.

“This sucks,” he repeated.

“Hmmh,” was all I replied, not wanting to support or shoot down his feelings. At this point my attention was shifting to the intriguing fact that these students had signed up for an educational European excursion and appeared to be on the verge of breaking out in protest of the conveyer-belt-like trip. I feel sorry for the ones who didn’t know what they were getting into when they signed up. But for the others, I ask, “Why all the money for the kind of traveling you don’t want to do?”

Although it was an intimidating idea, I had the feeling that taking off on my own was the only way for me. I had a hunch the adventures would come out of figuring out how to navigate foreign city streets and where I would eat and what bus I would catch. I thought the most exciting discoveries might be found off the beaten path. And I’m sure that’s what many of these young minds were looking for – a bit of their own adventure. But here they were, walking around like depressed robots, missing the idea that Florence could be beautiful and didn’t, in fact, suck.

Later that evening I sat down with some of the students for drinks. When one kid heard I might be heading to Africa next month, he stated, “Don’t go to Africa. We had to deal with these Africans today who were trying to sell us stuff.”

It appears cultural experiences go in one ear and out the other for this poor soul. Or maybe they never go in an ear at all.